Has Your Newborn Suffered a Brain Injury in Kansas City, Missouri?
If your baby is in the NICU undergoing brain cooling therapy, it is without question one of the scariest days of your life. When a newborn sustains a brain injury during birth, the doctor in the NICU may order cooling therapy (also known as “neonatal cooling,” “hypothermia therapy,” and “therapeutic hypothermia”) to try to slow the progression of your baby's brain damage.
If your baby suffered brain damage and required cooling therapy, medical malpractice likely played a role. Our trial lawyers at Cullan & Cullan have in-depth experience in these cases, and what’s more, we also hold medical degrees. We can help you determine whether negligence led to your newborn’s injury and, if so, fight to hold the negligent party accountable.
Our nationally acclaimed law firm has effectively resolved numerous birth injury cases through record-setting verdicts and groundbreaking settlements. We fully understand that nothing can turn back the clock on your child’s injury, but we can help you fight for the money your baby will need for medical care and compensation for your family's suffering.
Since we first opened our practice, we have won more than $350 million in compensation for our clients. Call us at (816) 253-8606 today. Your call is free and there is no fee unless we win.
How Does Therapeutic Hypothermia Work?
Therapeutic hypothermia attempts to protect the newborn’s brain from further damage by using cold temperatures to decrease blood flow to the site of the injury, hence the term “cooling therapy.”
Your newborn will either be administered cooling therapy through a cooling cap placed on their head or via whole-body cooling, as determined by medical protocols and the equipment readily available at the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). The therapy itself works by cooling the baby’s body temperature to below that of homeostasis.
For selective head cooling with a cooling cap, this temperature is 34.5 to 35 degrees Celsius, or 94.1 to 95 degrees Fahrenheit. For whole-body cooling, this temperature is between 33.5 and 34 degrees Celsius, or 92.3 and 93.2 degrees Fahrenheit. After 72 hours of cooling, the baby’s body temperature is slowly warmed back up to 37 degrees Celsius, or 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit.
Please note that cooling therapy must be administered within 6 hours of when the injury was sustained to be effective and must be continued for 72 hours.
When is Cooling Therapy Used?
There are criteria that are used to determine if an injured baby is eligible for cooling therapy, which varies from one hospital to another.
Cooling therapy criteria often include the following:
- At least 36 weeks gestational age or greater
- A blood cord pH of less than or equal to 7.0, or a base deficit of 10 or greater
- A 10-minute APGAR score of less than 5
- Assisted ventilation at birth that continued for at least 10 minutes
- A neurological exam indicating moderate to severe encephalopathy (brain disease, damage, or malfunction)
- An abnormal EEG (or aEEG)
- Evidence of organ-system dysfunction, like decreased urine output, elevated creatinine, or elevated liver function enzymes
The Effects of Cooling Therapy
Cooling therapy becomes less and less effective the longer the delay in treatment. When administered within 6-12 hours of the injury, cooling therapy can decrease the severity of disability for the child later in life.
According to scientific research studies, the MRIs of babies who’ve undergone cooling therapy within 6-12 hours of birth often have fewer grey matter abnormalities, or lesions, than babies born with HIE who were not treated with cooling therapy.
Grey matter is important because it includes the regions of the brain involved with muscle control and sensory perception, such as seeing, hearing, memory, emotions, speech, decision-making, and self-control.
When Medical Negligence Leads to Infant Brain Damage
Often, cooling therapy is used to treat hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE), serious brain dysfunction caused by a lack of oxygen that may be experienced during labor or when the child attempts to pass through the birth canal. Sadly, it is all too common for cases of HIE to be caused by medical malpractice due to the healthcare team’s failure to address fetal distress.
This can occur when your delivery team, including nurses, midwives, and doctors:
- Fails to carefully monitor labor and delivery
- Fails to properly use medication such as Pitocin
- Fails to detect and respond to fetal distress
- Fails to properly treat infection
- Fails to perform a timely cesarean section (C-section)
- Fails to use forceps or vacuum extractors correctly
- Fails to properly resuscitate your baby after it has been born
Call the Lawyers who are also Medical Doctors
At Cullan & Cullan, our Kansas City legal team fully understands that nothing can turn back the clock on your child’s injury. No one can take your child’s pain away or give them the life you wanted for them, but we can help you fight for the justice and money your child will need for medical care, physical therapy, and more. We can help you fight for compensation for the tremendous pain and suffering you have experienced.
Contact Cullan & Cullan online or call us at (816) 253-8606.