A new medical device is being used to help prevent the consequences of birth injury. The device is called the Olympic Cool-Cap machine. It is being used to treat healthy, full term infants who have suffered birth trauma due to lack of oxygen.

The lack of oxygen during birth can result in hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy, which is attributed to causing cerebral palsy or even fatality. The new medical device functions as a way to lower a baby’s body temperature after suffering from birth injury to help prevent the devastating consequences of lack of oxygen.

The Olympic Cool-Cap machine is the only medical device of its kind to be approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration.

Because the medical device is relatively new, long term studies have not shown the devices effectiveness, although the manufacturers of the device and the FDA hope that it will help thousands of babies a year.

Birth injuries are often the result of medical negligence. Birth trauma attorneys are working on cases in which life-long disabilities or fatalities have resulted from birth injuries. 

Lisa Fletcher, a mother in Madison County, Illinois, filed a medical malpractice lawsuit against her former obstetrician Dr. Kevin Michael Scharff and Anderson Hospital on April 22, 2008. Fletcher alleges that both the doctor and the hospital did not provide standard care during the delivery of her child on April 29, 2006.

Fletcher claims that during the delivery, Scharff delayed the delivery of her child and did not order necessary tests after the birth. She claims that the doctor and hospital acted negligently, which resulted in serious injuries to her child.

During the birth, Fletcher’s daughter sustained severe birth injuries that have resulted in life-long disabilities. Fletcher claims that her child is suffering from mental, physical and developmental disabilities originating from the birth trauma.

Her lawsuit sites the physical and emotional suffering, medical expenses and the loss of future income associated with the severe disabilities caused by birth injury.

Birth injury attorneys are working on cases like this one in order to help those whose lives have been impacted by the devastation of birth trauma.

According to an article in the San Jose Mercury News, last week California insurance regulators ordered three of the state’s largest insurers to submit to an independent review of policy cancellations to identify people whose coverage had been wrongly canceled. A partial review of cancellations resulted in the reinstatement of 26 policies. The order, made by the Department of Managed Health Care, applies to Kaiser Permanente, Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield of California.