Negligent Doctor Tries to Blame Parents

In the early 1980s, Dr. Peter Rosi was criminally prosecuted in Alaska on felony charges of negligent homicide. The case involved the death of a newborn he delivered who had failed to receive the medical attention he needed in a timely manner.

Though acquitted, Rosi was found by the State Medical Board to have shown “professional incompetence” and to have “committed a serious error in judgment.”

He subsequently moved to Illinois, where he would be sued 10 times for medical malpractice. But it seems that Rosi would rather blame parents than himself for mistakes that led to brain damage and death in newborns he delivered.

“Eighty percent of complications in childbirth are psychological. Babies can be killed by a mother’s attitude,” he said in an interview.

It is unfortunate that a medical professional would turn such a tragedy around on the parents, especially a doctor who uses medical techniques that were popular “50 and 100 years ago.”

The truth is that medical negligence in the delivery room is more likely to cause brain damage and death than the mother’s psychological state, if any credence can even be given to his assertion.

In fact, medical malpractice happens all too frequently as many medical lawyers and families can attest. Every year, law firms across the country are winning cases for families of children who have been diagnosed with cerebral palsy, brain damage, and other injuries due to the negligence of a doctor or nurse.

Dr. Rosi argues that “babies die.” Yes, some do. But many babies can live with competent medical care, and everyone is entitled to at least that.

 

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Harnessing the Power of the Internet for Special Needs Kids

Our medical lawyers are always on the lookout for great new resources to share with parents of kids affected by cerebral palsy, and we recently came across a website called Parlerai. The site was created last year by the parents of a young girl with special needs, and its aim is to improve communication and collaboration among caregivers.

Taking care of a child with special needs can be a full-time job in and of itself, and the burden is on parents to make sure the lines of communication are open among all their child’s care providers. This is not always an easy task, a fact both Jon and Kristin Erickson soon realized after the birth of their daughter.

That’s why they decided to create Parlerai – to help others like themselves create a secure network of family, friends and healthcare providers in the interest of fostering increased collaboration and communication.

Parlerai offers a variety of affordable services for families, including:

  • A closed and secure network for you, your child and anyone involved in your child’s life – features a database for parents to store documents, pictures, etc.
  • A shared media library
  • A calendar/scheduling function
  • Alerts for urgent messages
  • Blogs and instant messaging


To learn more about all this site has to offer, click here.  


 

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Medical Negligence in Birth of Octuplets?

Fertility experts, bioethicists and medical attorneys are speaking out against the doctors responsible for the octuplets recently born to a single woman in her 30s – One expert called it a “medical catastrophe” and another referred to it as professionally negligent.

The problem for medical and legal specialists is the inherent risk involved in carrying multiples. Not only does the mother face serious health risks such as seizures and gestational diabetes, but the babies also face great risks.

Multiple birth pregnancies almost inevitably result in preterm delivery, which puts the infants at a greater risk of cerebral palsy, developmental delays, respiratory problems and other health issues. Those risks increase with higher numbers of multiples.

So you can imagine that a professionally responsible doctor would be reluctant to transfer eight embryos to a woman’s womb after considering these risks. A doctor’s professional obligation is first to “do no harm,” which in the fertility community seems to translate into a more cautious approach to IVF transfer.  In fact, the accepted range of embryo transfer seems to hover between two and four per IVF cycle.

It is still unknown exactly how many embryos the woman received; nor is it known where her procedure was performed. Her doctor has yet to speak publicly on the issue. What is known, however, is that despite being born nearly nine weeks early, the woman’s octuplets seem to be doing well.

See also: What is Cerebral Palsy

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