According to a recent article in USA Today, maternal death rates in the US are the highest in the developed world. Every year more than 50,000 women suffer serious birth-related injuries—700 of those fatal—that could be prevented if healthcare providers followed safety protocols. As the article explains, doctors and nurses often ignore safety recommendations that can prevent birth-related injuries, such as “weighing bloody pads to track blood loss,” or “giving medication within an hour of spotting dangerously high blood pressure to fend off strokes.” As a result of medical negligence, pregnant women suffer severe and sometimes fatal injuries during childbirth, including blood clots and infections.

However, according to an article in Self Magazine, California is doing much better than the rest of the country when it comes to preventing birth-related injuries and maternal deaths. What is different about healthcare in California?

Maternal Death Rate in California is Half That of the Rest of the Country

One of the most common reasons that women suffer debilitating and deadly injuries during birth is due to hemorrhage and blood loss. In California, doctors are prepared to respond quickly (and often effectively) to hemorrhaging. For example, the article describes the “hemorrhage cart,” which was created by a doctor with California Maternal Quality Care Collaborative (CMQCC). What is a “hemorrhage cart”? It is a cart that is “equipped with the instruments needed to treat postpartum hemorrhage as swiftly as possible,” and these carts “are part of the CMQCC’s initiative to reduce pregnancy related emergencies.” In the article, Dr. Elliott Main, who created the cart and is a Stanford University professor of obstetrics and gynecology, explained that it is “like a crash cart,” equipped with “meds, balloons, fluids.”

Due to developments like the crash cart and other initiatives being put into practice by CMQCC, the maternal death rate in California is much lower than the maternal death rate in the rest of the United States. To give you a sense of the maternal death rate in the U.S. and where it stands in relation to the rest of the world, the current rate of birth injury-related deaths is at 26.4 per 100,000 childbirths. The safest countries for childbirth, such as Finland and Norway, have a maternal death rate of 3.8 deaths per 100,000 births. In Canada, the maternal death rate is 7.3 per 100,000 births, and the U.K. and Germany have maternal deaths rates at around 9 per 100,000 births. Where does that put the U.S.? The article describes the ranking starkly: the U.S. is “sandwiched between Uzbekistan’s 26.2 and Kazakhstan’s 26.5.”

Racial Disparities Persist in Maternal Deaths and Birth-Related Injuries

In California, the number is right around 13 deaths per 100,000 births. That number is still higher than other countries in the developed world, but it is significantly lower than the average maternal death rate in the rest of the country.

It is important to make clear, however, that racial disparities continue to persist when it comes to maternal injuries and deaths during childbirth. Indeed, “Black women in this country are three to four times more likely to die from pregnancy- or childbirth-related causes.”

Contact an Oceanside Birth Injury Lawyer

If you or someone you love suffered serious birth-related injuries, you should speak with a birth injury lawyer about filing a medical negligence claim. Contact the Walton Law Firm for more information.

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(image courtesy of Janko Ferlic)

ke their eyes off the road or experience distractions, serious and fatal accidents can occur. Indeed, according to a recent report from NBC San Diego, a woman suffered fatal injuries after she was struck by an automobile while unloading her car “along a busy La Jolla street.” The pedestrian accident occurred in the late morning on Girard Avenue, just across the street from Nosh Delicatessen and Orange Theory Fitness, the article reported.

Elderly Driver Strikes Victim

How did the accident happen? According to reports, the victim, a 45-year-old woman who was a resident of La Jolla, was pinned between her own parked car and the vehicle of the elderly driver who caused the collision. The driver, a 91-year-old, “backed out of a nearby parking spot on the west side of the street, crossed into the other side, and rammed into the woman,” according to San Diego Police Department Sergeant Joe A. Benavidas.

Benavidas emphasized that the 91-year-old driver stayed at the scene after the collision to answer questions from the police. While the accident remains under investigation, the San Diego Police Department believes that “speed likely played a factor.”

This part of Girard Avenue—around the 7700 block—is particularly busy. According to residents of the area, the street often produces “a difficult dance in the afternoons between shoppers and heavy traffic.” One resident, Justin Rowley, told NBC San Diego that the intersection of Silverado and Girard, near to the victim’s fatal accident, “is always busy with foot traffic and cars.” As such, if you are a pedestrian, “you always have to watch what you are doing when you are walking across the street.”

Filing a Wrongful Death Claim in California

When you lose a loved one due to the negligence or wrongful act of another person, you may be eligible to file a wrongful death lawsuit. What is a wrongful death claim? It is a civil lawsuit that is brought by the survivors of a person who sustained fatal injuries because of another person’s negligence or bad behavior.

A wrongful death claim is a lot like a personal injury lawsuit in that it allows for recovery of damages following a serious accident and injury. Here is another way to think about it: if the deceased person had lived, she or he would have been able to file a wrongful death claim to seek compensation for injuries. Since the deceased died as a result of those injuries, the survivors can step in and file a wrongful death claim on behalf of the deceased person.

California law specifies that only certain people are eligible to file a wrongful death claim. Typically, the following people are the ones to bring a lawsuit for another person’s wrongful death:

• Surviving spouse;
• Surviving children;
• Surviving domestic partner.

If the deceased person does not have a surviving spouse, domestic partner, or children, then the following people are the likely ones to file a wrongful death claim:

• Surviving parents of the deceased;
• Surviving siblings;
• Children of deceased siblings;
• Surviving grandparents;
• Persons who financially depended upon the deceased person.

Pedestrians who sustain severe and life-threatening injuries in traffic collisions may be eligible for compensation. If you have lost a loved one in a dangerous pedestrian accident, you should speak to an experienced San Diego injury lawyer about filing a wrongful death claim.

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