Was My Baby’s Injury Medical Negligence?

When a child suffers a serious birth injury, parents want to know what went wrong. If your child’s birth injuries were due to negligence on the part of a doctor or other medical professional, you can hold them liable and get financial compensation through a medical malpractice claim.

Birth injury lawsuits are special types of medical malpractice cases. For more information about your legal options, talk to an experienced birth injury lawyer.

What Are Birth Injuries?

In a birth injury case, a child suffers injuries during delivery because of a preventable medical mistake. Common types of birth injuries include:

• Failure to timely deliver the infant, resulting in fetal distress
• Not performing a Cesarean section (C-section) when required
• Rough handling of the infant during delivery
• Improper use of forceps or vacuum extractors, causing nerve damage
• Failure to properly monitor key vital signs (oxygen and heart rate) of the infant
• Failure to address oxygen deprivation causing brain damage

Some birth injuries, such as skull fractures, are immediately apparent. Other birth injuries may not reveal themselves for months or years after the child is born, in developmental delays.

Tom Jacob, a medical malpractice attorney in Austin, Texas, explains that birth injury malpractice cases are complex from the very start and require legal help. “Often, we have to explain that whether clients are even able to sue depends on various factors, such as state law.”

“This is probably the toughest question we get, and we go through a fairly extensive process to determine whether their case is one we can take. It’s important for clients to seek out experienced lawyers because if your lawyer doesn’t do the work upfront, that could mean trouble for your case down the line.”

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Brain Damage and Oxygen Deprivation

When a child is in the womb, it breathes through its umbilical cord, receiving oxygenated blood directly from the mother. After a normal birth, the baby cries as it takes its first breath with its own lungs. But if the child experiences a lack of oxygen at any point during labor, they can suffer permanent brain damage.

Oxygen deprivation (hypoxia) can occur during delivery if the umbilical cord wraps itself around the baby’s head or throat. A trained physician should take prompt action to release the baby from this situation before it can produce permanent damage. Doctors must also ensure there is proper blood flow to the baby at all times. Failure to follow the standards of care in these situations can lead to a catastrophic outcome.

Brachial Palsy and Delivery Fractures

The brachial plexus is a cluster of nerves that controls the muscles in the shoulder, arm, forearm, hand, and fingers. This nerve cluster can stretch and tear if the baby’s shoulders struggle to fit through the mother’s birth canal.

Nerve damage, including Erb’s palsy and shoulder dystocia, can result in a loss of arm function and even paralysis.

Brachial palsy is often the result of malpractice. The doctor may have pulled or manipulated the baby too roughly while it was still in the birth canal. Such handling can lead to brachial palsy or other types of delivery fractures, such as a broken clavicle or collarbone.

Birth injury baby cases are extremely complex medically, and are very expensive to prosecute… A medical malpractice attorney can help by reviewing the child’s medical records, and retaining one of more experts to see if the case is viable.

Proving Medical Negligence in a Birth Injury Case

In a birth injury claim, you must prove medical negligence caused your child’s injuries. Healthcare professionals have a legal duty to provide adequate medical care to all of their patients.

Medical negligence is failing to act in accordance with the standards of care. The standard of care is what a medical professional would follow in a similar situation. If a patient suffers any type of injury or medical complication because the doctor provided substandard care, the doctor is legally liable through a medical malpractice claim.

Using Medical Experts To Prove Negligence

Just because a medical error occurred doesn’t necessarily mean it involved negligence. But if the mistake fell below the standard of care, it was negligent. Key questions in any birth injury case include:

• How do you determine the relevant standard of care?
• How do you determine if the medical professional’s actions fell below the standard of care?

Medical experts, including obstetricians and other medical providers, can address these questions.

“Birth injury cases are extremely complex medically and are very expensive to prosecute,” says Glenn W. Cunningham, a lawyer in San Antonio, Texas. “It is usually necessary to retain expert witnesses from multiple specialties to prove that the injury resulted from the negligence of the healthcare provider as opposed to genetic or other factors. A medical malpractice attorney can help by reviewing the child’s medical records and retaining one or more experts to see if the case is viable.”

Jacob agrees: “All medical malpractice lawsuits are difficult for plaintiffs, but birth injury cases especially so,” he says. “Birth injury cases often require several experts, and that can be expensive if the firm that represents you does not have the financial backing to fight these cases all the way to trial.”

Limits on Birth Injury Compensation

About half of states limit how much birth injury victims can recover in a medical malpractice lawsuit. For example, Texas has a cap on noneconomic damages like pain and suffering. “Significantly, it limits the recovery of noneconomic damages to a maximum of $250,000,” says Cunningham.

“So, the monetary value of a horribly impaired and disfigured brain-damaged baby, who will spend its life in constant pain and mental torment, is only $250,000 in Texas. Even if a jury awarded $10,000,000 in fair and just compensation for the baby’s lifetime of pain and suffering, the trial judge must reduce the noneconomic damage award to a maximum of $250,000.”

Fortunately, the caps generally limit only noneconomic damages. You and your loved ones can still recover full economic damages for medical bills, future medical care, and other losses related to a birth injury claim. Talk to a birth injury lawyer to find out about limits on compensation in your state.

How To Pursue Your Birth Injury Case

Medical malpractice cases are among the most complex types of legal claims. If your baby suffered an injury or any type of health-related complication during the birthing process, you may not know whether the problem occurred because of a physician’s negligence or if it was unavoidable. This is normal. For this reason, an experienced professional should review birth injury claims.

“Clients who are in this unfortunate situation have so much to worry about. They worry about their baby’s health, they worry about day-to-day medical care, and they worry about how they are going to keep their job or pay their bills. They’re just trying to keep their head above water, and it’s not easy,” says Jacob. “My birth injury clients are some of the bravest and toughest people I know.”

An experienced birth injury attorney can conduct an investigation into your case and get you in touch with the right medical experts to review your case. Medical experts can analyze what happened and determine if negligence was a factor in causing the birth injury.

If you suspect your infant’s birth injury was caused by negligence, you should seek legal guidance. Contact a medical malpractice attorney who specializes in birth injury cases. Many attorneys provide free consultations to evaluate your claim and advise on legal action.