United Brachial Plexus Network, Inc.

In Rich's 3rd article, Dr. Gherman (Dr.? lol) indicated his subjects included 17 cases of Erb's not associated with shoulder dystocia. I wonder how he determined if SD was present or not. Did he look in the medical records? We all know that's a joke! Absence of SD in the records certainly is not objective evidence.

I would speculate that most of the non-SD cases in the study were just unreported.

Clint,

I think you are soooo right. Actually, I know you are.

to guest about identifying a neuroma-

other than surgery the only other way to determine would probably be an EMG - the EMG would define how much 'connection' there is -but even an EMG can be unreliable (unless it is an intraoperative EMG)

A neuroma may well be visible on an mri scan a ct scan or occasionally an ultrasound scan may show some evidence of a neuroma, but the only real cast iron guarantee of knowing if there is on, is to explore the plexus surgically.

I was just going back and looking at old posts when I ran across this. Now I think back to my 6 wk appt and remember how my OB/GYN told me that "she had delivered babies with much larger shoulders with no problem so she thinks the injury was caused in-utero by all of my pushing"..then why did she make me push for over 4 1/2 hours! AT least shoulder dystocia was noted on my chart.

Maybe it had nothing to do with the size of the shoulders but the size of YOU. That is another thing that she needs to take into consideration. b

I just had to respond to a couple of things here: Natalie, I can't believe that a jury bought that defense and I feel awful for you. As other posters added, if this could happen in utero, wouldn't it have to happen much more frequently? And TCON, why on God's green earth did a doctor have you push for 4 1/2hours?! I thought that the "legal limit" was 2 1/2 hours of pushing (that's what we were told in my 2 sets of birthing classes - that if it goes past that time limit, you will have a c-section unless the baby is crowning, because of the risk of maternal or fetal exhaustion/distress) maybe they just teach that in NY.... this lawsuit stuff is just tragic. I'm assuming that these cases can't be tried again? I've just started down this road, so I don't know about that aspect. I just really feel for everyone, as if its not enough to see your child go through what they've got to go through....

Well..I really believe there's a special place in hell for those who write bogus stuff to get a doctor off scott free!!!
What about the delivering person's trying to pull the head off the baby!!!! I saw it and will always remember!!!
Too upsetting!!
T.

They kept saying I didnt push for 4 1/2 hours...because i took a break in the middle while they took my epidural out (ouch- I still remember). Also, not sure exactly when crowning is but i felt (literally reached down) her head at 8:30am and had her at 1:20pm

Isn't 2nd stage the term for once you hit 10 cm. and start pushing, and doesn't it end when the baby comes out? And isn't the timeframe for 2nd stage 2 hrs w/o epidural? I've not read anywhere that 2nds stage is the exact amount push time. Since when do Dr's or nurses have a stop and start watch to time the amount of pushing in 2nd stage? How can the lawyers argue that there is a difference between push time and second stage labor time? All the protocol that I've read is for 2nd stage labor...not push time.