San Francisco, CA medical malpractice attorney Jeff Mitchell discusses his approach to handling birth injury cases. He explains that in birth injury cases, the firm often encounters what are known as “strip cases,” where the interpretation of fetal heart tracings becomes a central issue. In other situations, complications arise even when the fetal heart tracings do not reflect the signs and symptoms indicating potential problems.

The firm’s initial task in these cases is to determine whether the matter is a strip case. If a concern appears on the fetal heart tracing, the next step is to assess whether the nurses and staff monitoring the tracings recognized the signs of fetal distress. If they did, the question then becomes whether they promptly and appropriately called for a physician’s intervention.

There are also instances where nurses correctly identify problems on the tracings and seek help, but the physician either fails to respond in time or exercises poor medical judgment in addressing the issue. He emphasizes that birth injury cases are complex, often involving multiple points in the care process where failures can occur, ultimately shaping the outcome.