Seattle Medical Malpractice Law Blog

Expectant parents in Washington State should be able to enjoy the day that they bring their children into the world. However, for some people, the very day that should be one of the happiest days of their lives can too easily become one of the most tragic if either the mother or the baby experiences difficulties during or after birth. Should such a situation occur, prompt and appropriate medical response can be critical. The lack of this response is something people should be able to seek compensation for but apparently, not everyone can do so.

In a story reported by Q13Fox.com, a husband and father has been searching for justice for four years after his wife died only hours after giving birth to their daughter. Both spouses were active military members at the time of the woman's death. The wife was a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy and the husband was with the U.S. Coast Guard based in Seattle. The baby was born at a naval hospital in Bremerton where the woman was considered a service member. If she had delivered her baby at a Coast Guard hospital, she would have been considered the spouse of a service member.

Patients seeking care at hospitals and medical centers in Seattle go in with one basic expectation: that the clinicians treating them are qualified to do. This may come from a handful of assumptions, among them being that a doctor would not dream of offering to perform a service they were not qualified to do, and that a facility would never open themselves up to liability by putting a provider in a position to do so. If and when those assumptions are proven to be false, one may wonder who is to blame: the doctor or the facility? 

At least in the case of an Illinois woman, it is the facility. The woman recently brought action against the hospital whose surgeon operated on the wrong area of her body. Surprisingly, the surgeon is not named as a defendant in the lawsuit, nor is the case deemed to be a medical malpractice claim. Instead, the woman is suing the hospital for negligent credentialing, claiming that had they properly investigated the surgeon's background, the fact that she was not qualified to perform the procedures that she did would have been discovered. Healthcare industry experts say that information regarding a doctor's background is available through state medical boards and national data banks, yet some facilities do indeed hire doctors without consulting such resources. 

People often assume that heart attack symptoms are obvious. Perhaps we've seen it so many times in the movies: Someone stops talking, grabs their arm and collapses. We feel like every heart attack looks the same and that it will be clear if someone is having one.

However, the reality is that symptoms often look different. There are a variety of factors to take into account, including gender. Symptoms can occur differently for men and women. Even when they're similar, each individual may have a rather unique experience.

Many advances that have improved safety for mothers and babies during labor and delivery have taken place over the course of the past several generations. Because of this some people in Washington State might find it easy to forget that childbirth is a major medical event, one that may include complications and emergencies and the need for prompt response. A report published this summer by USA Today highlights that, despite medical advances, too many mothers die or experience serious injuries while giving birth to their children.

The report indicated that as many as 700 maternal deaths and more than 50,000 serious injuries to mothers occur every year. In response to these alarming statistics, the House Committee on Ways and Means has ordered the country's 15 largest health care systems to provide important documentation on this matter. One of the health care systems that is part of this investigation is Providence St. Joseph Health in Renton, Washington.