Birth injuries happen every day in hospital rooms and birthing centers across the country. While some children diagnosed with a birth injury will be lucky enough to outgrow their injuries, countless others will face a lifetime of challenges resulting from a moment of negligence during birth.
Identifying a Birth Injury
Most parents don’t know the difference between a complication and a true birth injury. That’s why it is so important for parents of injured children to talk to a knowledgeable attorney with years of experience representing innocent infants who can’t speak for themselves.
With guidance from a seasoned medical malpractice legal team, your family can compare your labor and delivery and your child’s symptoms with other cases of negligence. Your attorney can begin a full investigation and use the law firm’s extensive resources to pinpoint the actions (or inaction) that may have directly caused your child’s birth injury.
Commonly litigated birth injuries include:
- Cerebral palsy
- Erb’s palsy
- Facial paralysis
- Cephalohematoma
- Brachial plexus palsy
- Caput succedaneum
- Bone fractures
- Subconjunctival hemorrhage
- The High Costs of Birth Injury
The costs of a birth injury can prove staggering over a child’s lifetime. Parents may need to find funding for efforts like multiple surgeries, physical therapy, speech therapy, medication, wheelchairs and other adaptive living devices, special education, and social/cognitive development. In addition to the tangible medical expenses for ongoing care, victims and their family members suffer emotional stress and family dynamic issues unique to families with a special needs child.
The Option of Filing a Lawsuit
Was your child’s birth injury an unavoidable complication or an unforeseeable act of nature? Birth injury attorneys look beyond the surface explanation and pry deeper into the labor and delivery events that led to a child’s severe health problems. If there’s a chance a doctor’s negligence could be to blame for a birth injury, you may have much better odds consulting an attorney to uncover the truth than asking questions on your own with such limited knowledge of medical protocols. For parents of infants with birth injuries caused by negligent medical care, financial compensation may be available to cover all the expenses associated with the injury to date, as well as future costs of lifetime care.
Birth Injury Infographic
(Kline & Specter, PC)
For more information, talk to a birth injury attorney in your area.