Pre-Term Labor: Court Says Nurse Should Have Called Physician To Start Ritodrine
Legal Eagle Eye Newsletter for the Nursing Profession
October 1998
Quick Summary: The court blamed the nurse for not immediately reporting the patient’s cramping to the physician as the onset of pre-term labor (New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division.)
The patient was admitted to the obstetrical floor of the hospital in her twenty-eighth week for rest and observation after an episode of vaginal bleeding. Her physician finished a sonogram at 10:50 a.m. which was unremarkable.
At 8:00 p.m. the patient complained of cramping to her obstetrical nurse. The nurse did not suspect the onset of pre-term labor. She did not call the physician until 10:30 p.m. She called the physician again at 11:00 p.m. when the fetal monitor was showing labor contractions at five-minute intervals. The physician came at 11:45 p.m. and found the patient dilated to four centimeters. He administered ritodrine to try to arrest labor, and betamethasone. The ritodrine was discontinued at 12:05 a.m. when the cervix dilated to five centimeters. The child was born at 12:40 a.m. with profound deficits related to prematurity.
Karney v. Hospital, 674 N.Y.S. 2d 449 (N.Y. App., 1998).