Starting or expanding your family should be a time of joy and love. Yet, when medical negligence results in maternal death, it becomes a time of mourning instead. In addition to grief, you may also feel angry and want to seek justice for the loss of your loved one and the permanent shift in your family structure. While nothing can bring back your spouse or your child’s mother, a wrongful death lawsuit may recover damages and hold the liable party legally responsible for their actions. At Erin Marshall Law, our experienced New Mexico medical malpractice attorneys understand the frustration and sorrow you must feel, and we stand ready to meet with you and review your case to see how we may be able to assist you. Call (505) 218-9949 to schedule a consultation and learn more about your legal rights and options.
What Is Medical Negligence and Maternal Death?
Medical negligence occurs when a healthcare provider or institution fails to deliver care up to the accepted standard and causes injury, sickness, or decline in the patient’s condition. This includes maternal death. Providers and institutions that may be liable for such negligence include doctors, nurses, specialists, hospitals, clinics, birthing centers, and others.
Maternal death is specifically when a woman dies while she is pregnant, during childbirth, or within 42 days after giving birth from a cause related to the pregnancy or its management. The World Health Organization (WHO) also considers late maternal deaths to be those that occur after the 42 days but less than one year after the pregnancy ends, regardless of how the pregnancy ends, if the death is caused by direct or indirect obstetric causes.
Examples of Medical Negligence That May Lead to Maternal Death
There are many ways medical malpractice, or negligence, can occur. Not all lead to a patient’s death, however. Some of the more common forms of negligence that lead to maternal death include:
- Anesthesia errors
- Medication errors
- Failure to order the appropriate tests
- Not following up on abnormal test results
- Failure to get the mother’s complete medical history
- Not diagnosing and treating a uterine rupture
- Not performing a C-section in time
Many of these deaths are preventable. Even if the death was not the result of one of these mistakes, families who believe their loved one died as a result of negligence may want to consult with an attorney to review the details and find out if they may have a case for wrongful death.
Be Aware of the Statute of Limitations
NMSA 1978 § 41-2-2 (2024) provides that families have three years after the medical negligence occurred to file a medical malpractice or wrongful death claim. Families should remain aware of this statute of limitations because it can take a significant amount of time to build the case, gather evidence, interview experts, and depose witnesses. While some steps occur after the claim has been filed, others (such as gathering evidence and determining if there is a claim) occur before filing the claim. If the family waits too long, they may not have the necessary information to file the claim in time. If the statute of limitations expires, the claim will be barred, and the family cannot recover damages.
Gather The Mother’s Medical Records
The first step to filing a wrongful death claim for medical negligence is to gather the mother’s medical records. All relevant records relating to her pregnancy, labor, delivery, and postnatal care will need to be collected from her obstetrician-gynecologist (OBGYN) and any other providers she saw, and any hospitals, clinics, or birthing centers in which she received care. Midwives may also be liable for negligence, so if the mother saw a midwife for some or all of the pregnancy, those records should be collected too.
Families should also be aware that the healthcare provider or institution’s attorney or insurance company may try to get more of the mother’s medical records than are necessary. They want these additional records so they can try to find something in them to claim that negligence was not responsible for the maternal death. Therefore, if the other party’s insurance or attorney requests medical records, the family should consider consulting with an attorney to learn which records they should provide and which ones they should refuse to hand over.
Investigate Potential Medical Negligence
Once the mother’s medical records have been collected, the next step is reviewing them for potential medical malpractice. This requires evaluating the standard of care received during pregnancy, labor, delivery, and the postnatal period and determining whether it met the standard that would be expected. While some of this will be as simple as reading the records, consulting with experts, and interviewing witnesses will also be necessary.
While there is no legal requirement to hire an attorney, it is recommended that families do so. An attorney has the experience and resources to complete an investigation of this nature more quickly and efficiently than the family, and time is of the essence in these claims.
