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Forceps Delivery Crushed Baby's Skull, Caused Death, Family Alleges
ABC News ^ | January 3, 2014 | Susan Donaldson James

Posted on 01/04/2014 8:22:31 PM PST by EveningStar

Olivia Marie Coats lived for five days after her parents allege a forceps delivery crushed her little skull and caused brain death. Now, they have launched a Facebook campaign to stop the use of forceps in all births.

Allen Coats, 25, and his fiancee Rachel Melancon, 24, say they will sue their obstetrician, Dr. George T. Backardjiev, but not The Medical Center of Southeast Texas, where their daughter was born on Dec. 28. The baby was transferred that day to Houston's Children's Memorial Hermann Hospital, which confirmed the baby died on Jan. 2.

(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; News/Current Events; US: Texas
KEYWORDS: forceps
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To: Texas Fossil

It’s not that new. Vacuum assist has been around for decades. Not a replacement for forceps. Has it’s own problems when used.

“Published data suggest that forceps deliveries are associated with more maternal morbidity, whereas vacuum devices cause more neonatal injury. For example, a meta-analysis of 10 clinical trials concluded that vacuum-assisted deliveries were associated with significantly less maternal trauma than forceps, including a lower rate of severe perineal injury (odds ratio [OR], 0.41; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.33–0.50).24 “

Vacuum-assisted vaginal deliveries can cause significant fetal morbidity, including scalp lacerations, cephalohematomas, subgaleal hematomas, intracranial hemorrhage, facial nerve palsies, hyperbilirubinemia, and retinal hemorrhage. The risk of such complications is
estimated at around 5%.50 Cephalohematomas, bleeding into the fetal scalp due to separation from the underlying structures (Figure 4), are more common with vacuum than with forceps deliveries (14%–16% vs 2%, respectively).26,41 The incidence of subgaleal hematomas after vacuum-assisted vaginal delivery ranges from 26 to 45 per 1000 deliveries.4 A cross-sectional study evaluating the incidence of neonatal retinal hemorrhage found that the incidence was higher for vacuum-assisted vaginal deliveries (75%) compared with spontaneous vaginal (33%) and cesarean deliveries (7%).51 By far the most serious complication is intracranial hemorrhage. A California-based review of over 580,000 term singleton deliveries by Towner and colleagues52 reported an incidence of intracranial hemorrhage of 1 in 860 for vacuum extraction compared with 1 in 1900 for women who delivered spontaneously. The incidence was the highest (1 in 280) in women delivered by combined forceps and vacuum-assisted vaginal deliveries.52

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2672989/#!po=51.9231


21 posted on 01/05/2014 1:56:23 AM PST by Kozak ("Send them back your fierce defiance! Stamp upon the cursed alliance! To arms, to arms in Dixie!)
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To: terycarl

I was a bit bigger but I never had any anesthesia. I think the overuse of drugs interferes with the delivery process. Many, many women now take an epidural. It’s as common as Tylenol and Motrin. I was told it would slow down the delivery.


22 posted on 01/05/2014 2:14:51 AM PST by momincombatboots (Back to West by G-d Virginia.)
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To: Kozak

Vacuum assist?

Are we talking about the same process?

Is this the one that inserts a plastic bag over the head and low level vacuum is applied to envelope the head as a leverage device? I am not talking about a suction cup on the top of the head.

What I read about this (I am not a medical person) indicated this is a fairly new process.

Thanks for your perspective from experience.


23 posted on 01/05/2014 4:08:32 AM PST by Texas Fossil
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To: lee martell

Well, having had a child ‘killed’ by a doctor myself in 1979, my firstborn son, I wish we had sued since the bastard continued to practice and is still practicing today. We went to a lawyer before the baby had died and he suggested we get on with our lives rather than spend years in court. After losing our child we learned that we were not his first victims. My sister found a newspaper article about an identical case to ours but the child lived and was severely brain damaged, a malpractice suit with an ‘undisclosed’ settlement resulted. To look up the bastard doctor today, there is no public record of malpractice suits against him. Both the child that lived and mine that didn’t were vaginally delivered but should have been C-sections. In my case I am small boned, I had two beautiful healthy babies afterwards, both by C-section, I gave birth the following year, same month, so it took me 18 months of pregnancy to bring a baby home. My doctor bragged that he didn’t use forceps, and did this the day after the birth and after the baby had been whisked away to a children’s hospital in Newark, NJ after he had turned blue in the nursery. He died at 6 weeks old of a cerebral hemorrhage. I had a perfect pregnancy and he was perfect in every other way. The doctor at the children’s hospital was so saddened, it was all over his face, he knew it shouldn’t have happened. My baby was in with the preemies in the neonatal unit, he was the biggest one in there, 7.7 lbs at birth and he even gained a little more during his 6 weeks of life. Without suing who knows how many more babies the bastard doctor killed in these last 35 years.

