C-section and obpi

[Lisa]

Hello,
I am new to this board and was wondering if anyone has a child with an injury where mother had a c-section.
My son is 7 weeks old and has an injury and I had an emergency c-section. He did not have shoulder dystocia, the reason for the section was low heart rate. We are struggling with this because we are not sure what course of action to take in regards to legal action. He also had a blood clot in his shoulder which was a complete mystery to the doctors, has anyone else ever experienced this? I would appreciate the input!!

Thanks,

Lisa

[TINA-T]

Lisa,

Welcome to the boards. I think you might have better luck posting this question on the General Board. There are many parents there who are dealing with injured children. They hold a wealth of informatiion and strength.

Congratulations and keep asking your questions. Knowledge is a wonderful thing.

[francine]

Hi Lisa and welcome to the message board. Congratulations on the birth of your baby but I am most certainly sorry that he was injured.

Seven weeks is a wee age and there is still a bit of time to see if he will recover from this injury or not. Does he have any movement at all in his arm? Is it one side or two?

Here is a page from this site that will give you some good information. It was writiten specifically for the parent with a newborn infant.

http://ubpn.org/awareness/A2001Rnewparentguide.html

I hope it is helpful for you.

The best thing that you can be doing for your child right now is PT or OT (therapy) once a week and Range of Motion Exercises (ROM) with each diaper change to keep the joints supple. Your PT or OT will teach you how to do these safely.

You also need to contact a brachial plexus specialist and if you tell us where you live, there may be someone in your area.

We took our daughter to Texas Childrens Hospital. (we live in philly) because we researched them and found them to be the largest bpi clinic in the nation. We're very happy with the results to date and we are most pleased with the compassion that these doctors have. They will accept a video as an initial 'look' to give you a precursory evaluation to tell you whether or not they should see you in their clinic. http://www.injurednewborn.com/maia/video.html
(the mail code has changed to 1610.10). Also - here is their site address: http://www.texaschildrenshospital.org
(Patient Care Center on left, Select Care Center, Brachial Plexus) where you can read a whole lot of stuff- see pictures and videos and all.

We do hear time to time that people have children that are injured during a c-section but we don't hear about it too often. If you don't mind sharing a bit more information, I'm curious to know if your child was partially born, got stuck, then was pushed back to be c-sectioned? (They call this the zavanelli maneuver) because I'm just curious when the actual injury happened. Most often it is an injury caused by excessive traction of the baby's head and neck.

A very high percentage of children who are injured do get spontaneous recovery and this will happen early on - in the first 3 months. If your baby does not have hand-to-mouth movement (without the assistance of gravity) within the 3-5 month period then they will book the surgical date and then re-evaluate right before the surgery to see if the needed movement has arrived. If it does arrive, then the surgery is cancelled. TIME is truly of the essence when it comes to brachial plexus injuries and there is much more information about that on that sheet I posted above.

Parents with children who are injured most often visit the General Message Board here - so we hope to see you over there. In the meantime, we will keep you and your son in our prayers.

-francine

http://www.injurednewborn.com/maia/homepage.html
http://www.injurednewborn.com

[admin]

Lisa, oh my gosh!! I am a nurse and I work postpartum and newborn nursery and about 7 weeks ago a mom at our hospital delivered (I thought vaginally, not sure) without any shoulder dystocia and the baby suffered a bpi and also a blood clot and we had to send him to the intensive care unit! Are you from the midwest? You can e-mail me personally at miller.mnll@att.net if you want to keep this info personal, I understand totally. The stories are soooo similar. I will talk to the OB (we talked about the obpi and she is an awesome doctor and was really upset!) and get this mom's name, if possible. EVERYONE knows on my floor about my daughter's obpi, it is definitely my soapbox. The baby was put on heparin therapy and was in ICU for quite a while. I will see if I can get any other info from some of my ICU friends about the baby's care and where he will be going next. I would definitely have an attorney look into the case. The future for these children is very expensive. Good luck to your sweet baby and to you, also. Keep us posted. God Bless, Natalie

[Lisa]

Thank you all for your replies. Joey is doing very well so far he has quite a bit of movement so far in his right arm. He was scheduled for rehab and when we went, the doctor said at that point in time he did not need therapy, however, we do have a follow up appointment this week which will determine a little bit more. We live in the Norfolk, Virginia area. We have a WONDERFUL childrens hospital here, however I am not sure if there are any brachial plexus specialists. He was also being seen for an arterial thrombosis in the same arm, which he is being followed for as well, he has been through quite a lot in his short time here and we are hoping and praying that he will recover fully. As I said he was born by c-section, and the reason was low fetal heart rate. When he arrived, the umbilical cord was wrapped very tightly around his neck twice, which I am assuming resulted in the injury, because his neck probably had to be stretched to remove the cord, however I am not exactly sure, but he was not stuck in the birth canal because he never made it that far. Once again, I thank you all for your input, any help would be greatly appreciated!!!

Thanks,
Lisa

[francine]

This is the website of Dr. Terzis - who is a brachial plexus specialist in Norfolk, Virgina.

http://www.jkterzis.com/

I don't know much else about her, because we took Maia to Texas Childrens Hospital - but maybe some others who went to her will come forward and talk to you about her.

Good luck and keep us updated ok?

-francine

[Lisa]

Thank you so much for the information!! I am looking into it right now....I am not sure why the doctors following him never mentioned her?? I will definately keep you updated.

Thanks again,

Lisa

[Logan's mom- Natalie]

Lisa- I tried to post to you the other night but I have not been very successful at these new boards yet- sorry! First of all- my daughter has a right obpi, born vaginally, but a friend of mine's daughter was c-section and she is bilateral obpi. She has a bicornate uterus. Did you have any uterine abnormalities? I am an RN on the postpartum and newborn nursery floor and get to see some obpi kids right off. Interesting, we had a baby about 7-8 weeks ago born with a bpi and suffered a blood clot also in his arm. Right away we noted his arm had no circulation and sent him ASAP to the intensive care unit. He has been on heparin therapy for quite a while and although still suffering from the bpi, the blood clot problem is resolved. Was the blood clot in your baby's obpi arm or opposite?? I am not sure about this baby but I think it was his obpi arm. I am from the midwest. I talked to the OB about the delivery (all the OB's know about my daughter- I am the BPI queen- HA!) and she said there was absolutely no shoulder dystocia. I can't fathom that just because the cord was around your baby's neck, that that would be the cause of his injury. We see this too much and too many kids would suffer obpi if it was because of a nuchal cord. I would definitely, 100%, have an attorney review your medical records. Again, the cord should not be the problem- I would be surprised, but I am not an expert, just really familiar with this area. You might want to talk to my friend about her c-section and bilateral obpi. Let me know! Keep us posted and good luck!
God Bless. Natalie