Birth Injury Lawyer Lafayette, IN
If your child suffered an injury during the labor and delivery process, you should consult a birth injury lawyer Lafayette, IN residents trust. Your family may be entitled to receive compensation. A lawyer can stand up for your child’s rights and help you get the justice that your child deserves.
A birth injury is going to be any type of harm to a baby who occurred during the time of birth. This can include oxygen deprivation, excessive pressure on the baby’s head or their body, contracting and infection, and many other complications. Some birth injuries are very minor and have no lasting impact but others can result in permanent disabilities that may affect the child cognitively, and physically.
Sometimes physicians can prevent birth injuries by following care such as carefully monitoring the health status of the mother and child, probably addressing any suspected issues that may arise during the pregnancy, labor and/or delivery.
As a medical professional fails to do these things in the negligence results in the birth injuries may have committed medical malpractice.
Some common signs of birth injury immediately after the child’s delivery, may be:
- The color of the baby’s skin is going to be pale, ashen or blue.
- The baby is going to be breathing slowly, have a slow heart rate or require resuscitation.
- The baby is going to be sluggish and lethargic.
- The baby feels stiff or floppy, these are called hypertonic or hypotonic.
- The baby does not express any interest in feeding or has a lot of difficulty feeding.
- There going to be odd movements in the babies face, arms, or leg such as seizures or the baby is going to favor one side of the body.
- The baby is going to have low Apgar scores.
- The infant is going to have abnormal neonatal reflexes, which means they’re going to fail to respond to loud noises, not grasp object properly and much more.
- The baby may have for foam up metabolic or mixed acidemia and in umbilical artery blood sample.
- The baby may have problems with their organs.
- The baby may have issues such as a, or altered consciousness.
Typical signs of birth injury during childhood are listed below. This is not a full list and remember that birth injuries are not identified for years sometimes, until the child has missed key developmental milestone.
Parents, teachers and other close to the child may begin to notice the following issues that indicate learning disabilities and birth injuries:
- Learning disabilities
- Behavioral problems
- Motor impairments
- Speech language disorders
- Seizure disorders
- Cerebral palsy
- Microcephaly
- Sensory processing disorder
- Vision and hearing impairments
How Birth Injuries Can Occur
Giving birth to a child is supposed to be one of the most joyous times of a woman’s life. However, it can quickly turn into a nightmare if the doctor and medical staff are negligent. Your baby could suffer a birth injury. Here are some common causes of birth injuries:
- Improper use of forceps or vacuum
- Failure to recognize signs of fetal distress
- Failure to perform a needed C-section
- Use of unnecessary force during childbirth
- Failure to monitor the mother or baby after birth
Common Types of Birth Injuries
If a doctor isn’t careful when delivering a baby, birth injuries are more likely to occur. Here are some common types of birth injuries that can result from negligence:
- Spinal Cord Injuries: Spinal cord injuries can range from mild to severe and typically result from improper use of forceps or vacuum when pulling the baby out of the mother. In severe cases, spinal cord injuries can lead to paralysis.
- Cerebral Palsy: Cerebral palsy is a condition that affects the brain’s control over muscles and nervous system and can result from medical malpractice. Symptoms of this condition include difficulty with bodily movements, stiff muscles, weak arms or legs and muscle spasms.
-
- Erb’s Palsy: As a birth injury lawyer in Lafayette, IN can confirm, erb’s palsy can also occur during the labor and delivery process. The injury develops when an infant’s neck is stretched to one side during delivery and can result in temporary or permanent nerve damage.
- Facial Paralysis: Facial paralysis can occur when forceps are improperly used during the delivery process. If the nerve was just bruised, the condition usually resolves itself in a few weeks. If the nerve was torn, surgery may be necessary.
- Brachial plexus palsy: an injury to the nerves that control hand and/or arm movement. It is often going to arise after a vaginal delivery in which the shoulder was injured such as shoulder dystocia. The likelihood of recovery depends entirely on the birth injuries severity.
Pursuing a Birth Injury Lawsuit
If you believe your baby’s birth injury was the result of medical negligence, you should discuss your case with a birth injury lawyer. They can investigate your case and advise you as to the best way to proceed. Your lawyer can help you gather necessary evidence, locate expert medical witnesses and negotiate with the insurance company.
