While most medical professionals and hospitals consider every possible way to be certain of a safe and normal labor and birth, sometimes errors or miscommunication can result in the accidental injury of a newborn infant. A healthcare facility or personnel can be held legally accountable for damages in medical malpractice litigation in these instances.
Legal cases involving birth injuries demand compensation for injuries caused by medical negligence in the course of labor and delivery. These kinds of cases are complex, and often call for a highly trained lawyer to deal with them effectively.
Types of Birth Injury Cases
Any damage occurring to an infant prior to, during, or following delivery may be considered a birth injury. Although it is impossible to eliminate all risk, many types of injuries are preventable. Some of the more common types of birth injuries which may lead to litigation include:
- Quadriplegic cerebral palsy
- Erb’s palsy
- Asphyxiation
- Facial paralysis
- Untreated/improperly treated jaundice
- Brachial plexus palsy
- Brain damage
- Fractures
- Cephalohematoma
- Death
Other kinds of birth injuries can result in the necessity for medical intervention, surgery, and long-term care. Expenses related to treatment of severe injuries like these may very well be recoverable through litigation.
Common Causes
Though medical negligence is the basis for birth injury lawsuits, there are certain behaviors (including failure to act), which may result in damage to a baby. Birth injury attorneys can assess a case to find out what actions might have resulted in a child’s injuries and determine whether they were caused by medical negligence or not.
A physician might have incorrectly employed a medical device, for example forceps or vacuum extraction. There might have been a delayed reaction in treating a condition or delivering the baby in a timely fashion. Or there might have been a misdiagnosis of some health condition.
Furthermore, birth injuries may be the result of poor communication, fatigue, insufficient staffing, inadequate training, lack of experience or failure to adhere to hospital policies.