Birth injuries are, unfortunately, quite common in the United States. At least three infants will be born with a birth injury every hour. Often, these injuries result in permanent disabilities that will affect the baby for the rest of his or her life. Because about most birth injuries can be prevented by proper prenatal and obstetric care, you might wonder if you have a chance at winning a lawsuit against your care provider and if they were responsible for your infant's birth injury. Before you file a lawsuit, you will need to make sure you know for sure if your child's health problems actually qualify as a birth injury.
Is the issue you face a birth injury or a birth defect?
The first thing you will need to clarify is if the medical problems your child faces are actually caused by birth injury. Birth injuries, by definition, are problems caused when otherwise healthy babies face trauma during labor or soon after delivery. Birth defects, on the other hand, are not injuries caused during birth--they are the result of genetics, exposure to toxins, or deprivation of nutrients, or chance. As you can see, your care provider has a much greater role in preventing birth injury than in preventing birth injury.
Examples of birth injuries include cerebral palsy from oxygen deprivation, collar bone fracture, nerve damage in the arms from shoulder dystocia, facial paralysis, brain swelling, or infection from uncontrolled or unmonitored maternal infections. These are often the direct result of negligence or poor medical choices on behalf of your care provider, and they are more common when the fetus is in distress during birth and with increased interventions, especially with vacuum-assisted delivery or the use of forceps. For example, facial paralysis can occur when there is too much pressure on the face when the baby is forced from the birth canal with forceps.
Common birth defects include spinal bifida, cleft palates, chromosomal abnormalities, or missing appendages. These can often be discovered with prenatal ultrasounds or tests, and the method of delivery has little to no effect on the overall health of your baby.
If you are not sure if the problem your child faces is a birth injury instead of a birth defect, you will need to consult medical professionals and give detailed account of your family history, your health during pregnancy, and the circumstances surrounding the birth of your child. The assertion from a physician that your child was indeed injured due to negligence on the behalf of your care provider during the delivery will be essential to win your case.
Your case should be carefully analyzed by a lawyer and by trusted physicians to make sure that your doctor could have prevented the injury or somehow acted outside the usual standard of care. Sometimes, even though your child was injured, there was still nothing your physician could have done differently to avoid it.
If it's not a birth injury, is your physician still liable?
Doctors can sometimes be held responsible for infant disabilities that aren't necessarily classified as "birth injuries." If you or your child has a health problem that should have been diagnosed earlier in pregnancy, you could still bring a case against your care provider. For example, sometimes, sexually transmitted diseases cause birth defects as well. Doctors should run routine tests early in pregnancy to screen for STDs, as medical intervention is needed to prevent negative effects on the fetus. If the doctor neglects this normal standard of care, you still have case, even though the health problem is not exactly a birth injury.
For more answers to questions about birth injury and medical malpractice suits, contact a birth injury lawyer with experience in this area.
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