Plaintiffs Pamela Armstead and her minor daughter have filed a lawsuit due to a birth injury against St. James Hospital and Women First Obstetrics and Gynecology, claiming that physicians did not perform a Caesarian section when plaintiff Armstead was giving birth to her daughter and this decision was made negligently. The child in the case was delivered vaginally and subsequently suffered a parietal bone skull fracture, parietal cepalohematoma, scalp abrasion, and subgaleal hematoma, while her mother suffered a fourth degree tear of the perinium. The lawsuit, filed by the plaintiff’s birth injury attorney on the 2nd of February, 2012, claims that the plaintiff’s obstetrician committed malpractice by misjudging the plaintiff’s capability to deliver a baby vaginally. This allegedly resulted in injury to both mother and child. The lawsuit was filed in Cook County, Illinois.

Lawsuit filed claims permanent injury

The lawsuit claims that the child has and will continue to suffer from pain, loss of enjoyment of life, and loss of life expectancy, and will have to deal with lost wages and loss of medical expenses. According to her lawsuit, Armstead’s doctor “improperly positioned the vacuum cup in the occipital region” and applied too much pressure to the vacuum, which resulted in a fourth degree perineal tear as well as a skull fracture for the child. Skull fractures are very rare in terms of birth complications, and are more often than not linked to vacuum extraction.

Armstead’s lawsuit is claiming that the injuries to both the plaintiff and her child were caused by negligent vacuum extraction which the doctors in question are at fault for. Although vacuum extraction is considered more safe for both mother and child than forceps extraction, it has still been linked to a number of birth injury complications.

Plaintiff seeks compensation for injuries

Armstead is looking for damages that will help cover past and future medical costs due to bone injury during delivery, as well as pain and suffering, and loss of enjoyment of and quality of life.