Birth Injuries

Statistics show that approximately 27 of every 1000 births in the United States results in a birth injury. A “birth injury” is defined as any type of damage to an infant's body before, during or just after birth. Complications in the process of pregnancy, labor and delivery can result in a wide variety of complications for a newborn baby. Birth injuries vary greatly – from very minor to being so severe as to cause the death of the infant.

Some common types of birth injuries include skin irritations, temporary paralysis, fractured collar bone, fractured arm; cerebral palsy; brain damage; Erb's palsy and brachial plexus palsy. The most serious injuries involve damage to the infant's head, causing brain damage, traumatic brain injury, seizures and mental retardation. These brain injuries are caused by oxygen deprivation or bleeding inside the brain resulting from trauma during pregnancy, labor or delivery.

There are many “natural” circumstances wherein oxygen deprivation can occur during the labor and delivery process: the umbilical cord become compressed or twisted in the birth process, the baby is too large to pass through the birth canal easily, or the baby is breach or sideways in the womb.

There are also many circumstances where brain damage or brain injuries are caused by mistakes made by doctors, hospitals or other medical professionals during the delivery process. Examples of such circumstances are: (1) a delay in performing a necessary C–section delivery, (2) complications because of VBAC (Vaginal Birth After C–section) delivery resulting in uterine rupture, (3) use of excessive force during delivery, (4) a miscalculation in the size of the baby, causing a traumatic delivery, etc.

An experienced birth injury lawyer should be consulted if your infant has suffered a birth trauma and you suspect those injuries were caused by medical negligence. The attorney should be consulted immediately after birth, even if the extent of the injuries and damages are not yet known. Unfortunately, doctors and hospitals will almost never admit fault or offer to pay reasonable damages to cover even the least likely economic loss from an injury. Appropriate discovery is essential to knowing whether you have a legal case, and what the likely lifetime costs associated with any permanent injury will be.

Therefore, it is important to consult an experienced birth injury attorney early because records and other information that are vital to knowing whether negligence occurred might be lost over time. Frequently, hospitals and doctors will destroy or lose records within months of the delivery. Also, important witnesses such as nurses and therapist will forget details or move, making it difficult to recover essential facts. Further, almost any time there is bad result to a patient, the hospital personnel and doctors will meet with their own lawyers to begin formulating a strategy to defend any potential case. Time is an important ally to both sides.