Most women choose their obstetrician carefully. And then over the course of their pregnancy they come to develop a bond with the doctor and begin to have faith in him or her. They normally think their obstetrician, who has been monitoring the pregnancy over the course of many months, is intimately aware of their situation.

When a doctor agrees to go to the hospital to follow up on the care of a pregnant patient the majority of people would expect the doctor to actually show up. Most people would furthermore assume that, if a problem arises with the patient's pregnancy, the staff at the hospital will act appropriately and not simply keep waiting for the doctor to show up letting time go by in which no treatment is provided to the patient. Remarkably, this is not always what happens.

Consider the reported claim involving an expectant mother who found herself in just such a situation. She was rushed to an area hospital because she had fallen down. The hospital staff did an ultrasound to determine if the unborn child had been injured when the woman fell. The ultrasound was interpreted as negative for any injuries. The mother, still concerned, wanted more fetal monitoring. As this hospital did not have the right equipment she was transferred to another hospital - one which had the right equipment for the requested tests. Her obstetrician had been contacted and indicated that he would got to the other hospital to follow up in on her.

After being transported to the second hospital she was connected to monitoring equipment. Her obstetrician had not arrived. The readings from the fetal heart monitor suggested that her unborn child was in fetal distress and that the condition was getting worse. After waiting for two hours and the baby’s heart rate had dropped to perilously low levels the labor and delivery nurse ultimately notified another obstetrician of the situation.

Once notified of the situation this obstetrician performed an emergency C-section. While performing the surgery the physician found that the mother had sustained a placental abruption which in turn had led to a reduction critical quantities of oxygen reaching the unborn child. The baby was not breathing after delivery and the staff was unable to resuscitate the newborn.

The law firm that handled this lawsuit uncovered that the mother’s obstetrician, after committing to going to the second hospital to see his patient, had instead gone home and simply did not bother to tell the hospital staff about that choice. And the labor and delivery nurse, the only one who had information that the unborn child was in fetal distress, made the decision to continue to wait for the obstetrician – not contacting the obstetrician herself to report the fetal distress and did not notify the in-house obstetrician until the situation turned dire. With this, the law firm was able to report that they reached a settlement for $750,000 for the baby’s parents.