Doctor Forgets to Gather Umbilical Cord Blood, Cause for Malpractice?

Planning ahead is important when you have children, especially your first child. That's why one Florida couple recognized the great utility of collecting their child's umbilical cord blood to store for later in his life. In fact, they had even signed a contract with the Cord Blood Registry and filed a birth plan ordering the collection of the cord blood.

In recent years, science has concluded that vital stem cells could be harvested from umbilical cord blood and possibly used to treat certain times of cancers, diseases, and other disorders for the child later in life. Stem cells are essentially blank cells which can assimilate themselves with other like-cells in the area they are transplanted. These means they can become specialized cells, and even produce more stem cells.

Services such as Cord Blood Registry provide storage of umbilical cord blood under payments plans, commonly per month. After birth, the blood is delivered and ultimately stored in scientifically proven methods to preserve the potency of the cord blood for future use, if ever required.

So what was the problem in Florida? The doctor forgot to collect the umbilical cord blood! The hospital responsible for the mistake acknowledged they had no procedures in effect to prevent mistakes, but would not further comment on the situation. With the advances of science and more powerful technological ability, why are hospitals falling behind the curve?

Could this doctor be liable? It is absolutely possible! While there are many theories of liability (medical malpractice, medical negligence, tortious interference of a contract, industry practice deviation, etc), it is best determined by an experienced professional with years of litigating medical malpractice claims. Particularly because this is an emerging issue within the medical malpractice field, and not well settled, it would be entirely fact dependant. If this happens to you, please make sure to call for a free case evaluation!