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Hi. It’s Gerry Oginski. Come on in. Thanks for joining me. I’m a New York medical malpractice
and personal injury trial lawyer practicing law here in the state of New York. And today
I have with me a doctor’s bag. No, it’s not my bag. This was my dad’s bag; my dad
was an obstetrician gynecologist. And I brought that with me today because I want to show
you something. You know, when I was growing up, I used to take a peek in there every once
in a while with my dad’s permission to see what was in there because he had some really
cool things in there. And my dad’s been gone a long time now, but pulling some of
this stuff out you see Meadowbrook Hospital, it says May 1st, 1968. It’s really cool
stuff. And you see some other cloths. And the coolest thing was he would have the neatest
instruments as an obstetrician. Here we have a Welch Allyn ophthalmoscope which is what
the doctor uses to look into your ears, and your eyes, and your nose. And we even have
some small surgical clamps in here and some other surgical instruments, and this stuff
was really cool to take a look at when I was growing up and it gave me a real interest
in this stuff. Now the reason I’m talking to you about this today, is that we’re talking
about obstetrical trauma and the use of forceps. And I was looking for the set of forceps that
my dad had from years ago and I just couldn’t find them. But here’s why I want to tell
you about them. You know, many times I’ll get a call from a woman who’s just had a
forceps delivery and tell me that their baby has suffered massive trauma as a result of
the forceps. And first of all, what are forceps? Forceps are tools that are used to help an
obstetrician get the baby out, when the mother can’t push the baby. The forceps come in
two parts and they’ve been described as big salad tongs. Both sides get placed onto
the baby’s head and then they get interlocked between the two of them and then there’s
a handle – two handles – that get joined together. It allows the doctor to use significant
force to pull the baby. And many times that’s done to eliminate or avoid the need for a
c-section (caesarean section). Now what happens when those forceps are not properly placed?
One of the things I’ve learned is that before the forceps can actually be placed the doctor
has to make absolutely certain where the baby’s head is and how it’s positioned. Now why
is that important? Well, if the baby’s head is too far up in the birth canal, then is
contra-indicated you cannot put the forceps onto the baby because you’ll cause significant
internal injury to the Mom and may also injure the baby’s head. So you have to wait until
the baby is close to being delivered in order to apply it. Well, how do they actually do
that? Well, they use one of their hands to slide it up and around onto the baby’s head
and they do the same thing to the other blade – it’s called a blade, and they have different
types of blades and different types of forceps that are used. Now, why is it important for
the doctor to understand which way the baby is facing? Well, if the baby is facing up
-head up - then you’ve got a problem if they put it on one particular way. If the
doctor, if the baby is turned to the side and they put those forceps on, it’s possible
that they could put the forceps on right over the front of their face and now they’re
inserting significant pressure pulling the baby out and that can result in trauma to
the baby. So that’s typically when I get a call and the mother sees the baby is all
significantly bruised or may have fractures on her face, or the cheeks. I will sometimes
get calls from frantic fathers who say that they just watched their wife delivering – giving
birth – and they are freaked out. Why? Because they see that the doctor was in the delivery
with their hands on the forceps, pulling and tugging, and even going so far – let me
just show you – of putting their feet up onto the table in order to use the table as
leverage to pull that baby out. And they are so worried that something bad happened because
of how much energy and effort used to try and get the baby out using forceps. When there’s
an obstetrical emergency, the baby is stuck within the birth canal, a doctor has very
little time to choose various options and they’ve got to choose the right one. And
there’s no wiggle room here. So when that baby is stuck and the doctor is exerting force,
I guarantee you it’s not because they’re trying to do something intentionally to harm
the baby, but rather they’re trying to get the baby out -to dislodge them, so they can
have the delivery and the baby can go on and lead a normal, healthy happy life. So if you
have a traumatic forceps delivery and you have questions about what may happen as a
result of that delivery and your baby now has injuries, then I encourage you to pick
up the phone and call me since I can answer your questions. You can reach me at 516-487-8307
or by email at lawmed10@yahoo.com. I’m Gerry Oginski, here in New York. Thanks for watching.