Birth isn’t easy under the best of circumstances. No matter how difficult the experience is, you always want to trust that the medical professionals you’re collaborating with have your child’s best interests at heart. However, medical professionals can often do considerable harm to a child they meant to help.
You can collaborate with The Law Office of Cohen & Jaffe, LLP to determine whether or not your child’s nerve injuries stemmed from a medical professional’s negligence after giving birth. If it seems like negligence played a role in your child’s long-term injuries, our birth injury attorneys can help you fight for the financial support you need to recover.
What Negligence Can Cause Newborn Nerve Injuries?
The doctors and nurses who oversee childbirth in today’s hospitals generally want what’s best for a baby and their mother. Unfortunately, giving birth is a less-than-straightforward process. Children can breach, face the wrong direction, or otherwise require redirection.
While medical professionals may have the training they need to adjust for these surprises, they can’t always prevent themselves from making accidents. In some circumstances, medical professionals may have to choose between safely repositioning a child and protecting a mother from further physical harm.
In these cases, pulling, twisting, and the use of tools like medical vacuums or forceps may endanger a child’s long-term nerve functions. While some of that damage may heal over the course of the next few days, it can sometimes stay with a child for the rest of their life.
Can Negligence at Birth Cause Erb’s Palsy?
Some of the most common nerve injuries that result from medical malpractice at a child’s birth can include neuropraxia and ruptures. In some cases, the damage to a child’s nerves may prove so severe that the nerves end up severed. This is referred to as an avulsion.
Children can also develop Erb’s palsy at birth if they’re not treated with care. Severe contractions can leave a child with injuries to the brachial plexus, brain, and spinal cord, all of which may result in temporary or permanent paralysis.
Can You Classify Birth Injuries as Medical Malpractice?
There are ways to classify the harm done to a child’s nerves at birth as medical malpractice. If the medical professionals on standby failed to provide a child and their parents with a reasonable standard of care and caused injuries as a result, their hospital may prove liable for that family’s losses.
Proving that medical professionals engaged in conduct that fell below an approved standard of care can prove challenging, though. The term “reasonable” can have variable definitions in a court of law, even in the face of a child’s long-term nerve injuries.
Fortunately, you have experienced birth injury attorneys on your side. We can define the standard of care you and your child were supposed to receive before bringing together the evidence needed to prove that medical professionals violated your trust. Our relationship with expert witnesses can help establish the foundation of your case.
How Can You Fight for Compensation After a Child’s Birth Injuries?
If you decide to bring a child’s birth injury case forward in civil court, what damages can you request from a liable institution? Most medical institutions have a responsibility to provide you with support for your economic and non-economic losses, which can include the following:
- The birthing partner’s pain and suffering
- The child’s pain and suffering
- Medical expenses, including the cost of giving birth
- Coverage for upcoming surgeries
- Mental anguish
- Disfigurement
- Temporary or permanent disability
Our team can help you determine which of these losses you can integrate into your claim when you meet with our team for a free case assessment.
How Can You Meet the Court’s Burden of Proof?
If you want your nerve injury case to move forward in civil court, you must bring forward enough evidence to prove that medical professionals violated the duty of care owed to you and your child. This is where our team steps in.
We make a point to connect you with medical professionals who can investigate whether or not your birthing staff’s behavior fell beneath the industry’s standard of care. Third-party assessments of your child’s health can also go into detail about the extent of your child’s injuries and the ways attentive professionals might have mitigated your losses.
Book a Free Case Consultation With Birth Injury Lawyers
As a child’s parent or legal guardian, you have the right to take action against medical institutions and individuals who cause your child to suffer nerve injuries at birth. You can collaborate with a birth injuries attorney working with The Law Office of Cohen & Jaffe, LLP to discuss what kind of compensation you may receive from your pursuit of support.
Our team brings years of experience to your fight for justice. You can count on us to break down your rights to legal compensation and the various ways you can go about fighting for it in your effort to get your life back on track. Call (516) 358-6900 or reach out to our team online for more information.