Is Taking Legal Action Worth Your Time and Effort?
It is important to speak with a birth injury lawyer Lafayette, IN residents trust, even if you’re unsure of whether you want to pursue legal action. As the experienced attorneys at Hall-Justice Law Firm LLC can confirm, all too often, parents wait to explore their legal options until it is too late to pursue rightful compensation. This is an issue especially when the babies who have been harmed have suffered injuries that require extensive medical care and that will continue to require extensive medical care moving forward.
The costs associated with birth injury care can quickly overwhelm even the most carefully crafted family budget. If your child has suffered harm and the substandard care of a medical professional or medical facility is to blame, you shouldn’t be saddled with the financial burdens associated with all that your child and family have suffered. As a result, it is important to at least think seriously about holding those who have harmed your child accountable for their substandard care.
What Kinds of Compensation Are Available to You?
Depending on the nature of your child’s injuries and the ways in which they have affected both your child and your family, you could be entitled to significant compensation. A skilled Lafayette birth injury lawyer with our firm may be able to secure you compensation for pain and suffering, past, ongoing, and future medical expenses, lost wages from time you and your child’s other parent have incurred while taking care of your injured baby, reduced quality of life, and lost future earning capacity if your child will not be able to secure gainful employment as a result of their injuries.
What Does a Successful Birth Injury Case Prove?
The standard of proof in medical malpractice cases is a little different than the standard of proof utilized by most other personal injury cases. Essentially, a successful birth injury lawsuit will prove that a baby suffered harm due to the substandard care of a medical professional or medical facility. The concept of substandard care is somewhat subjective and is contextualized based on the circumstances of each case. This is because the proper standard of care that any medical professional or medical facility owes to its patients is based upon what a reasonably competent medical professional would do if faced with similar circumstances.
What if You’ve Already Been Offered a Settlement?
If your baby’s treating physician or the facility where your baby was delivered has admitted to making mistakes and has offered you a settlement, it is critically important that you allow the team at Hall-Justice Law Firm LLC to review the terms of that offer before you sign any paperwork. Please act quickly, as you have likely only been given a few days to reject or accept the offer that has been extended.
Why Not Just Agree to a Settlement and Move on?
If you sign settlement paperwork and you are unsure of whether the settlement that has been offered is fairly valued, you may be signing away your right to pursue other rightful compensation that you are owed in the future. As our Lafayette birth injury lawyer team can confirm, most of the time, limiting a victim’s right to pursue a lawsuit is a condition of accepting a settlement. If your offer does not meet your child’s needs, you may be left holding the bill for a great deal of care down the road that should not be your responsibility to pay for.
What to Do After a Birth Injury Diagnosis
Be Patient and Attentive
Supporting your child after a birth injury may feel daunting and even scary at times — the most important thing you can do as a parent is stay calm and be attentive to your child’s needs. Stay close to the baby at all times, pay attention to any changes in their appearance or behavior and try to keep the baby as comfortable as possible. Let your birth injury lawyer in Lafayette, IN, know the extensive lengths you and your baby’s medical team are going to for your child; this information can make all the difference in your case.
Ask For Help
It is absolutely okay to ask for help when caring for your child. Whether you reach out to family members, friends or your medical staff, let someone know when you need help caring for the baby or for yourself. You may be under a great deal of stress right now, and it is perfectly normal to need help with feeding, medications, changing or comforting the baby. Above all, remember to get in touch with the professionals at Hall Justice Law Firm if you need any additional support for your case.
Stay in Contact With Your Lawyer
Your lawyer will likely reach out to you via phone call or email with important information regarding your case, so try not to miss any of these communications. Likewise, keep and make copies of any documents your birth injury lawyer in Lafayette, IN, sends you in the mail. All of these documents can contain valuable information on your rights and options, so keep them and read through them carefully. If you ever have any questions or are approached by an outside source about your case, be sure to let the professionals at Hall Justice Law Firm know right away.
Attend All Medical Appointments
Taking the baby to all of their scheduled medical appointments can help in two major ways: first and foremost, you’ll be able to get your child all of the care they need, and their doctors will have a better chance to address major issues and get symptoms under control. Secondly, attending these appointments shows a great deal of initiative on your part and plays a major role in helping you win your case. If you’re unable to attend an appointment for any reason, let your child’s doctor know and try to reschedule at your earliest convenience.
