Are There Treatments for HIE

• Hypoxic-Ischemic Encephalopathy (HIE)
• Are There Treatments for HIE

Treatments for HIE

Yes, eligible babies with HIE or hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy can and should be promptly treated with therapeutic hypothermia to minimize the potential brain damage and improve long-term outcomes. Therapeutic hypothermia (also called hypothermia therapy or brain cooling therapy) has become the standard of care treatment to help slow down or lessen the injury process associated with HIE.

How is Hypothermia Therapy Administered?

During therapeutic hypothermia, the baby’s full body or head is cooled to a temperature ranging from 92.3° F – 94.1° F for 72 hours. The treatment for HIE must be started within six hours of childbirth. To administer this HIE therapy, the medical team may decide on whole body cooling (WBC), which is performed using a cooling blanket, or selective head cooling (SHC), which is performed using a cooling cap.

According to researchers, both these treatment approaches can be equally effective. During the treatment in NICU, the medical team should carefully monitor the baby’s vital signs, such as brain wave activity, heart rate, oxygenation, and respiration. Monitoring these parameters will help the medical providers determine how well the baby is responding to the HIE therapy.

After the hypothermia therapy is completed, the medical team will slowly re-warm the baby’s body over a period of at least four hours. Re-warming should be done until the baby attains a temperature between 97.7° F and 98.6° F—normal body temperature.

Determining the Baby’s Eligibility for Hypothermia Therapy

• The baby’s gestational age is at least 36 weeks
• The baby was born less than six hours ago
• The baby experienced at least one of the following
  • A birth complication, such as uterine rupture, umbilical cord prolapse, or profound fetal bradycardia (slow heart rate)
  • Prolonged neonatal resuscitation at birth
  • An APGAR score of five or below at 10 minutes after birth
  • Severe fetal acidosis
  • Neonatal seizures
  • Evidence of hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy in a clinical exam

The medical team should either avoid therapeutic hypothermia or exercise maximum caution during therapy if the baby’s birth weight is below 4 lbs, the baby has suffered severe brain bleeds, the baby has major congenital abnormalities, or the baby suffers from a serious blood clotting disorder, which could result in more harm than good upon treatment.

Babies with very mild HIE should not be administered hypothermia therapy.

About Neonatal Hypothermia Therapy

Other Supportive Treatments

In addition to hypothermia therapy, the following medical therapies may be considered for babies with HIE:

• Respiratory Support: Neonatal resuscitation after birth as well as ongoing breathing support, such as high-frequency ventilation may be considered for babies with HIE.
• Seizure Medications: Timely treatment of neonatal seizures can prevent additional brain damage and lower the risk of epilepsy. Drugs such as Phenobarbital may be used to treat seizures.
• Fluid Balance: Individualized fluid and electrolyte management is recommended for HIE babies to avoid the risks of hyperglycemia (high blood sugar) and hypoglycemia (low blood sugar).

Is Medical Malpractice the Cause of Your Child’s HIE Injury?

Parents whose children are suffering from an hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy (HIE) want and deserve answers as to whether errors by the doctors and nurses during or just after the delivery contributed to their child’s birth injury.

At Miller Weisbrod Olesky, our award-winning cerebral palsy attorneys have represented families all over the United States in their time of need after a birth injury like HIE. We use our skills and expertise to obtain for you and your child a medical malpractice settlement that will help provide specialized medical therapy in order to maximize the quality of life and independence of your child throughout their life.

• Were there signs of birth injury or birth complications during the pregnancy, labor, and delivery process, or presence of risk factors, which were either not recognized or properly treated?
• During the labor and delivery, were there clear indications that the baby was suffering from fetal distress, but appropriate actions were not taken by the maternal fetal specialists, obstetrician or nurses?
• Was there a delay in diagnosis of a likely premature birth that led to later complications, including brain injury?
• Did the medical team fail to order a series of tests to diagnose this birth complication in a timely manner?
• Was the decision to perform a cesarean delivery delayed leading to birth trauma during vaginal delivery or labor?
• Did the neonatal resuscitation team fail to quickly begin important breathing support?
• Should brain cooling (also called “hypothermia therapy”) have been provided to your baby, but the doctors and nurses failed to perform the appropriate tests or ignored the results of the tests?

Our birth injury attorneys have recovered millions of dollars in settlements for families of children that have suffered a birth injury. At no point in our legal intake process will we ask you to pay anything. The medical review of your case and the consultation are free. We only receive payment when you do, no matter how long or tough your case is.

Registered Nurses and Nurse-Attorneys Are a Vital Part of Our Birth Injury Team…and Yours

Most birth injury law firms will employ one or two nurses to assist the review of cases and medical research. But Miller Weisbrod Olesky offers an unmatched number of nurses and nurse-attorney employees support to both the birth injury attorneys and our clients.

Our team of registered nursing staff and nurse-attorneys bring a deep level of medical and personal insight to every client’s case. Our nursing team includes both an experienced labor and delivery nurse as well as an ICU nurse. Working closely with the rest of the team, they investigate the reasons behind a birth injury and how medical professionals breached their standard of care.

Why Should You Talk with the Highly Capable Attorneys at Miller Weisbrod Olesky?

The only way to find out if you have a birth injury case is to talk to a lawyer experienced in birth injury lawsuits. It’s not uncommon that a birth related complication results in a preventable birth injury, including cerebral palsy, but it takes a detailed expert review by a birth injury attorney of the medical records from your child’s birth to determine if the birth injury was the result of medical malpractice.

At Miller Weisbrod Olesky, a team of committed lawyers, nurses and paralegals uses our detailed medical negligence case review process to assess your child’s potential birth injury case. We start by learning more about you and your child and the status of meeting/missing developmental milestones. Then we gather medical records to determine what happened before, during pregnancy. We call in documented and proven medical experts who review your records and let us know if they think medical errors could have caused your child’s injuries.

If we feel medical negligence caused or contributed to wrongful birth in your case, we meet with you to discuss how you can receive compensation from the medical professionals who made the errors. Our birth injury attorneys have recovered millions of dollars in settlements for families of children that have suffered a birth injury.

At no point in our legal intake process will we ask you to pay anything. The medical review of your case and the consultation are free. We only receive payment when you do no matter how long or tough your case is.

Contact Our Birth Injury Lawyers