Erb's Palsy Case

An example of an Erb's Palsy case caused by medical malpractice.

MR. GARY ZUCKER: We at Zucker & Bennett have handled many cases, and are currently handling many cases involving Erb's Palsy. This is an injury that occurs during the delivery of a baby where the nerves in the brachial plexus, which controls the arm, are stretched or torn as a result of excessive traction on the head and the neck. The most common way this injury occurs is when the child is too large to make it down the birth canal and the shoulder gets stuck. And in those instances, doctors are trained to perform certain maneuvers to rotate the baby and other maneuvers in order to free the impacted shoulder without causing injury to the nerves. This injury occurs when instead of performing those maneuvers properly, the doctor pulls on the baby thereby causing a stretching or tearing of the nerve. We also had a case recently where the injury occurred during a breech delivery. That is where the feet came out first. Now this is known to be one of the complications that can occur from a breech delivery. In that instance, we were able to establish to the satisfaction of the jury that the failure to perform a sonogram prior to the delivery was the critical factor in leading to this baby's injury because the sonogram would have demonstrated that this child was in a breech position. Because of the many complications known to occur with breech babies, the appropriate method of delivery with that child would have been by cesarean section. These injuries can often be avoided by performing prenatal sonograms, taking certain measurements which allow the doctor to assess the size of the baby before the delivery is performed. For instance, if a baby is going to be more than 10 pounds, there's a substantial likelihood that that baby's not going to make it down that birth canal, and in that instance that baby should be born by cesarean section. Now this injury, when it occurs, is a devastating injury. It can result in anything from a moderate loss of use of the arm, limitation of motion, to permanent paralysis of the arm and sometimes it will affect the hand as well.