Reply to What do you think of the $55 million settlement in the Johns Hopkins malpractice case?

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[quote=Anonymous]By law, nurse midwives in Maryland practice in collaboration with a physician so that in the event of an emergency, that physician is available to do a admit the patient to a hospital and can do a stat c/s.  The midwife in question in this case was a CNM who was practicing WITHOUT the required physician agreement.  She has since lost her license from the board of nursing for this violation and others.

When an illegally practicing midwife (either a nurse midwife practicing under the radar like this or a professional midwife who practices entirely illegally) runs into trouble at home, they either call 991 or put the woman in their car and literally dump them off at the local ER.  They can't participate in the care or even give a history for fear of being prosecuted.  The admitting hospital gets NO history---no fetal monitoring history, no pregnancy history, no labor history, nothing.  They get a woman, who appears to be pregnant at some unknown point in her labor.  The logical thing that happens (and I'm sure happened in this case) is that the physicians get this woman on a stretcher and have to begin to piece together exactly what is going on.  They do a vaginal exam, put her on the fetal monitor to see exactly what is going on with the baby, etc.  This takes time---you don't even know if you have a non-reasurring fetal heart tracing and need a c/s until you actually have ANY fetal heart tracing.  NO-ONE is going to do a c/s within 10 minutes on a woman when they don't even have proof that anything is wrong with the baby.  For all they know, the baby is fine and the woman is in the beginning of labor).  They aren't going to cut open a woman on arrival without any evidence that they need to (I am 150% sure that this woman arrived without any medical records from the midwife).  The physicians in this kind of case are SCREWED if they do (c/s a woman the moment she steps foot in the ER and without ANY evidence that she needs a c/s) and SCREWED if they don't (actually take the time to evaluate the situation).  Plus, I would bet the farm that this woman did not want a c/s on arrival.  I'm sure she drug her feet until the last possible moment. 
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