3 Signs Your Baby Experienced a Birth Injury
As an expectant parent, you hoped for nothing more than to give birth to a perfect baby. Now, as the parent of a child who may have been injured at birth, your heart breaks as you decide whether to consult with a birth injury lawyer in Lafayette, IN. However, not all injuries are created equal, even at birth. Read on to learn if your child’s condition or handicap may classify as a birth injury and warrants a consultation with an attorney from the Hall Justice Law Firm.
1. The Condition Is Not Congenital
Plenty of children are born with conditions and defects. However, as your birth injury lawyer in Lafayette, IN can explain to you, a birth defect is different than a birth injury. A birth defect is congenital.
This means that the condition, malformation, illness, or handicap was predetermined by the child’s genetic sequence or by circumstances detected during the mother’s pregnancy.
Babies with congenital defects suffer from their birth defects regardless of any human error at birth or lack their of. Congenital conditions are usually detected in ultrasounds and other tests during prenatal care. Your birth injury lawyer in Lafayette, IN can help you determine and gather evidence to understand whether your child’s condition resulted from human error or if it is a congenital defect.
2. The Injury Happened at Birth
If your child was injured or mishandled during delivery, whether it be during a CSection or natural birth, your attorney at Hall Justice Law Firm will work with you to get the right kind of medical and tangible evidence to prove it. Even if your child’s injury healed, you may have a case against the medical professionals who handled your child. The injury has to have happened during birth and not during any other point of your hospital stay with your new baby.
3. The Injury Impedes Your Child’s Life and Well Being
If the injury your child sustained at birth impedes their life, you should speak with a birth injury lawyer in Lafayette, IN about a strong birth injury case. Whether your child is physically or developmentally disabled as a result of an injury sustained during birth at the hands of a medical professional, you and your child deserve compensation and support. Your attorney can make a strong case against the negligent party, and you can potentially gain access to support and resources otherwise not available to you.
How Can a Birth Injury Lawyer Help Me?
If your newborn child was injured because of medical malpractice or negligence, the results can be devastating. The stress and emotional trauma combined with a need for legal knowledge can make it next to impossible for parents to pursue justice and compensation on their own. Working with a birth injury lawyer in Lafayette, IN can offer numerous benefits while giving families a better chance at success.
Offer Support and Helpful Resources
Dealing with the aftermath of a birth injury can be incredibly difficult and many parents may not even know where to begin. Working with a professional team that has significant experience in this area can help families get the guidance they need for quality professional, emotional, and medical support. Hall Justice Law Firm can help point parents in the right direction when it comes to handling the day-to-day struggles of dealing with a birth injury.
Guide Parents on How to Approach Pediatric Care
Should you seek care from a different medical network after a birth injury occurs? What questions should you be asking your child’s doctor at upcoming appointments? What types of tests, appointments, and procedures could you be reimbursed for as you seek treatment for your child? These are all questions that a birth injury lawyer in Lafayette, IN can help parents with.
Gather and Organize Necessary Documentation
When pursuing legal action after a birth injury, there are many details to consider. You will need access to medical records as well as potential interviews with other professionals to help prove that medical malpractice or negligence did occur. Meticulous record-keeping is essential in building your case. Hall Justice Law Firm takes the guesswork out of these steps by assisting families with the details.
Seek Financial Compensation
Do parents really need to pursue financial compensation for all birth injuries? Even something small during infancy can lead to serious physical and mental development issues in the future. The expenses that can accrue over the lifetime of the child can be significant. An experienced birth injury lawyer in Lafayette, IN will be well-versed in different types of birth injuries and can help parents anticipate more than just immediate costs.
It is extremely rare for patients and their families to achieve any type of financial compensation for birth injuries or medical malpractice without the assistance of an experienced lawyer. Trying to manage this type of legal pursuit while caring for an injured child can be too much for parents on their own. Working with a good lawyer can help families have a better chance at moving forward while getting the support they deserve.
If your child has a birth injury, you should schedule a consultation with a birth injury lawyer like those at Hall Justice Law Firm in Lafayette, IN today.
