The birth of a child is an exciting time for everyone, but there are many risks associated with birth that can make this experience stressful, as well. Delivering a child in a hospital under medical supervision is one of the best ways to ensure that all safety measures are taken, but an inattentive or negligent staff can cause serious, lasting, and even fatal injuries for either the mother or child. These injuries have significant implications — financial, physical, and emotional — that may entitle the victims to compensation from the liable parties. While no amount of money can undo the pain and trauma of a birth injury, there is no reason that the victims should have to shoulder the financial burden of someone else’s negligent or reckless behavior.
Birth injury lawsuits are complicated and often fraught with intense emotions, so working with an experienced personal injury attorney is one of the best ways to mount a legal case and get the compensation you rightfully deserve. However, trying to take the time to find an attorney on your own after such a traumatic experience can be difficult, even impossible, which is why it can be so helpful to use a referral service to find the right lawyer for you.
Contact 1-800-Injured To Find a W. Palm Beach Birth Injury Attorney Today
1-800-Injured is an attorney and medical referral service. Instead of having to go through the work to find a lawyer for yourself while trying to recover from the initial shock and pain of a birth injury, we can take this step for you. Once we find a lawyer who is ready to take your case, you can schedule a free initial consultation where you will be able to speak directly with a legal professional. You can tell them about your unique situation and learn how they can provide you with the support you deserve. Medical malpractice and birth injuries lead to complex legal proceedings, and trying to navigate them on your own towards fair compensation can be an uphill battle.
Read more below to get a better sense of how birth injury lawsuits and insurance claims work, and contact us as soon as possible to be connected with an attorney in your area who is willing to do what it takes to get you the money you deserve.
Common Birth Injuries
The following are a few examples of birth injuries and their causes. While this list is not meant to be exhaustive, it is intended to give a general sense of some ways that medical staff can provide negligent and dangerous care that can lead to severe or fatal injuries.
Forceps Injuries
When the baby is positioned in a way that does not allow for a natural, unassisted birth, the attending doctor may use forceps to either reposition the baby and help the process along. Using forceps can help avoid serious issues like oxygen loss, bone fractures, bleeding, and more, but improper use of these essential tools can cause significant injuries of their own such as nerve damage and damage to the head.
Torsion Injuries
When the baby needs to be twisted or adjusted to facilitate a natural birth, the doctor must act with care to avoid doing damage to the baby’s bones, nervous system, or internal organs. The baby may suffer a dislocation, ruptures to blood vessels, and a range of other potential injuries if they are twisted too aggressively or in a direction that the body does not want to move in.
Hypoxia
Hypoxia is another word for oxygen loss, which can happen for a variety of reasons during a birth. In some cases, the mother’s contractions may be too strong for a baby who is unable to pass through the birth canal for one reason or another, which can lead to increased compression and a reduction of oxygen to the brain. Other issues can happen due to things like a tangled umbilical cord or damaged placenta, among many other potential threats that can lead to issues like brain damage, cerebral palsy, or death.
Injuries From Delayed C-Sections
C-sections are emergency, life-saving procedures that can keep both mother and child safe during an abnormal birth. Delaying the decision to perform a c-section can lead to oxygen loss for the baby, blood pressure drops for the mother, extensive bleeding, and more, all of which can be extremely dangerous for the health and safety of the child and the parent. Doctors know to watch for certain signs during labor that will help them make an educated and clear decision to take this action.
Seeking Compensation After a Birth Injury
After a birth injury in West Palm Beach, it can be difficult for the parents to move past this terrible and traumatic experience, both emotionally and financially. Birth injuries can have widespread repercussions that go beyond medical bills and lost wages. Each of these repercussions should be accounted for before settling an insurance claim or finalizing a lawsuit award. Working with a personal injury attorney through this process is one of the best ways for the affected victims to avoid reliving this traumatic experience over and over again as they fight to get what is rightfully theirs. It also helps to improve the chances of a fair settlement by relying on someone with extensive legal experience to carry the process through.
In a personal injury lawsuit, victims seek compensatory damages that seek to, as the name implies, compensate them for measurable losses. There are other damages, known as punitive damages, that are meant to punish the at-fault party, but these are awarded by a judge or jury at the end of a trial, meaning that a personal injury attorney will not include these potential damages in their settlement negotiations. Suppose your attorney believes that you may be awarded these additional damages. In that case, they may choose to take your case directly to the Florida courts instead of making any meaningful attempt at settling.
Compensatory damages are divided into economic and non-economic damages. Economic damages seek repayment for measurable financial losses, such as lost wages and the cost of medical care. Non-economic damages seek financial compensation for effects that do not have measurable dollar values, such as the pain and suffering the victims endured, the long-term emotional consequences of such a traumatic event, and more. As you can imagine, putting a dollar value on something as subjective as “depression” can be very difficult, and even more difficult to then defend during negotiations, which is another reason why working with a lawyer is such a great benefit.