Also, my daughter went through nearly the same thing as me. She’s a little heavier than I was but same height. She went through nearly full labor but the baby wasn’t coming out. We had both mentioned the possibility of needing a c-section to her doctor when she was pregnant but were ignored. She needed an emergency C-section when the baby’s heartbeat was fading..her doctor used suction instead of forceps trying to get him out, most barbaric thing I’ve seen when I looked up what that is, and it stretched the baby’s head to near cone-shape..it took quite a while for it to look normal even though the doctor said it would be days. My husband and I were literally dying in the waiting room reliving what happened to us, not believing it was happening to our daughter. The hospital plays musical chimes over a speaker system when a baby is born..when those chimes went off for our beautiful grandson Nathan, almost 8 yrs. ago now, tears were flowing everywhere.

To the subject at hand, I still wish we had sued.


24 posted on 01/05/2014 4:10:19 AM PST by tina07 (In loving memory of my father,WWII Vet. CBI 10/16/42-12/17/45, d. 11/1/85)
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To: Kozak

This is what I was talking about:

“Car Mechanic Dreams Up a Tool to Ease Births”

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/14/health/new-tool-to-ease-difficult-births-a-plastic-bag.html?_r=0


25 posted on 01/05/2014 4:11:15 AM PST by Texas Fossil
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To: Kozak

And after reading the article, the method “inflates” the bag to grip, as opposed to vacuum. My memory about it was not that good.


26 posted on 01/05/2014 4:13:33 AM PST by Texas Fossil
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To: tina07

and they nearly killed my daughter, between going through labor and then a C-section, she lost so much blood her lips were white. There are good doctors and there are not so good doctors. Like my mother says, some pass at the bottom of the class.


27 posted on 01/05/2014 4:15:36 AM PST by tina07 (In loving memory of my father,WWII Vet. CBI 10/16/42-12/17/45, d. 11/1/85)
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To: Texas Fossil

Since delivering the head is the hard part, not sure how often this device would help. If the head is stuck in the birth canal, how do you slip the bag over it to inflate?
Got to admit not familiar with the device. Just know from my previous experience that these situations are the stuff of nightmares.


28 posted on 01/05/2014 4:24:13 AM PST by Kozak ("Send them back your fierce defiance! Stamp upon the cursed alliance! To arms, to arms in Dixie!)
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Comment #29 Removed by Moderator

To: savedbygrace
Olivia Marie Coats lived for five days after her parents allege a forceps delivery crushed her little skull and caused brain death.

That sentence ought to be taken out and shot until dead. What the reporter meant to say is that the baby lived for five days after a forceps delivery. Not five days after her parents did their alleging.

FWIW.

30 posted on 01/05/2014 4:48:22 AM PST by savedbygrace (But God!)
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To: savedbygrace
Olivia Marie Coats lived for five days after her parents allege a forceps delivery crushed her little skull and caused brain death.

That sentence ought to be taken out and shot until dead. What the reporter meant to say is that the baby lived for five days after a forceps delivery. Not five days after her parents did their alleging.

FWIW.

31 posted on 01/05/2014 4:51:37 AM PST by savedbygrace (But God!)
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To: savedbygrace

Need more coffee!


32 posted on 01/05/2014 4:52:13 AM PST by savedbygrace (But God!)
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To: Kozak

Thanks.

I did not remember that this had been used in so few cases. And I understand your description of the issue of difficult births.

I have no medical experience with this problem. But on livestock I do. Have pulled a lot of calves. Not a job I like, and results are not always predictable. But calves are pulled breech, which gives a way to assist, chain on the back legs.


33 posted on 01/05/2014 4:55:37 AM PST by Texas Fossil
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To: Kozak

And I think the bag is inserted before the head is in the birth canal. This is not the emergency procedure. but remember this is still apparently experimental.


34 posted on 01/05/2014 4:58:21 AM PST by Texas Fossil
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To: Kozak

Odon childbirth device: Car mechanic uncorks a revolution

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-25137800

This article has better illustration of the problem and the method.


35 posted on 01/05/2014 5:01:54 AM PST by Texas Fossil
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To: Joann37

too true


36 posted on 01/05/2014 7:09:42 AM PST by Nifster
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To: tina07

Thank you for sharing your experience. I understand now, the many reasons one might sue even after a baby’s death. Thank goodness you and your husband had enough faith to try again for a baby. Some couples don’t make it through such an episode and stay together. There may be hard feelings that never go away about something the other said in a moment of unexpected anguish. I’m certain those bells were the most beautiful sound a parent (or grandparent) could hear. I don’t know if hospitals still do it that way.
My sympathies for the loss of your firstborn.


37 posted on 01/05/2014 11:55:31 AM PST by lee martell
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