What You Should Know About Birth Injury Attorneys

Having a birth injury leaves a family in a state of utter shock and grief. Everyone wants a good and secure life for their children. So, there is the thought of how to raise the child to the life he or she deserves. One would be concerned about how the child will live a normal life where his/her future is secure.

We all assume that the professionals in the hospital are more than capable to attend to various medical issues such as the treatment and prognosis of the child. However, there may be instances of medical dereliction of duty which in turn will affect a child's health. This may leave one defenseless as to where to turn to for help. It is safe to admit the fact that the thought of filing a lawsuit at this point is far from one's thought's grasp, but with the help of a birth injury attorney, one's legal rights can be exercised and the medical professionals will be held accountable immediately while compensation is sought after.

What Is a Birth Injury Attorney?

A birth injury attorney is a lawyer whose area of specialty lies predominantly in personal injury law. Birth injury attorneys typically are under the aegis of personal injury law. While many specialize in different specific injuries, most stick to birth injury law. According to the team at https://www.kocianlaw.com/birth-injury-lawyer/, a birth injury lawyer isn't limited to the welfare of the child; it extends to the injury cases of the child's mother during the childbirth process. A birth injury attorney looks to gather pieces of information that may have caused the injury by asking the difficult questions that seek to establish whether the medical providers were negligent in the discharge of their duties or not. 

What's Birth Injury?

Naturally, there are a lot of cases where infants are born with a number of disabilities, illnesses, and diseases. It is the duty of medical practitioners to try and limit these. However, most times, health crises are no less unavoidable. Not all birth injuries and or complications during pregnancy or at the time of labor or delivery are a result of carelessness or malpractice. Before a claim can be filed against a medical practitioner, he or she must have been deemed to have deviated from the set rules of their professions.

Birth injury cases are not linear. This implies that some injuries are worse than others – some are distressing and life-threatening; others are mild-where symptoms persist at a much later time in their growing up.  Other injuries may spring from trying to treat others. Some other infections may also result in a transfer from the mother to the child. This is why antenatal care is highly advisable for expecting mothers.

Types of Birth Injury Cases

Birth injuries occur in various degrees. There are some birth injury attorneys who specialize just in birth injury cases or in a specific type of birth injury. Below, we highlight some types of injury cases, birth injury lawyers take on.

Death

This is the most obvious of all. This is the worst possible outcome. A lawsuit can be filled if the fatality of a newborn or the mother is caused as a result of medical negligence.

Erb's Palsy

An Erb's palsy is a paralysis of the arm – this is caused by an injury to the nerves, precisely the severing or damage of the nerves in the upper trunk. The Erb's Palsy occurs in 1 or 2 out of 1,000 babies in vaginal childbirth.

Neonatal Asphyxia

A neonatal Asphyxia, which is also known as Birth Asphyxia, is a medical condition that results from depriving a newborn oxygen supply. If this lasts long enough, it can cause severe brain damage during the birth process.

Fractures

Fractures are complete or partial breakage in a bone. It could also refer to cracks in the bones. Indeed, infants do experience bone fractures during childbirth and this is caused by a variety of reasons. This may be as a result of rough handling of the child or misuse of equipment.

Scalp Injury

A common type of scalp injury is “Capet Succedaneum“. This is swelling that occurs in the scalp of an infant immediately after delivery.

It typically takes between 2-6 weeks to heal if immediate attention is paid to it. If not, a medical condition is known as Jaundice – a yellow tint to the skin or eyes will emerge.  Scalp bleeding and or swelling are common birth injuries.

How to Define Medical Negligence During Childbirth

It is safe to admit that, inevitably there are some medical birth injuries that cannot be avoided. For instance, there are some genetic illnesses that cannot be avoided. The best thing in such circumstances is to manage them as much as possible.

It should be noted that medical professionals have spent a significant part of their lives serving humanity and saving lives. Thus, it'll be considered foolhardy and inconsiderate to point fingers at them when things go wrong without proper evidence. One thing to bear in mind is, to fall short of medical conscientiousness the care given to the patients will most likely be below the standard required.  For example:

• There can be a situation where a poor baby's positioning is not detected immediately.  This can and may lead to difficulties during childbirth. This can be prevented with consistent ultrasound tests, before the delivery stages.
• There may be an untreated infection in the mother of the child. If there are any health issues faced by the mother, an early diagnosis can help re-strategize and create ways where the infection is avoided from being transmitted to the child. If any infection was not diagnosed from the onset, it falls short of medical contentiousness and immediately is flagged as negligence.
• Improper use of medical equipment may also occur.  As stated earlier, misuse of medical equipment can lead to a series of complications during and after childbirth.

Finding the Right Attorney

Depending on the type of injury case, it is best to seek firms with lawyers who specialize in birth injury cases and some others in personal injuries. This allows for a proper address to be carried out on your case and determine which is best for you.

At what point should you hire a birth injury attorney?

Firstly, in the situation of a birth injury, you should contact a lawyer immediately. The law varies by state as the time given by some state to file a lawsuit is quite steep: between 6 months to two years after the injury has been diagnosed on the file suit.

A handful of the cases are handled outside of the court. Once a settlement mention is being reached, the money is sent to your Attorney usually between 30-60 days after the agreement is made. And remember, your birth injury attorney's job isn't done yet until the case has been settled. Legal processes can be stressful, daunting and needless to say time consuming. Seek professional help if you happen to be in this situation.