If you suspect that the doctor who delivered your baby injured them, then you may be eligible for compensation. Birth injuries can be very traumatic, for both you and your baby. Sometimes, this trauma can cause lifelong problems for your baby.
It’s very important that you seek compensation if medical malpractice resulted in your newborn sustaining injuries. This is so that you can fund your baby’s recovery and give them the time that they need and so the healthcare workers responsible are punished.
In this article, you will find out about birth injuries in newborns and who you can be held accountable for them:
Birth Injuries: What Are They?
A birth injury is an injury that happens to your baby before, during, or after delivery. It’s very common for babies to suffer minor injuries during the birthing process, but more severe ones warrant further investigation. If your child has experienced a minor injury that won’t affect them in the future, then there’s not much you can do in terms of making a personal injury claim. If your child has suffered a serious injury that can’t be cured, then you and your child could be due a large amount of compensation [but only if it was caused by medical malpractice].
What Has to Be Proved?
If you want to make a claim against the doctors or nurses who were involved in the birthing process, then you need to show that they were negligent and that their negligence caused your baby’s injury. Generally, the people responsible will be the people directly involved in the birthing process. These people are the doctors and nurses present at the time that you gave birth. However, the fault may also lie with the hospital’s aftercare services if they failed to protect your baby and caused their injury.
Proving Responsibility
It can be difficult to prove fault, which is why you need a lawyer. According to the legal specialists from Thomas Law Offices, not only will your lawyer represent you aggressively but they will provide emotional support. When you bring your case to a lawyer, they will begin seeking out the responsible party, and when they’re located, begin fighting for the compensation that you’re due. To prove responsibility, they may interview people present in the birthing room, review CCTV evidence, and examine doctor’s reports detailing the cause of your child’s injuries.
Causation
In addition to proving who was responsible, your lawyer will need to prove causation. Causation can be very difficult to prove. If a child is born with a disease, illness, or medical condition, then your lawyer will have to argue that it was the hospital’s fault and that they could have avoided the injury by birthing the child sooner or differently. The hospital will likely argue that nothing could be done in response to your lawyer’s claims. This is where your lawyer’s expertise comes in because they will have to then prove to the court that it was indeed the hospital or clinician’s fault. Identifying causation will help to determine accountability.
With that said, just because your child has been born with a condition, illness, injury, or disease, that doesn’t mean that it was in fact the hospital’s fault. Just because an adverse outcome could have been avoided, it doesn’t mean that your child’s treatment was negligent. Bear this in mind.
Making a Complaint
Before you contact an attorney, it’s sometimes useful to make a complaint to the hospital. The hospital will be able to investigate your complaint and provide you with important information that can give your attorney better insight into your case. This is especially important if you’re going to be applying for legal aid. You often need to have made a formal complaint before you can apply for legal aid, although this differs depending on the state that you’re in. You may also need evidence of a complaint before you ask a no win no fee attorney to represent you.
Common Birth Injuries
There are lots of different types of birth injuries that can occur, varying in severity. Birthing injuries are not limited to a single area of a child’s body. They can occur in the arms, neck, head, leg, and torso. Some birth injuries can result in severe mental or physical impairments, leaving children handicapped for life. As we mentioned earlier, some injuries can also resolve over time.
Some common types of birth injuries include:
Brain Damage
Brain damage is one of the most common types of birthing injuries. It occurs when a child suffers a head injury during delivery. This can occur when a doctor knocks your child’s head against a wall or even drops them. Damage to the brain can lead to severe neurological and physical impairments. Some other causes of brain damage in newborns can be asphyxia, umbilical cord choking, undiagnosed brain infections, and bleeding in the brain.
Cerebral Palsy
Cerebral palsy is a brain injury that’s usually caused during childbirth. Depending on how severe your child’s cerebral palsy is, it can seriously affect their quality of life. Cerebral palsy affects a person’s muscle control, which often causes developmental and speech delays. Over 80% of people with cerebral palsy developed the condition before or during birth, because of brain damage. Causes of cerebral palsy can include fever and infection, strokes and heart attacks, insufficient oxygen in the brain, and bleeds in the brain.
Newborn Cephalohematoma
Cephalohematoma occurs when bleeding in the skull causes blood to pool and apply pressure to tissue in the brain. Cephalohematomas often result in seizures, brain damage, swelling, and depressions in the head. They are sometimes caused by the use of forceps or vacuum extractors.
Accountability
In short, it can be difficult to establish accountability. Your lawyer will use their experience and expertise to establish responsibility and causation, which will help you to determine who’s accountable for your child’s injuries. If it turns out that the hospital was responsible for your child’s injuries, then you could be entitled to a lot of compensation.
Finding out who’s accountable for your child’s injuries can be difficult. With this article, you will know exactly how to approach a birthing injury and what to expect. Make sure to find a lawyer who will fight aggressively for you, so you and your child can receive the justice that you deserve.