Birth Injuries to the child
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Birth Injuries to the child
Birth Injuries to the child 
The birth of a child is a joyous event in the life of a family. Unfortunately, this joy is sometimes followed by the shocking realization that your child suffered injuries in the birth process. Birth injuries can have devastating physical and emotional consequences for both the parents and the newborn child. It can also lead to huge financial strain on the family. If these birth injuries were caused by negligence from your obstetrical care providers, you may be able to claim compensation through a birth injuries lawsuit.
Your doctor has a duty of care
The law places a responsibility and a duty on obstetrical practitioners to anticipate potential complications that are reasonably foreseeable during the birth process and to act in a way that will prevent harm or injury to the child. They have to intervene timeously and do what needs to be done to prevent injuries to the child. If the injury was preventable, and your doctor failed to act in accordance with this duty of care, you may succeed with a medical negligence claim.
Negligence and birth injuries
Each case will be considered on its own facts and circumstances. Common examples and causes of birth injuries include:
- Improper use of delivery instruments causing injury to the skull, bleeding between the skin and the cranial bone, or swelling of the scalp.
- Nerve-related injuries due to stretching the baby’s neck or shoulder too far during the birth process. This can cause weakness or loss of motion in the newborn’s arms. The nerve damage could lead to a serious condition called Erb’s Palsy.
- Birth fractures, such as fractures of the collarbone.
- Oxygen deprivation during the birth process, resulting in developmental problems, epilepsy or other brain injuries.
- Failure to identify signs of breathing difficulty after birth, or failure to request the necessary diagnostic tests to address the problem, or failure to give oxygen.
- Your doctor erroneously decides to deliver your baby prematurely and the baby suffers injuries as a result. This could be due to improper dating of the pregnancy.
- Your doctor fails to detect infections or other medical problems in you or in your baby.
- Failing to monitor the fetus during the birth process.
- Failing to opt for a C-section, or to perform a C-section in a timely manner.
Sadly many of these injuries are completely preventable by acting within the standard of reasonable care expected of obstetricians and other practitioners involved in the delivery process of a newborn.
What compensation can you claim?
If you suspect that your child may have suffered a birth injury, contact a medical malpractice lawyer as soon as possible. Your child may need extra medical attention and you may end up with a lifetime of medical appointments and medical costs.
Monetary compensation can never make up for the loss of a normal life that your child would have enjoyed, but it can put you in a position to provide the best possible treatment and care available to your child. You can claim your actual medical expenses, past and future, and you can claim for additional health care cost such as occupational therapy, special equipment and so on. You are also entitled to claim for non-financial losses, such as pain and suffering and a decreased quality of life.
Proving negligence is a complex matter
As with all medical malpractice cases, proving negligence and claiming compensation, is a complex process and involves knowledge of both the medical and legal world. After you’ve established the standard of care expected of your obstetrics team, you have to show that your doctor, or another member of the medical team, failed to perform his/her duty, and that a similarly skilled doctor would have acted differently under the particular circumstances. You need to prove what your obstetrical care provider actually did, or didn’t do, that fell short of the standard of care. Then you need to prove that that failure caused the injuries and the damage that occurred as a result of his failure to meet the standard of care.
Contact a lawyer to assist you
This is no easy task! You already have to live with the emotional stress of taking care of your injured child and covering the extra medical bills. Contact a medical malpractice lawyer to assist you in your birth injuries lawsuit. You need the advice and guidance of a lawyer with expert knowledge in the field of birth injury cases.
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After our mother's sudden death following a medication error at a prominent local hospital, my siblings and I were devastated. The grief and questions left us reeling. We contacted Doreen for help and guidance. Her legal and medical expertise were invaluable. We determined that filing a lawsuit was the appropriate avenue for our family. Doreen made herself available to us day and night, and kept us informed during all phases of the case. She is a consummate professional, and yet a caring and understanding person. Doreen's passion for the law and dedication to her clients is what gave us the strength to go through the process. She fought for us, never forgetting about our mother, and we were very pleased with the outcome. -
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