Birth Injury Primer: What Expecting Parents Need to Know about HELLP Syndrome

When doctors or lawyers talk about birth injuries, they usually focus on injuries to the baby or fetus. However, one of the most serious pre-labor conditions that can affect both mother and child is HELLP Syndrome, a relatively common condition that can prove potentially fatal if not diagnosed and treated right away.

HELLP Syndrome is actually short for a group of symptoms, which the National Institutes of Health define as:

• H: hemolysis or hemolytic anemia, the early breakdown of red blood cells
• EL: elevated liver enzymes
• LP: low platelet count, which puts the mother at risk of bleeding out

HELLP usually develops at or after the 26 weeks mark, but can also affect mothers within the first week of childbirth. It affects up to 2 out of every 1000 pregnancies, but the numbers can increase to between 100 and 200 in women who are diagnosed with preeclampsia. About 25% of women diagnosed with HELLP in one pregnancy will exhibit the same symptoms in their next pregnancy.

Why misdiagnoses occurs

HELLP shares many symptoms with the common flu, like nausea, headache and fatigue. It may also cause heartburn, abdominal cramps or swelling, or – in worst case scenarios – seizures. HELLP may manifest the same signs and symptoms of more serious conditions, including:

• Hepatitus
• Gallbladder disease
• Lupus
• Bleeding conditions like idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP)
• Blood clotting conditions like thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura

If you have a pre-existing condition, a doctor might mistake your HELLP symptoms for those of the other illness. It is vitally important that you seek medical help if you feel ill while you are pregnant, so that your doctor can run a full battery of tests on you. Renal failure, placental abruption, pulmonary edema (fluid on the lungs) and clotting disorders, even the death of the mother or child, may all occur without proper and efficient treatment.

Treating the condition

As long as the mother is diagnosed quickly, doctors can treat HELLP Syndrome. In many cases, however, the child may be delivered prematurely; this could be a medical necessity, because elevated liver enzymes could indicate liver damage, which is dangerous to both mother and child. Those babies may be prescribed medication to help their lungs develop if they are delivered too early. Mothers may also be given blood transfusions or be prescribed medication for high blood pressure, a common occurrence with HELLP Syndrome and preeclampsia.

HELLP Syndrome is serious, but it can be treated effectively, and both mother and child can go on to live perfectly healthy lives. Failure to diagnose the syndrome correctly, however, can have catastrophic consequences. If you were misdiagnosed by a doctor in Washington, D.C. or West Virginia, or were not given a diagnosis of HELLP and it caused you and your child harm, you could have the basis for a medical malpractice lawsuit.