By consulting a healthcare professional, you can learn whether your child was injured during birth. They can conduct x-rays and other imaging scans (as well as blood tests) to assess your child’s health.
If they find that your child suffered a birth injury, you have legal rights. You can partner with a birth injury attorney from our firm to recover your child’s necessary healthcare expenses, your lost wages, and more.
Take Your Child for a Medical Examination
Only a medical professional can affirm whether your child suffered a birth injury. They will likely start their examination by reviewing your child’s Apgar score. This test outlines your child’s appearance, respiration, color, response to stimuli, and activity at birth.
Upon birth, a healthy child would have a vigorous, loud cry. They would be pink, respond to stimuli, and have a regular heartbeat. However, an injured child might be blue (or have blue extremities), not respond to stimuli, and may not be breathing.
An Apgar test’s results are only one piece of the puzzle. To check for birth injuries, a doctor may also:
- Test your child’s reflexes
- Look into their eyes with a bright light
- Measure their brain activity
- Check their pulse
- Conduct x-rays, MRIs, CT scans, and other imaging exams
- Do bloodwork
- Listen to their lungs and heartbeat
Signs of a Birth Injury
It’s not always easy to identify a birth injury. In some instances, the injury may not be apparent until several months, or even years after the birth of your child. However, some signs are recognizable immediately. These include:
- The need for a breathing tube or CPR after delivery
- Swelling, bruising, or lesions appear on your child’s shoulders, head, or face
- One or both of the child’s arms are loose or limp
- Your child suffers seizures within 48 hours of being born
Each of these scenarios can result from medical malpractice. A doctor, nurse, or another healthcare provider may not have upheld their field’s standard of care. This would make them negligent.
What Causes Birth Injuries?
Birth injuries due to medical negligence can be caused by:
- Too much force used to twist or pull the baby during delivery
- Failure to detect signs of fetal distress
- Failure to perform a necessary C-section
- The incorrect use of birthing tools, such as forceps or a vacuum extractor
- Failure to prevent the mother from hemorrhaging
- Oxygen deprivation to the child
- Failure to anticipate complications in a high-risk pregnancy
If you have any reason to believe that your child was injured as a result of negligence or a medical error, don’t despair. You have legal options when pursuing the cost of your child’s care.
Possible Injuries During Birth
Whenever a child suffers a birth injury, it may be due to medical malpractice. Examples of birth injuries include:
- Brain damage: When a child is deprived of oxygen during either labor or delivery, they can develop a variety of complications, such as cerebral palsy.
- Cerebral palsy: This motor disability causes problems with coordinated movement. It can also cause hearing, vision, and speech problems as well as learning disabilities.
- Erb’s palsy: This condition is caused when the nerves in the baby’s upper or lower arms are damaged. It can lead to drooping limbs and paralysis.
- Seizures: Seizures can lead to other complications such as head trauma, tongue-biting, fractured bones, and aspiration.
- Paralysis: When a C-section is not performed promptly, it can lead to paralysis of one or more of the infant’s limbs.
- Developmental disabilities: A delayed C-section can lead to developmental issues such as delayed language skills, fine motor problems, and learning difficulties.
You Must Show These Factors to Secure Compensation in a Birth Injury Case
To claim compensation for your child’s birth injury, you must show that your attending healthcare staff did not render their field’s standard of care.
This involves showing:
- Proof of care: Your attorney must prove that you were a patient under the care of a specific medical professional. This will include detailed medical records that detail your appointments and doctor-patient relationship.
- Breach of care: Your lawyer must show that the at-fault party failed to provide effective and adequate care. To do so, your lawyer will discuss your experience with you, review your records, meet with witnesses, and consult third-party medical experts.
- Causation: Your attorney must show that because of a healthcare provider’s negligence, your child suffered a birth injury.
- Quantifiable damages. Finally, your lawyer must demonstrate that because your child suffered harm, you have incurred various losses, including healthcare expenses and lost wages.
Managing a birth injury case while caring for a newborn can be difficult. This is where our law firm comes in. We can manage everything your case requires, from gathering evidence to asserting negligence.
While you focus on celebrating your child’s milestones, we’ll do all the “heavy lifting” your case requires.
Consult the Law Offices of Anidjar & Levine
After learning that your child was injured during birth, consider reaching out to our birth injury firm. At the Law Offices of Anidjar & Levine, we’re staffed with lawyers who focus on these types of cases.
We can consult with your healthcare team, prove that your child suffered harm, and pursue the financial recovery your family needs. We understand that birth injury cases are sensitive matters; you can trust us to manage yours with the compassion it merits.
To begin your free case review, dial 1-800-747-3733.