Mismanagement of Gestational Diabetes

A pregnant woman’s body produces increased hormones that affect the placenta; this increase can keep the pregnancy healthy. However, sometimes the hormonal increase results in insulin resistance. If there’s too much insulin resistance and the glucose levels get too high, the result may be gestational diabetes. A woman’s OB-GYN should help a woman manage her gestational diabetes to avoid harm to both herself and the baby. If you believe you or your child have been harmed due to mismanagement of gestational diabetes, a dedicated Syracuse birth injury attorney can review your potential claims.

Doctors can diagnose gestational diabetes through prenatal testing and screening. Usually an oral glucose tolerance test is administered between the 24th and 28th week of the pregnancy, but it may be administered earlier when there are risk factors. Certain symptoms can indicate gestational diabetes, including fatigue, blurred vision, increased thirst, increased urination, and nausea.

Certain pregnant women are at greater risk than others for gestational diabetes, including those who have previously given birth to a baby that weighed over 9 pounds, and those who have high blood pressure, preeclampsia, too much amniotic fluid, PCOS, a family history of type 2 diabetes, a prior diagnosis of gestational diabetes or prediabetes, or who were overweight prior to pregnancy. Doctors are supposed to keep an eye out for these risk factors, and take steps to protect both mother and baby.

After a gestational diabetes diagnosis, a doctor must do frequent checkups in the last three months of pregnancy. The doctor is supposed to monitor the patient’s blood glucose levels. Additionally, the medical team may monitor the baby to check its health and size by conducting nonstress tests, Doppler flow studies, and a biophysical profile. Often pregnant women must be treated with oral hypoglycemic medications, insulin, or dietary counseling. High blood sugar levels can result in macrosomia, which increases the likelihood of a traumatic birth. When it goes undetected, there may be a prolonged or arrested labor.

Gestational diabetes places women in a high-risk pregnancy class because it can result in serious complications, and these can lead to birth injuries. Often those with gestational diabetes need to be scheduled for delivery before 40 weeks because there are certain benefits to an earlier delivery that outweigh the risks of it. Complications can arise as a result if gestational diabetes is mismanaged. A baby’s blood sugar may dip after it is born, and if it continues to have low blood sugar, the result may be seizures or permanent brain damage. Other birth injuries arising from mismanaged gestational diabetes include hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy, cerebral palsy, or neonatal seizures. If there is poor placental perfusion as a result of gestational diabetes, there may be placental insufficiency and chronic intrauterine hypoxia that cause the baby to produce too many red blood cells.

You may be able to hold your health care provider liable for harm arising from medical negligence, and an experienced malpractice lawyer can help. In order to recover damages for birth injuries caused by mismanaged gestational diabetes, you will need to show: (1) a doctor-patient relationship giving rise to a professional standard of care, (2) breach of the professional standard of care, (3) causation, and (4) damages. Whether the mismanagement of gestational diabetes constituted a breach of a professional standard of care depends on the circumstances. You will need to retain a credible and experienced expert to look at your medical records and the baby’s medical records, as well as the facts, to determine what the professional duty of care was under the circumstances, whether this standard was breached, and whether the breach caused your baby’s birth injuries.

If you can establish liability for birth injuries, you may be able to recover compensatory damages. These are meant to put you and your family back in the position you would have been in had there been no mismanagement of gestational diabetes and the baby had not been injured.

If your baby was injured due to mismanagement of gestational diabetes in Syracuse, you can talk to our seasoned medical malpractice lawyers. DeFrancisco & Falgiatano represents patients and their families in Syracuse, Rochester, and throughout Upstate New York, including in Watertown, Oneida, Canandaigua, Oswego, Binghamton, Wampsville, Cooperstown, Auburn, Lyons, Herkimer, Elmira, Ithaca, Utica, and Lowville. Call DeFrancisco & Falgiatano at 833-200-2000 or contact us via our online form.