During childbirth, both mother and child require someone to ensure they remain as healthy as possible. Unfortunately, the medical practitioners responsible for overseeing birth do not always exercise the caution needed to keep both mother and child as safe as possible. Birth injuries can lead to serious, long-term consequences for the entire family.
Did your child suffer an injury at birth from the negligence of a physician? You may have the right to compensation. Contact Peoria Birth Injury Lawyer to learn your next steps and the compensation your family deserves.
Zayed Law Offices Personal Injury Attorneys Helps Peoria Birth Injury Victims
Learning that your child has suffered an injury during childbirth can permanently change the course of your family’s future. At Zayed Law Offices Personal Injury Attorneys, we understand how physician negligence contributes to injuries during the birthing process. We help our clients pursue the justice they deserve for their injuries during these vulnerable moments.
Dealing with birth injuries is difficult for your entire family. We ensure that you do not have to face the legal side of these challenges alone.
We collect evidence to establish how physician negligence led to your child’s birth injuries.
Proving that physician negligence caused a birth injury is complex. Did your physician reasonably know that your child suffered distress or that you needed interventions during birth? Did your physician push you to accept unnecessary interventions or force interventions on you without adequate information?
At Zayed Law Offices Personal Injury Attorneys, our lawyers can connect you with expert witnesses to determine how physician negligence contributed to your child’s injuries or, in some cases, your own.
We make sure our clients understand the compensation their families deserve.
When your child sustains a severe birth injury, your family may deserve compensation for the losses. However, many people do not understand the compensation amount their family deserves and may, as a result, accept a low settlement offer from the doctor’s medical malpractice insurance. Maximize your compensation so you can care for your child through the consequences of their injuries, which may require lifelong assistance.
We make sure our clients know how much compensation to expect so they can negotiate from a position of power as they deal with the medical malpractice insurance company and the corresponding challenges.
We deal with the legal process for our clients so they can focus on their child’s needs.
Dealing with severe birth injuries can leave your family stretched thin, stressed out, and unsure of what comes next.
At Zayed Law Offices Personal Injury Attorneys, we handle many details of your birth injury claim, from helping put together your legal claim for a review board to creating a claim that clearly establishes the losses your family faced and the ongoing costs ahead of you. We also negotiate on behalf of our clients so that they can focus on helping their child grow up as strong and healthy as possible.
Types of Peoria Birth Injuries
Birth injuries can take many forms.
#1. Head Injuries
Trauma to the head and brain during the birthing process can create lifelong complications. Intracranial hemorrhage can often have devastating outcomes, including lifelong disability and death. Head injuries can occur during the birthing process, from improper use of forceps to dropping the child on delivery. Infants who suffer significant bleeding may also suffer an increased risk of jaundice. Trauma to the head and brain during childbirth also increases the risk of cerebral palsy.
#2. Fractures
During delivery, some infants suffer fractures, including fractures to the head or extremities. Doctors may improperly use forceps or vacuums, leading to severe fractures. Many infants may suffer fractured collarbones during delivery, often because they get stuck in the mother’s pelvis. While fractures heal fairly quickly for most infants, they can pose ongoing complications and make it more difficult for parents to care properly for their infants.
#3. Facial Paralysis
When the baby suffers an injury to the facial nerves during delivery, it can lead to facial paralysis. Parents often notice that the side of the face with the injury does not move when the infant cries. Sometimes, the infant may require surgery to repair the damaged nerves.
#4. Oxygen Deprivation
Several challenges can cut off the flow of oxygen during the delivery process. Sometimes, the force of contractions can cause the infant to miss out on vital blood flow. In other cases, the placenta may detach early. Some babies do not respond well to contractions and go into distress. Physicians must carefully monitor their patients for distress during labor since changes in fetal heart rate can indicate potential dangers.
Birth asphyxia, which occurs when the infant suffers oxygen deprivation at birth, can lead to:
- Death
- Brain damage
- Increased risks of learning disabilities
- Increased risks of intellectual deficits
Dealing with the impact of oxygen deprivation at birth can last throughout a child’s life, often in unexpected or unpredictable ways.
#5. Brachial Palsy
Brachial palsy occurs when the nerves in the arms and hands suffer serious injury. Brachial palsy can result from the excessive force used in delivery, including improper forceps usage. Infants with brachial palsy will lose the ability to flex and rotate the arm normally. In some cases, they may have permanent nerve damage in the arm from these injuries.
