The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) defines maternal death as “the death of a woman while pregnant or within 1 year of the end of a pregnancy–regardless of the outcome, duration or site of the pregnancy–from any cause related to or aggravated by the pregnancy or its management…”
Pregnancy-Associated: The death of a woman during pregnancy or within one year of the end of pregnancy from a cause that is not related to pregnancy. All deaths that have a temporal relationship to pregnancy are included.
Pregnancy-Related: The death of a woman during pregnancy or within one year of the end of pregnancy from a pregnancy complication, a chain of events initiated by pregnancy, or the aggravation of an unrelated condition by the physiologic effects of pregnancy. In addition to having a temporal relationship to pregnancy, these deaths are causally related to pregnancy or its management.
Preventability: A death is considered preventable if the committee determines that there was at least some chance of the death being averted by one or more reasonable changes to patient, community, provider, facility, and/or systems factors. MMRIA allows MMRCs to document preventability decisions in two ways: 1) determining preventability as a “yes” or “no”, and/or 2) determining the chance to alter the outcome using a scale that indicates “no chance”, “some chance”, or “good chance”. Any death with a “yes” response or a response that there was “some chance” or a “good chance” to alter the outcome was considered “preventable”; deaths with a “no” response or “no chance” were considered “not preventable”.
The CDC noted 18 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births in 2014 (the latest available year of data)—an increase of more than two-fold from the 7.2 deaths per 100,000 live births recorded in 1987. It has also been determined that 2 out of 3 deaths were determined to be preventable. Maternal mortality can impact women in the United States of every race, ethnicity, education, and income level.
A mother’s wrongful death may occur from the following:
Surgical Malpractice during a C-Section
Postpartum hemorrhage
HELLP Syndrome (indicated by problems with blood, liver, and blood pressure)
Preeclampsia
Pulmonary Embolism
Cardiac Arrest
Infection
Amniotic Fluid Embolism
Do You Suspect Your Loved One Died as a Result of Medical Negligence?
If you believe your loved one died due to medical negligence during her pregnancy, labor, childbirth or the postpartum period, consider speaking to an experienced and compassionate birth injury attorney. Contact the Bowen Law Firm for a free initial consultation. We handle South Carolina Medical Malpractice and Birthing Injury claims.
Comentários