No family should have to see their child suffer a birth injury due to a medical error. Birth injuries can leave a child with physical, cognitive, or emotional impairments for a lifetime.
A Wheeling Birth Injury Attorney could help you seek money damages from the negligent parties who caused your child to suffer birth injuries. Although money cannot undo the harm to your child, it could help you pay for the care your child will need.
How We Can Help With Your Birth Injury Case
When you have a child with special medical issues, you need to be able to devote your full energy and time to taking care of your child. The last thing you should have to do is battle with the doctors, hospital, and malpractice insurance carriers over a fair settlement for the harm your child suffered. After we talk to you and investigate the birth injury, we can perform multiple functions on your behalf.
Every birth injury case is different because each situation has unique facts, but in general, this is how we approach these cases:
- We can get the medical records pertinent to the pregnancy, labor, delivery, and your infant’s health.
- We can review the relevant medical records and analyze them to determine how medical negligence occurred.
- We can talk to witnesses who could provide evidence related to the birth injury.
- We can talk with experts and specialists about what happened that harmed your child.
- We can negotiate to try to achieve a fair settlement of your birth injury claim in cases in which that strategy is appropriate.
- We can file a lawsuit and go to trial in cases that do not settle.
Throughout all these stages, you may rest assured that we will treat you with compassion and respect. We will keep you informed of developments in your case, listen to your concerns, and answer your questions. When we handle your birth injury case, you get to focus on your child and your family because we are handling all of your legal issues.
For a free legal consultation with a birth injury lawyer serving Wheeling, call 800-959-1444
Types of Birth Injury Cases We Handle
A baby is a fragile, vulnerable little person who can suffer many different types of harm when things go wrong medically. Here are some examples of the different kinds of birth injury cases we handle for our clients:
- Meconium aspiration: According to Johns Hopkins Medicine, meconium aspiration syndrome can cause severe illness or death when the fetus or newborn inhales into its lungs a mixture of its first stool and amniotic fluid during labor and delivery.
- Hypoxic-Ischemic Encephalopathy (HIE)/Oxygen Deprivation: When a baby does not get enough oxygen during labor and delivery, the result can be permanent damage to brain tissue.
- Erb’s Palsy: The Cleveland Clinic says that Erb’s Palsy can be the result of a shoulder injury to the infant that happens during delivery. The child might have muscle weakness or paralysis of an arm with this condition.
- Stillborn/death: When a fetus or baby suffers a devastating injury, the result could be a tragic stillbirth or death.
- Fractured collarbones: Sometimes, the baby’s collarbone, also called the clavicle, gets broken during the delivery.
- Brain injury: Mistakes that happen at any time during the pregnancy, labor, delivery, or soon after delivery could result in a brain injury to the baby.
- Cerebral palsy: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says that cerebral palsy can be the result of injury to the baby’s brain during labor, delivery, or soon after delivery. This condition can present challenges to the child in the areas of controlling movement, speaking, and maintaining balance and posture.
- Shoulder dystocia: This shoulder injury can cause permanent nerve damage to the baby’s affected arms or shoulders that can result in weakness or paralysis. The March of Dimes says that shoulder dystocia happens when the baby’s shoulders get wedged in the mother’s pelvis during labor and delivery.
- Brain bleeds: Many babies with hydrocephalus (increased fluid in the brain) develop that condition because of brain bleeds, also known as intraventricular hemorrhage. MedlinePlus explains that brain bleeds can lead to blood clots in the baby’s brain, compressing brain tissue and impeding the flow of cerebrospinal fluid.
- Spinal cord injuries: Negligence during pregnancy, labor, delivery, or soon after childbirth can cause the baby’s spinal cord to get damaged.
- Necrotizing Enterocolitis (NEC) from baby formula: Premature infants who get fed baby formula made from cow’s milk could suffer intestinal damage.
- Bacterial meningitis/GBS Positive: Mayo Clinic says that a common type of bacteria, Group B streptococcus, can cause severe illness to infants, even though it generally exhibits only mild symptoms in adults.
If your child suffered a birth injury that is not on this list, please feel free to give us a call. The odds are that we can help you and your family with your birth injury claim.
Wheeling Birth Injury Lawyer Near Me 800-959-1444
Medical Errors that Can Cause Birth Injuries
A birth injury is an event that happens during pregnancy, labor, delivery, or shortly after delivery that could have been prevented. The two most common causes of birth injuries are the failure of healthcare providers to carefully track the medical status of the baby and mother and the failure to respond quickly when complications arise. A baby who suffers a very slight birth injury could get well and not have to face long-term challenges.
Here are some of the more frequent situations that can cause birth injuries:
- When the healthcare workers do not appropriately monitor a mother who has high-risk factors, like preeclampsia or gestational diabetes. Failure to closely monitor a high-risk mother during pregnancy could harm the baby and the mother, even to the extent of fatality.
- The medical personnel also need to monitor the pregnancy to look for distress and other health issues of the infant.
- From the time the mother goes into labor until the safe delivery of the infant, both mother and child need to be monitored appropriately for the situation. A low-risk pregnancy could quickly develop into a high-risk labor and delivery. A failure to monitor the baby and mother could cause devastating birth injuries.
- Close monitoring is not sufficient by itself. The medical personnel should notice when there are complications during labor and delivery and respond quickly.
- Sometimes the baby needs to be delivered quickly to prevent or minimize harm if the infant is in distress.
- When the mother is experiencing prolonged labor and delivery, the failure of medical personnel to intervene, for example, to perform a C-section promptly, could lead to catastrophic injury to the infant or mother.
These examples represent but a few types of the medical mistakes that can lead to a birth injury. Your situation might involve other medical errors.
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Get Help from a Wheeling Birth Injury Attorney
When your child suffers a birth injury because of a medical mistake, it can turn your life upside down. You wonder if your hopes and dreams for your child will be achievable. At
Ben Crump Law, PLLC, we can work tirelessly to go after compensation from the negligent parties so that you can provide the best life possible for your child.
We are happy to provide a free initial consultation with no obligation. You can call us today at (800) 641-8998 to get started.
Call or text 800-959-1444 or complete a Free Case Evaluation form
