Did Getting Poor Healthcare From My Doctor Cause Me to Miscarry?

 Posted on March 30, 2022 in Birth Injury

Women in Illinois who experience a miscarriage often experience overwhelming grief, trauma, and physical pain. While miscarriage is a fairly common experience, that does not make it any easier if it happens to you or someone you love. Beyond the sadness of the loss of a life that a mother may already feel she knows and loves, miscarriages can also be extremely painful and result in additional physical complications. Although most miscarriages happen naturally, sometimes they occur because of the careless actions of a doctor or hospital. When this happens, parents may wonder whether they can take legal action. 

What Causes Miscarriages? 

Miscarriages happen for many reasons, most of which are spontaneous and occur because something has gone wrong in the developmental process. Common causes of miscarriages include, but are not limited to:

• Abnormal fetal development, including genetic problems 
• Misplaced pregnancy, such as a molar or ectopic pregnancy 
• Hemorrhaging
• Illness and infection in the mother’s body, even if it occurs outside of the reproductive organs 
• Invasive prenatal testing 
• Physical trauma 
• Mediations, including ones that are known to cause birth defects 

While some of these are unavoidable, others - such as a doctor who prescribes medication despite knowing that the chance of fatal birth defects is high, especially when better options are available - may cause an avoidable miscarriage. Other times, doctors may be responsible for miscarriages when they do not appropriately recognize risk factors for miscarriages and fail to guide a woman appropriately in her behavior during pregnancy, up to and including childbirth. 

Sometimes women will present signs of certain illnesses or risk factors that doctors fail to recognize or diagnose properly. Misdiagnosis, failure to order necessary tests, or inappropriately adopting a “wait and see” approach when a woman’s or fetus’ health is at risk can lead to further complications that can potentially be life-threatening to both mother and child. The complications resulting from a miscarriage, including infection, surgery, hemorrhaging, and severe pain, can require urgent expensive medical treatment that could have been avoided if proper care had been provided in the first place. 

Call a Cook County Birth Injury Lawyer 

Experiencing a miscarriage is one of the most traumatic experiences a woman can experience. When a preventable miscarriage happens because of a doctor’s poor decisions, negligence, or carelessness, you may wonder whether you can take action. At Birth Injury Law Alliance, Ltd., our Cook County birth injury attorneys offer free consultations to help you explore your options and get you the help you need. Call us now at 312-462-4200. 

Source: 

https://www.ilga.gov/legislation/ilcs/fulltext.asp?DocName=073500050K2-622 

https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/pregnancy-loss-miscarriage/symptoms-causes/syc-20354298