Article

[Clint]

In Rich's 3rd article, Dr. Gherman (Dr.? lol) indicated his subjects included 17 cases of Erb's not associated with shoulder dystocia. I wonder how he determined if SD was present or not. Did he look in the medical records? We all know that's a joke! Absence of SD in the records certainly is not objective evidence.

I would speculate that most of the non-SD cases in the study were just unreported.

[Elisa M.]

Clint,

I think you are soooo right. Actually, I know you are.

[francine]

to guest about identifying a neuroma-

other than surgery the only other way to determine would probably be an EMG - the EMG would define how much 'connection' there is -but even an EMG can be unreliable (unless it is an intraoperative EMG)

[admin]

A neuroma may well be visible on an mri scan a ct scan or occasionally an ultrasound scan may show some evidence of a neuroma, but the only real cast iron guarantee of knowing if there is on, is to explore the plexus surgically.

[tcon]

I was just going back and looking at old posts when I ran across this. Now I think back to my 6 wk appt and remember how my OB/GYN told me that "she had delivered babies with much larger shoulders with no problem so she thinks the injury was caused in-utero by all of my pushing"..then why did she make me push for over 4 1/2 hours! AT least shoulder dystocia was noted on my chart.

[Paula]

Maybe it had nothing to do with the size of the shoulders but the size of YOU. That is another thing that she needs to take into consideration. b

[Faithsmommy]

I just had to respond to a couple of things here: Natalie, I can't believe that a jury bought that defense and I feel awful for you. As other posters added, if this could happen in utero, wouldn't it have to happen much more frequently? And TCON, why on God's green earth did a doctor have you push for 4 1/2hours?! I thought that the "legal limit" was 2 1/2 hours of pushing (that's what we were told in my 2 sets of birthing classes - that if it goes past that time limit, you will have a c-section unless the baby is crowning, because of the risk of maternal or fetal exhaustion/distress) maybe they just teach that in NY.... this lawsuit stuff is just tragic. I'm assuming that these cases can't be tried again? I've just started down this road, so I don't know about that aspect. I just really feel for everyone, as if its not enough to see your child go through what they've got to go through....

[Tessie258]

Well..I really believe there's a special place in hell for those who write bogus stuff to get a doctor off scott free!!!
What about the delivering person's trying to pull the head off the baby!!!! I saw it and will always remember!!!
Too upsetting!!
T.

[tcon]

They kept saying I didnt push for 4 1/2 hours...because i took a break in the middle while they took my epidural out (ouch- I still remember). Also, not sure exactly when crowning is but i felt (literally reached down) her head at 8:30am and had her at 1:20pm

[Lulumom]

Isn't 2nd stage the term for once you hit 10 cm. and start pushing, and doesn't it end when the baby comes out? And isn't the timeframe for 2nd stage 2 hrs w/o epidural? I've not read anywhere that 2nds stage is the exact amount push time. Since when do Dr's or nurses have a stop and start watch to time the amount of pushing in 2nd stage? How can the lawyers argue that there is a difference between push time and second stage labor time? All the protocol that I've read is for 2nd stage labor...not push time.