United Brachial Plexus Network

hello Today I got a call from Hannah's OT. She said she has a new client she sees a child who was diagnosed with Erb's Palsy. And the doctor told the Mother that it happens interuterine. Have you ever heard of such a thing? Everything I have ever read has never said anything about that. I personally think this doctor is tring to cover his butt. Because this mother knows nothing about this type of injury. And she will probably believe anything. I know when I was in her postion I did. I am gathering information for Hannah therapist to take to her. Along with my # and hopefully she will call. Any other good advice I can give her???

Nicki

I've never heard of that...but you all may find this interesting...
Last week I met a woman who was asking me how the baby was. (8mo OLBPP) When I briefed her on the prognosis of Erb Palsy, she said she had never heard of that...(she was around 40ish)
I elaborated a little by saying "Well, have you ever seen an adult who's arm is about a hand shorter or so, it's permanently bent at the elbow, and they can only lift it to about here?"
She says "My sister is like that".
I said "What??? Does your mom know what caused that?"
she said "Yes, the doctor told my mom that she had a real high fever when she was a newborn, and this was the result...he told her to put the baby in PT. My mom did, but only for a couple of weeks because she screamed during weight bearing"
This was the conversation I had last week...

That is the newest excuse the defense attornys are using. Definately fill this new mom in on the amount of traction it takes to stretch, tear or pull a nerve root and she will realize herself that it would be under extrordinary circumstances that this injury could happen inutero.

Yeah, I've heard of this repeatedly.
Here's a message to this woman's doc: SURE, it happened in the uterus. And I want to sell you the Brooklyn Bridge. And some swampland in Montana.
This is a increasingly popular doctor legal defense, but the evidence against it is overwhelming. In fact, the truth is exactly the opposite: were it not for excessive lateral traction that can only be performed by the delivering doctor, the child could not sustain a BPI. The reliable studies show there's some infintesimile (sp?) chance of BPI happening in the womb: like, zero.
I think it was Dr. Stephen Hogan? who wrote an article about the bioengineering studies that have proven this to be true. I don't have it here, but you can find it through some of the BPI sites if you search. Try www.injurednewborn.com, also.
Also, Les Weisbrod wrote a great article for the Trial Lawyers magazine showing how this "happened in the womb" defense is basically garbage. He's at Morgan & Weisbrod in Dallas.
I hope that is of help to this woman.
From my experience, anything the OB says after a BPI occurs should be viewed with much suspicion. You have to do your own research. The doctors have too much of a vested interest in telling the mother that the BPI was either "just something that happened" or "it will get better soon" and all that junk.

I have read on some websites where they claim that BPI could happen inutero, I don't know where they are basing their findings since...HOW DO YOU KNOW A CHILD HAS THIS BEFORE THEY ARE BORN?? I believe that it happens when the child is coming out.

My son will be five in May and we just settled in August. The months preceeding the trial date, we had depositions of 2 of the 3 docs in the practice and it was brought up both times by the defense attorneys. Its so ridiculous, please fill her in!

Same here. They love to use this defense. It will only continue to be something used much more in the future as bogus articles continue to come out and the only ones funding and doing research are those for the defense side. I am so sick of seeing the TRUTH slip further away. I think those who are writing this material need to be held accountable to the ethics of research, since there are serious flaws in their work and ones that can be proven.

There has been some discussion about this for some time.
it is true that there may be a small percantage of children who have this condition and it happens in utero.
This was a topic at the international Symposia of Brachial plexus Surgeons, I attended in Paris in 2002
Apparently though, children who have in utero BPI when tested with an EMG test within the first 10 days of life will show a significantly different pattern of results from the EMG, than those injured at birth.
I didn't understand much of the technicalities of the discussion, but I do remember this part.
Of course the chances of a baby being given an EMG within the first 10 days of life is probably quie low, so I don't think this will help families in general.

It was used with our trial to and if I had a bird as a pet I wouldn't even line my bird cage with those articles. How could they know if this was caused inside the mom? The OB Dr.'s not only can't agree with or recognize when shoulder distotia begins during normal child birth. They need to stop making excuses for themselves.

Patty

My ob told me that exactly!!! ROBPI could happen in utero by the baby being in the same position for a long period of time!!! I didn't buy it especially since DS had fractured clavicle and torticollis.