When a newborn experiences bleeding around the brain, it’s known as an intracranial hemorrhage. A potentially fatal issue, intracranial hemorrhage is linked to other serious medical conditions and is more common in premature babies.
Depending on the severity of the bleeding, an intracranial hemorrhage can lead to major injuries or conditions that last a lifetime. The risk and long-term effects of the bleed depend on where the bleeding occurs, how extensive it is, and how quickly the issues are identified and treated.
Symptoms of Intracranial Hemorrhage in Newborns
There are several symptoms of intracranial hemorrhage that may appear subtle at first, but can quickly turn into a serious issue. Those symptoms include:
- Seizures
- Apnea or pauses in breathing
- Slow heart rate
- Lethargy, poor responsiveness, stupor, or coma
- Weak sucking or poor feeding
- High-pitched cry
- Pale or bluish skin color
- Bulging fontanelle (soft spot)
- Low muscle tone or decreased reflexes
- Abnormal eye movements
- Abnormal neurologic examination findings
Injuries Caused by Intracranial Hemorrhage in Newborns
Complications that involve blood loss and a newborn’s brain mean the consequences can be life-changing. While some babies who suffer a brain bleed recover with minor impact on their health, others deal with a lifetime of issues that can impact them physically, mentally, and emotionally.
Intracranial hemorrhage is linked to cerebral palsy, seizures, developmental delays, emotional delays, issues with motor skills, and other serious injuries. In the most serious cases, a brain bleed can be fatal.
What Causes Intracranial Hemorrhage in Newborns?
Without question, the most common cause is a baby being premature. Because those babies are not fully developed, the brain’s blood vessels are very fragile. This makes them vulnerable to bleeding in the first days of life.
However, there are other ways an intracranial hemorrhage can occur. Unstable blood pressure, abnormal pressure on the head during labor, and hypoxic-ischemia. Those issues can trigger complications like oxygen deprivation and sudden swings in blood flow.
Bleeding disorders are also a factor, as vitamin K deficiency, hemophilia, and disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC) all raise the risk of neonatal intracranial hemorrhage. Trauma during birth — such as the use of forceps in an assisted delivery — can also play a role in causing a brain bleed.
How Does Medical Malpractice Contribute to Newborn Intracranial Hemorrhage?
While not every newborn brain bleed is caused by negligence, preventable injuries can happen when staff fail to follow the accepted medical standard of care.
Malpractice may occur when staff fail to respond to seizures, feeding decline, lethargy, apnea, and other warning signs; fail to order appropriate imaging; fail to provide vitamin K; fail to monitor a high-risk preterm infant under accepted screening protocols; or fail to use accepted measures for reducing preterm complications.
Improper labor and delivery techniques can also cause complications, leading to a brain bleed. This can include excessive or avoidable pressure on the baby’s head during delivery or negligent use of forceps or vacuum extraction. When executed incorrectly, both of those techniques can trigger an intracranial hemorrhage or other injury.
Intracranial Hemorrhage FAQs
Are premature babies always the ones at risk?
While premature babies are the highest-risk group, any neonatal or full-term baby is at risk of hemorrhage. That’s particularly true if the baby experiences hypoxia, traumatic head pressure during delivery, or bleeding disorders.
The setting of difficult deliveries, clotting issues, or other serious complications can also cause intracranial bleeding. So while prematurity is the biggest risk factor, other issues can contribute to the condition.
What Is the Difference Between Intracranial Hemorrhage and Intraventricular Hemorrhage in Newborns?
In the most simple terms, all intraventricular hemorrhages (IVH) are intracranial hemorrhages, but not all intracranial hemorrhages are intraventricular.
Intracranial hemorrhage is a broad term that applies to any bleeding inside a baby’s skull. The bleed can happen in different areas of the brain, including in the brain’s ventricles, tissue, or generally around the brain.
On the other hand, IVH refers to a specific type of brain bleed that starts in a fragile part of the brain, known as the germinal matrix. From there, the bleed spreads into the ventricles. IVH is most common in premature babies as their brain blood vessels are not fully developed.
The distinction between the conditions is important because the location and severity of a brain bleed affect both the treatment and long-term outcome for patients.
Can a newborn recover from an intracranial hemorrhage?
Yes, but it really depends on the severity of the bleed and where it happened. Grades 1 and 2 of IVH typically involve less bleeding, meaning they may not cause long-term health issues. However, the more severe the bleed, the more dangerous it becomes.
Grades 3 and 4 or a hemorrhage that involves brain tissue can cause long-term neurological injuries. They can also cause hydrocephalus — water on the brain —or developmental impairments.
The baby’s outcome is impacted by several factors, including overall health stability, oxygen levels, prematurity, infections, and how quickly complications are noticed and treated.
Can failing to give vitamin K cause a brain bleed?
Absolutely. The Centers for Disease Control notes that because newborns are born with low vitamin K levels, it’s essential that vitamin K be supplemented. Without enough vitamin K, babies can develop vitamin K deficiency bleeding, which can include bleeding into the brain. About half of the babies who develop the deficiency bleed into the brain.
A single shot of vitamin K after birth is the easiest way to prevent those types of bleeds, according to the CDC.
When newborns who do not receive the shot later suffer an intracranial hemorrhage, it raises serious concerns about whether they received the accepted standard of care.
When should a family talk to a birth injury lawyer?
As soon as you learn your baby had a brain bleed, you should be thinking about contacting an attorney. Even if you’re unsure that the care fell below accepted standards. That’s especially true if there were warning signs before delivery, there was a traumatic birth, or other concerns.
An experienced attorney like those at Weisser Law will be able to review the facts of the case and pinpoint where, if any malpractice occurred.
Why Should Parents Contact Weisser Law If They Suspect Intracranial Hemorrhage Was Caused by Medical Malpractice?
Our firm has decades of experience fighting for families whose child was injured by medical mistakes. These cases are very complex and require a deep understanding of how the standard of care is supposed to go. Our nurse consultants spent years working in delivery rooms, meaning they know what proper care is supposed to look like, and more importantly, what a mistake looks like.
Weisser Law understands how to analyze medical records, identify missed warning signs, and determine whether proper care was provided during pregnancy, labor, delivery, and the newborn period.
By contacting Weisser Law right away, we can also preserve critical evidence such as fetal monitoring strips, imaging, and NICU records. These critical pieces of evidence can make or break your case.
Our team will fight tirelessly to ensure your family is compensated for not just the injury, but for any lifelong care, therapy, and medical needs your child may require for their life. Weisser Law offers free consultations and works on a contingency basis, meaning you don’t pay until we win.