Yplostylia Varkonin 
Having a baby should be one of the happiest moments of your life.
But when things go wrong during labor, everything changes forever. A birth injury can impact your child for their entire life and leave your family with massive medical expenses and countless questions.
Here’s the good news:
If your injury was due to medical negligence, you have legal recourse. A birth injury attorney will help you understand what happened, hold the appropriate parties accountable, and recover the financial compensation your family needs to heal.
Let’s break it down…
Here’s what’s inside:
- Why Birth Injury Cases Are Different
- When You Actually Have a Legal Claim
- The Types of Compensation You Can Claim
- How a Birth Injury Lawyer Builds Your Case
Why Birth Injury Cases Are Different
Birth injury lawsuits are not like regular personal injury cases.
Birth injury cases are far more complicated, require lots of medical records, and typically require expert witnesses that specialise in obstetrics and neonatal care. This is exactly why having an experienced birth injury attorney is crucial. If you are located in South Florida and need someone to review your case, you can speak with a Fort Lauderdale birth injury lawyer who knows how these cases unfold in your state.
Think about it:
Birth injuries are far more common than most parents think. Birth injuries occur in about 7 of every 1,000 babies born in the United States. That’s more than 25,000 babies every year. The majority of those injuries could have been avoided with proper care.
Attorneys and hospitals understand these cases can have catastrophic financial implications. That’s why they retain the best defence counsel immediately upon receiving notice of a claim. It’s critical that you have someone fighting for you.
When You Actually Have a Legal Claim
Not every birth injury means you can sue.
In order for you to have a valid case, you must show that a physician, nurse or hospital did (or did not do) something that another competent medical professional would have done under similar circumstances. This is referred to as medical negligence.
Common types of negligence in birth injury cases include:
- Failure to monitor the baby — missing signs of fetal distress
- Improper use of delivery tools — rough use of forceps or vacuum extractors
- Delayed c-section — waiting too long to perform an emergency c-section
- Oxygen deprivation — failure to act quickly enough when there is a lack of oxygen to the baby
- Medication errors — wrong drug or wrong dose during pregnancy or labor
Errors like these can cause cerebral palsy, Erb’s palsy, brachial plexus injuries, hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE), broken bones and nerve damage.
OB-GYNs are one of the most sued medical specialties in the country. About 63 percent of ob-gyns will face a lawsuit at some point in their careers. This statistic should tell you how often things go wrong in the delivery room.
The Types of Compensation You Can Claim
Raising a child with a birth injury is expensive. Really expensive.
Your birth injury lawyer will fight to get every penny that your family is owed. Here is a breakdown of the main categories you can expect compensation for:
Medical Expenses
This is usually the biggest chunk of any birth injury settlement. It covers:
- Past and future medical bills
- Surgeries and hospital stays
- Medications and medical equipment
- Physical, occupational, and speech therapy
- In-home nursing care
When it comes to an injury like cerebral palsy, costs can quickly add up. Exceeding $1 million in lifetime medical expenses is possible for a child with cerebral palsy. This makes it critical to calculate your settlement amount correctly.
Lost Wages and Earning Capacity
This covers two things:
- The wages one or both parents lost while caring for the child
- The wages your child will never earn because of their disability
An experienced birth injury lawyer will rely on economists and vocational experts to ensure these numbers are accurate.
Pain and Suffering
This includes your child’s physical pain as well as the emotional trauma your entire family has experienced.
Punitive Damages
In cases where the hospital or doctor acted egregiously (such as in the cover-up of an error), punitive damages may be awarded by the court. These are extremely rare but can be very large.
How a Birth Injury Lawyer Builds Your Case
Building a birth injury case takes time and dedicated resources. Here’s what’s happening behind the scenes:
Step 1: Free Case Review
Many birth injury attorneys offer free consultations. They will review the facts and let you know, honestly, if you have a case worth pursuing. It won’t cost you anything.
Step 2: Getting the Medical Records
Your attorney will be requesting all of your medical records from the pregnancy, labor and delivery. We’re talking hundreds (if not thousands) of pages.
Step 3: Medical Expert Review
This is the key step.
Your attorney retains medical experts (usually OB-GYNs and neonatologists) to review the records and provide an unbiased opinion as to whether the standard of care was violated. Without a medical expert on your side, you don’t have a lawsuit. Period.
Step 4: Filing the Lawsuit
After negligence has been established by the experts, your attorney will file a lawsuit. This commences the “discovery” process during which each party gathers information and takes depositions.
Step 5: Settlement or Trial
The majority of birth injury cases are settled before trial. However any reputable birth injury attorney will prepare your case as if it is going to trial. This strategy creates pressure on the opposition to settle fairly.
Remember: Every state has a law called a “statute of limitations.” It sets a firm deadline by which a birth injury lawsuit must be filed. If the deadline passes you can never sue for your injury. That is why it is critical to contact an attorney early.
Final Thoughts
A birth injury changes the direction of your family’s life overnight.
You didn’t choose this. Your child didn’t choose this. And if it was caused by medical negligence, you shouldn’t have to pay for it for your child’s lifetime.
A good birth injury lawyer can:
- Investigate — figure out what went wrong in the delivery room
- Prove — build a strong case with medical experts backing you up
- Fight –– stand up to hospitals and insurance companies that try to cheat you
- Recover — secure the money your child needs for lifelong care
The reality is that you don’t have to navigate this situation alone. Birth injury attorneys work on a contingency fee basis so you owe nothing unless they recover.
If you believe your child’s injury may have been preventable, listen to your instincts. Schedule your FREE case review today and learn about your legal options.
