Video Website powered by Einstein IndustriesZucker & Bennett

MR. ZUCKER: We've handled many cases in this office of Erb’s palsy, which is a birth injury which occurs to the brachioplexus, which is the bundle of nerves, which among other things controls the muscles in the arm. And the way this injury occurs is when the child’s shoulders are too broad to make it down the birth canal or the mother’s pelvis is too narrow the child can become stuck. In this situation this injury occurs when the doctor puts excessive traction on the head and on the neck to try to get that baby through that birth canal, to pull that baby through. What needs to be done in those circumstances is certain maneuvers that doctors are taught in their obstetrical training to free the impacted shoulder so that there is no injury to the nerves. One way of avoiding that is properly assessing the child’s weight before the delivery through a sonogram and other measurements and if the child weighs more than ten pounds, well then the doctor should know that this child has to be born by caesarean section. This again is a very tragic injury when it occurs because again you're seeing a child who should have been born healthy and now is seriously injured and it’s a permanent injury, it’s going to be with that child for the child’s entire lifetime. It’s really an injury that should not occur. It’s an injury that's completely avoidable if appropriate measures are taken to free the impacted shoulder.