We trust doctors with our lives, and when giving birth, mothers trust doctors with two lives: their own and their child’s. When that doctor betrays that trust, leading to injury, the Germantown birth injury lawyers at Ben Crump Law, PLLC can work to hold the doctor accountable.
If your child suffered a birth injury, we could discuss your options with a free consultation. You could seek awards for your child’s necessary medical care and more.
Recovering Compensation for a Birth Injury Case in Maryland
While money can’t undo what you and your child experienced, it can provide financial reimbursement for (and official acknowledgement of) that experience.
Awards may be able to cover:
- Medical expenses
- Lost wages
- Non-economic awards
The first two categories are straightforward – whatever you paid, lost, will pay, or will lose to medical care and missed work can be covered by compensation. Awards for medical expenses can cover surgeries, medication, medical equipment, therapy, and more.
Non-Economic Losses Are Compensable in a Birth Injury Claim
Non-economic awards are less tangible, but our team can tell you what you may be able to seek. These awards cover issues like:
- Pain and suffering
- Emotional distress
- Changed quality of life
Any injury can be traumatic. Injuries caused by someone else’s negligence are especially traumatic. Injuries to infants and children caused by negligence are in a league of their own. Non-economic awards seek to recognize the level of personal, emotional, and physical trauma experienced by the injured party.
However, Maryland caps non-economic compensation under Md. Code, Cts. & Jud. Proc. § 3-2A-09. Awards for pain and suffering and other consequences are limited based on the year the injury occurred or was discovered.
At Ben Crump Law, PLLC, we evaluate your case and pursue the appropriate level of compensation to represent what you and your child suffered.
Long-Term Medical Needs Can Be Covered
While many children recover from birth injuries, some experience long-term or lifelong consequences. We won’t neglect those aspects. In fact, we work closely with experts like doctors and others to project how your child’s condition will affect your family over a lifetime.
For example, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has estimated that caring for someone with cerebral palsy over a lifetime will cost almost $1 million. Hypoxic brain damage, caused by lack of oxygen to the brain, can also leave victims requiring lifelong care and extra support.
Your day-to-day life may be dramatically changed due to this injury – and that should not go unnoticed in your compensation. Awards could pay for:
- Car and home modifications for handicap accessibility
- At-home nursing care or other support staff
- Stays at care facilities or daycares
- Prescription medications and supplies
- Future doctor appointments and tests
- Physical, occupational, speech, and other therapy
If you face the prospect of lifelong consequences due to a Germantown doctor’s actions, our birth injury attorneys at Ben Crump Law, PLLC want to know.
For a free legal consultation with a birth injury lawyer serving Germantown, call (800) 641-8998
Our Attorneys Can Prove a Doctor’s Negligence
To seek awards for your birth injury case, our team will need to demonstrate a chain of events:
- You and the physician had a doctor/patient relationship.
- The doctor did not provide adequate care.
- That lack of adequate care caused an injury.
- The injury warrants compensation from the doctor.
This is the process of demonstrating negligence, linking the physician or healthcare staff’s choices to your child’s injury. This is our goal.
To gather evidence to prove negligence, we investigate, research, and conduct interviews – all while you don’t pay a cent. We only receive our payment if we win your case.
Forms of Negligence That May Cause a Birth Injury
Any injury caused by negligence could be grounds for a case. However, some acts of negligence are more common in birth injury cases, including:
- Delivery errors
- C-section complications
- Medication mistakes
- Failure to monitor or test
- Inadequate medical history
- Misdiagnosis
- Late diagnosis
- Failure to diagnose
Negligence can be due to both action and inaction. A doctor who does not perform a C-section when necessary is just as negligent as a doctor who improperly uses a vacuum extraction during delivery.
In fact, some errors go hand-in-hand. Reviews in Obstetrics & Gynecology found that vacuum-assisted delivery should only be attempted under certain limited medical circumstances. A doctor who causes injury by using this method can be guilty of both negligent action (using the vacuum) and inaction (failure to monitor or diagnose the child).
Identifying the act that led to the injury is part of our job. We investigate what happened and what decisions were made prior to the injury, all while you stay focused on supporting your child as they recover.
Germantown Birth Injury Lawyer Near Me (800) 641-8998
Our Attorneys Can Handle Complex Legal Details and Explain Them in Clear Terms
Medical malpractice cases like birth injuries can be tricky to prove, largely due to the need for specialized knowledge. Fortunately, Ben Crump Law, PLLC utilizes medical experts to reconstruct the accident, evaluate your child’s condition, and highlight how the negligent party deviated from the standard of care.
Medical malpractice cases are complicated because negligent doctors want them to be complicated—they can hide behind the nuances of their field. By contrast, our team focuses on clarity. We can help make sense of:
- Legal and medical terminology
- Your rights to compensation
- What awards you are entitled to
- The value of your case
- The time you have to file a lawsuit
- Who to hold liable
- Whether to accept a settlement
- How to talk to adjusters and representatives
Regardless of the complications of your case, the bottom line is that you and your child did not deserve this. Our birth injury lawyers are willing to take on tough cases, even in a practice area known for its challenges. This is because we know how important it is to hold Germantown doctors accountable for their actions.
What’s more, we work on a contingency-fee basis, so you owe us nothing upfront. We only get paid if we win your case.
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The Timeline for Filing a Malpractice Lawsuit is Important to Consider
Some of the consequences of birth injuries don’t present right away. This doesn’t mean you’re out of luck in pursuing monetary awards.
Maryland’s statute of limitations for medical malpractice is generally five years from when the injury was committed or three years from when it was discovered (Md. Code, Cts. & Jud. Proc. § 5-109). For children injured at birth, that timeline can be longer.
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Get Legal Help Now with a Free Consultation From Our Birth Injury Team
If you need help pursuing a doctor or healthcare facility in Germantown, our birth injury lawyers could get started on your case today. Our team at Ben Crump Law, PLLC is available 24/7 and we offer free case reviews. Call now at (800) 641-8998.
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