#6. Maternal Injuries
Like babies, mothers are vulnerable during birth. Sometimes, doctors fail to exercise the interventions necessary to protect maternal health or force interventions that put the mother in additional danger.
Mothers may suffer from a ruptured or prolapsed uterus, nerve injuries, broken bones, or hemorrhage due to inadequate care during birth. Sometimes, mothers die from these injuries, leaving the entire family grieving. When physician negligence leads to a mother’s severe injury during childbirth, the family may have the same grounds for a claim that they would if the infant had suffered the severe injuries.
When Do You Have Grounds for a Birth Injury Claim in Peoria?
Childbirth represents a period of immense vulnerability for both mother and child. Injuries happen despite the efforts of the physicians and other caregivers at the scene during the birth. However, when an injury occurs due to hospital or physician negligence, your family may have grounds for a birth injury claim.
To file a birth injury claim in Peoria, you must establish:
You established a doctor-patient or facility-patient relationship where the injury occurred.
As with most medical malpractice claims, you need to establish that your doctor, with whom you had a doctor/patient relationship, caused the birth injury. In some cases, this action might also extend to a nurse who oversaw the birth in a hospital setting since that nurse may spend more time with you than the doctor.
The doctor or hospital breached the standard of care during the birthing process.
The childbirth process involves specific procedures that the doctor or nurses overseeing your birth implement to protect both mother and child. If the doctor breaches the standard of care, including by an act of negligence, the doctor may be liable for the injuries you or your child sustain.
These actions may include:
- Failing to properly monitor mother and child during the birthing process
- Failing to intervene when confronted with clear signs of maternal or fetal distress
- Failing to provide care in the case of significant challenges for either mother or child
- Issuing inappropriate or unnecessary interventions that ultimately cause severe injury to mother or child
Mother or child sustained injuries from the care provider’s negligence.
To have grounds for a birth injury claim, you must show that the provider’s negligence caused some injury or damages to either the mother or the infant. Those damages may vary based on the type of negligence and the extent of the injury.
If your doctor committed an act of negligence, but neither mother nor child suffered any complications or challenges because of it, your family might not have grounds for a claim. On the other hand, the presence of those injuries or damages could entitle you to a birth injury claim.
Who Bears Liability in Peoria Birth Injury Claims?
The liable party following a birth injury may depend on whether the doctor works as a hospital employee or as an independent contractor. In many cases, the hospital will bear primary liability for any breach in care since the hospital may have failed to institute adequate checks and balances.
Hospitals are also liable for any cases of negligence on the part of a nurse. On the other hand, if the doctor does not work as a direct employee of the hospital, you may file a birth injury claim against the doctor directly.
Regardless of whether the doctor or hospital bears primary liability in a birth injury case, you will deal with a medical malpractice insurance firm as you pursue compensation for your family’s losses.
The Compensation You Can Recover for Peoria Birth Injuries
The compensation for Peoria birth injuries depends on the extent of the injuries sustained by the mother or child and the resulting financial losses. You may receive an offer from a hospital or insurance company representative early in the process, possibly even before you get a complete picture of your child’s losses and potential disabilities related to the incident.
Remember that the early offer may not reflect the full financial damages and compensation your family deserves. Make sure you work with a lawyer to calculate the actual cost of your birth injuries before accepting an offer.
Calculating Short-Term and Long-Term Medical Costs
Your child may have short-term medical costs related to serious birth injuries: a longer hospital stay after birth or the cost of immediate medical interventions to help treat injuries. Other costs may not seem immediately apparent. You may need to create a life care plan for your child that details the cost of long-term care to support your child’s needs, particularly when your child sustains a severe disability.
An attorney can help you calculate the full extent of your child’s losses and the challenges your child might face during recovery, including medical bills.
Pain and Suffering
Your child may face immense suffering as a direct result of birth injuries. Talk to an attorney about how to include compensation for your child’s pain and suffering as part of an injury claim. While those funds cannot help alleviate your child’s suffering, you can use them to build a better life for your child and ensure that your child receives the best possible care for their injuries.
Contact a Peoria Birth Injury Lawyer Today
If you or your child suffered severe injuries during the birth process, you need a lawyer to help you understand your rights, including whether you have the right to compensation. Contact Zayed Law Offices Personal Injury Attorneys at (309) 518-1413 for your free consultation.
