Many women will give birth in Texas hospitals this year. For most, the experience will be joyful and exciting as they welcome their infants into their families and prepare to take them home. Others’ experiences, however, will not be so wonderful, as it’s likely some Texas hospital patients will be among those who suffer injury due to medical malpractice.
Parents of a newborn in another state were aghast when they learned of a terrible error that allegedly took place involving their newborn baby. The 39-year-old mother was given an infant that she naturally believed was her child in the middle of the night to breastfeed. The mother had been feeding the infant for nearly half an hour when the nurse came to her exclaiming there had been a terrible mistake.
The baby that was given to the mother to feed was apparently not the right child; the infant belonged to another mother in the hospital. The mother who fed the baby and her husband have since filed a lawsuit against the hospital for the gross error it allegedly committed. The parents say their own infant was deprived of colostrum, the special milk protein mothers’ breasts have shortly after giving birth.
A medical malpractice attorney representing the parents said there is absolutely no reason a mistake like this should ever occur. The nurse on duty may have failed to double-check the wristbands on the baby and the woman to confirm a match. Nursing negligence is the cause of many injuries every year. Texas law allows anyone harmed by such incidents to seek justice by filing a claim in a civil court.
Source: nbcnewyork.com, “I-Team: Hospital Accused of Switched-at-Birth Breastfeeding Blunder in Lawsuit“, Chris Glorioso, Feb. 9, 2017