Ultrasound Errors Deprive Client of Therapeutic Abortion

Medical Malpractice Settlement for Six Figures

Our client, a pregnant mother, presented to the hospital ten weeks pregnant for an obstetrical ultrasound. The interpreting radiologist read the study as showing no abnormalities, overlooking the fact that the study showed fetal anencephaly — an abnormal fetal head and/or an absent cranium.

Our client again presented to the hospital at 20 weeks for an obstetrical ultrasound, and the interpreting radiologist this time interpreted the study as revealing a fetus with anencephaly. The radiologist did not contact our client’s obstetrician with the abnormal findings. Our client was not informed until 24 weeks after another examination that her baby had anencephaly and that it would die before birth.

Because she had entered the third trimester, Pennsylvania law prohibited our client from inducing labor that would result in a fetus’ death, and she was forced to carry the baby for the full term of the pregnancy. More than a month later, the baby died in utero and our client gave birth to a stillborn infant.

The misread ultrasound and the ultrasound that was never reported to our client’s obstetrician deprived our client of the ability to undergo a therapeutic abortion, and our client was forced to carry her baby-full term knowing it had no chance of survival. Rosen Louik & Perry settled this case for six figures.