birth injury nerve damage

[ellapie]

hello, i gave birth on 9/23/07. it was a forceps delivery because of prolonged pushing (3.5 hrs) it ended up she was face up and nobody knew beforehand. her neck was stretched during delivery and a result has erb's palsy, which is now almost recovered, she also has phrenic nerve damage and has a completely paralyzed right diaphragm. she is on oxygen via nasal cannula and a feeding tube. we do not know yet if it is severed or just stretched etc.. and we are plicating it in a few days. but it has been about 8 weeks, is there still a chance of it healing on its own?? there has been no improvement on x-rays or fluoroscopy since birth. nobody seems to know or is able to give us any sort of answers. is this just something that can take months? and was this Dr negligence? my husband said it took 4 people to hold me on the table while the Dr was pulling her out. that seems really rough. thank you in advance!

[Abhijeet Deshmukh, MD]

Hello.

I feel sorry for the kind of experience you and your baby have been through. She is suffering for no fault of hers.

It is difficult to tell how much and how early the healing will take place, without knowing the type and extent of the nerve damage.

If the nerve has not broken in two pieces, there are good chances of it healing. Plication will only speed up the recovery. In some cases, it does take  4-6 months for a recovery.

Regards

[ellapie]

Thank you for your reply. We are going to wait until about 6 months then get another fluoroscopy I think. The plication went well and we are still hoping the nerve is on its way to healing up. We are going back to the brachial plexus clinic at U of M so hopefully they will be able to help us some more. Thanks again, it is good to know that it could take that long so we can not give up on it healing just yet.

[Abhijeet Deshmukh, MD]

Hello.

Yes, it can take that much time. And the studies that are published generally give us the average figures. Which means a lot many people take much more time than the average. One should have full faith in the body's ability to heal itself.

Wishing a Happy New year and speedy recovery for the little one.

Dr Abhijeet D