Document the Damages
The next step is to begin documenting the damages resulting from the maternal death. These damages can include:
- Medical expenses (for the care received before the negligence and for any care received as a result of the negligence before the mother died)
- Loss of income and benefits
- Funeral and burial expenses
- Loss of inheritance
- Emotional distress
- Pain and suffering
- Loss of companionship
- Loss of love
- Loss of consortium
- Mental anguish
Punitive damages may be awarded in cases of extreme negligence or recklessness, but this is not guaranteed. The personal representative named in the mother’s will, if she had one, must file the wrongful death claim. Still, any damages awarded are distributed to the mother’s surviving spouse and children.
File a Formal Complaint
The next step in a wrongful death claim due to medical negligence is to file the formal complaint. The mother’s personal representative must file the claim. This may be someone named in her will, or it may be her surviving spouse if she does not have a will. A sibling or adult child may also file the claim if she does not have a surviving spouse. The claim must be filed with the appropriate court, depending on where the mother lived and/or where her death occurred. For example, if she lived in Albuquerque, the complaint would likely be filed in the Second Judicial District Court. A knowledgeable medical negligence attorney with Erin Marshall Law may be able to assist families in determining which court to file their complaint in.
The complaint outlines the details of the injury (what happened to lead to maternal death), the allegations of medical negligence, and the damages sought. Complaints are formatted in a specific way, so families may wish to work with an attorney to ensure their complaint contains all the required information in the appropriate format so that their claim will not be dismissed based on an error.
Serve the Defendant
After filing the complaint, the healthcare provider or institution must be served. Proper service is a legal requirement to ensure that the defendant is aware of the lawsuit and has an opportunity to respond. There are several methods by which someone may be served. In the case of healthcare providers or institutions, they are businesses that may have a registered agent, officer, or other person on whom service would be made. An attorney may be able to assist in determining who service should be made to and offer guidance regarding the most effective and appropriate service method.
Enter the Discovery Process
After serving the defendant, the claim moves into the discovery process. This is the part of the lawsuit where both sides gather and exchange evidence to support their arguments and depose witnesses. Both parties must share the information they have and can only withhold information that is considered a legally recognized privilege or protection, irrelevant, burdensome, or oppressive.
Insurance companies or the defendant’s attorney may try to take advantage of a family’s lack of experience and knowledge with the discovery process to get information they do not need or to try to overwhelm the family with irrelevant and unnecessary requests. An attorney may be able to assist the family with determining which requests are appropriate, and the information should be provided.
Negotiation or Trial
Finally, the claim can take three paths: negotiation, trial, or both. In many cases, the defendant’s attorney or insurance company will try to negotiate with the family or their attorney. This may allow the parties to agree to a settlement, which means that the defendant or their insurance company will pay the family an agreed-upon amount to settle the claim or avoid going to court. If the family agrees to accept the settlement, they will receive the promised money. Typically, the family will have to agree that they will not attempt to pursue the claim any further.
Sometimes, one or both parties are unwilling to negotiate. In some instances, the parties may begin negotiating but find that they are unable to agree. In either of these cases, the claim will then proceed to trial. The case will be put on the court’s docket, or schedule, which may be weeks or months in the future. The trial itself may take days or weeks, with both sides presenting evidence and questioning witnesses and experts. After both sides have presented their case, a judge or jury will decide the verdict.
How a New Mexico Medical Negligence Attorney May Assist You
Mothers are often the heart of their family. Their loss can be traumatic for the entire family, and while money cannot replace the mother, it can be a way the family can seek justice on her behalf. If you have lost your loved one to maternal death caused by medical negligence, the experienced New Mexico medical malpractice attorneys at Erin Marshall Law may be able to assist you with a wrongful death claim. We may be able to help you navigate the legal process, avoid pitfalls, and get the justice you deserve under the law. Schedule a consultation in our Albuquerque office by calling (505) 218-9949.
