Re: Grounds to sue? If so, sue who?

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On 6/19/06, Mike wrote:
> My wife gave birth to our second child three months ago
> and is still suffering from urinary incontinence, which is
> not uncommon, however the cause for her particular case of
> incontinence is not normal and I believe it was negligence
> on the part of the hospital staff/ navy doctor. Here's our
> situation. I am active-duty military so the delivery was
> performed by a navy doctor. The nurses and midwives on
> staff are all civilian. During inactive labor, my wife
> opted for an epidural and was subsequently given a
> catheter. The catheter consists of a ping-pong ball
> sized "balloon" which is normally inflated when inside the
> bladder and deflated before being removed. As the baby's
> head began to move down the birth canal the balloon was
> still inflated, forcing the catheter balloon through here
> urethra. This led to tearing and persisting incontinence.
> The balloon should have been deflated prior to the baby's
> head even coming close to it (which is standard procedure
> I believe). She has been seen multiple times since and the
> problem is getting no better. This is taking its toll on
> our lives in ways I do not have time to describe here and
> now. My question, do we have a case? In what direction
> should I look to learn more about the proper steps to take
> from here? Thank you.
You should talk to an attorney who does med-mal. If they
don't think you have a case, I suggest talking to one more.
If you look hard enough you will almost always find one to
take the case, but if two competent experienced med-canl
attorneys tell you no, then I'd accept that. At first
glance I would say it's unlikely that you will succeed; you
would spend a lot of time and money on depostions and
experts and then probably lose either on summary judgment or
at trial. Alhtough I don't have all of the informationm
here's my analysis: for one thing, the catheter balloon is
more like the size of a small grape than a pinpong ball, it
is latex and pretty pliable, i.e. it can be squashed fairly
easily. You're partially right, it is standard procedure to
deflate the balloon and remove the catheter as the head
descends, but wrong about "prior to the head even coming
close to it." sometimes circumstance like a rapid descent
prevent this altogether. In any state that I know of, you
will have to provide expert medical testimony that not only
did this deviate from the standard of care but that it is
also a medical certainty that this deviation created your
wife's problems. since many women have incontinence after
childbirth for many reasons, I don't think you will have an
easy time of it. Talk to an attorney soon though, the
statute of limitations in most states for med-mal is one
year.