If a newborn with a Group B Strep infection does not receive appropriate treatment right away the baby might suffer long term severe harm. A Group B Strep infection in a newborn can develop into pneumonia, sepsis, or meningitis. Given a baby's undeveloped immune system this can result in such long term disabilities as cerebral palsy, seizure disorders, brain damage, cognitive and motor retardation, or even to death. In the rest of this article, we analyze a case that came about after a baby who showed signs of a Group B Strep infection was not diagnosed in a timely fashion by the physician.

Here, an expecting mother underwent screening for Group B Strep between the thirty-fifth and thirty-seventh week of her pregnancy. The screening test showed that she carried the GBS bacteria. As such, while the woman was in labor at the hospital she was appropriately given antibiotics. Still, even with the proper use of antibiotics in the course of labor, it is nevertheless possible that the baby will develop Group B Strep. The mother's infant appeared healthy at birth. Bur, six weeks later the baby developed signs of infection and the baby's mother took the baby to a pediatrician who observed that the child had a high fever. Unfortunately, the doctor did not review the prenatal records and thus failed to figure out that the newborn had in the past been exposed to the bacteria.

Unaware of this history, the doctor ordered testing to diagnose the source of the baby's symptoms. When the pediatrician waited for the results of the tests she ordered. She failed to, however, give antibiotics for a Group B Strep infection. The newborn developed meningitis. The baby moreover suffered a series of strokes. This left the newborn with mental retardation and an untreatable seizure disorder.

The law firm that helped the mother and her child got the physician to acknowledge that she would have given antibiotics immediately if she had known that the infant had previous exposure to the group b streptococcus bacteria. The case was reported as settled by the law firm for the amount of $6.15 Million.

If there is a chance that symptoms might be due to a dangerous underlying condition, like a group b strep infection, that may result in permanent disabilities for the child if not treated immediately a physician is expected to consider them as a possibility unless the physician is able to rule them out as the cause. When, as in the lawsuit discussed herein, the doctor acts as though it is not even a possibility, especially when there is information in the mother's prenatal chart to suggest it might be, and the child is severely injured by the delay in treatment, the doctor might be liable for malpractice.