As parents, you want the best in life for your child. During pregnancy, parents focus on even the smallest details to ensure that the baby will be happy and healthy. While the decisions and actions of parents are extremely important for newborns, their delivery staff might be even more important. During a delivery, parents must put all their faith into the skill and competence of their doctors and nurses to deliver their babies safely. Finding medical professionals you feel confident enough to entrust your baby can be difficult. Unfortunately for many parents in America, a medical staff can end up causing avoidable harm to their baby.
Birth injuries caused by medical professionals can significantly affect a child for their entire life. Coping with the aftermath of a birth injury can be heartbreaking. Families in Dunmore with children who have suffered a birth injury aren’t alone when dealing with the complications. Latona Law helps families fight for justice for their child’s injury, such as cerebral palsy, shoulder dystocia, and Erb’s palsy.
How Can You Tell If A Birth Injury Occurred?
Most births are difficult for babies to some degree. It’s normal for an infant to get scraps and bruises during delivery. These are often minor injuries that can’t be prevented and will heal on their own within a few days. Birth injuries that require legal action, however, are different than the injuries a baby might normally get during birth. For all deliveries, and any other medical procedure, there’s a standard of care that both mothers and babies should receive from medical professionals. Birth injuries caused by medical malpractice occur when mothers and their children are treated below this standard of care. Due to neglect and mistakes by a medical professional, babies may face severe injury and lifelong complications.
Determining whether or not your baby has suffered from a birth injury can be difficult. You might sense that something is wrong with your baby soon after birth, but many birth injuries aren’t as noticeable in the early stages of their life. Signs of many birth injuries may not be apparent until a child grows and begins to show developmental issues. Since this is long after their birth, many parents might not recognize it as the result of a birth injury, so they might not seek legal assistance. As the birth injury might not be known until years after a child’s birth, families in Pennsylvania can file a lawsuit up to their child’s 20th birthday. As soon as you suspect that your child could have a birth injury, you should contact an attorney.
What Can A Birth Injury Lawsuit Do?
By filing for a lawsuit, you could receive compensation for your child’s injury. No amount of compensation can undo your child’s birth injury, but it could help ease the burden placed on your child. While raising a child with a birth injury can be strenuous, it’s also extremely expensive. The cost of caring for someone with a birth injury can total over $1 million throughout their lifetime. Your family could be facing financial hardships due to another person’s carelessness. By filing a lawsuit, you could help ensure that your child and family are financially covered for whatever they might need.
The amount that can be won in a birth injury lawsuit varies depending on the details of each case. Through a lawsuit, you could be compensated for non-economic damages to you and your child. A lawsuit will also allow you to hold the medical professionals involved accountable for their actions.
Some of the damages you can receive compensation for include:
- Decreased quality of life
- Past and future medical treatment
- Lost wages
- Emotional pain and suffering
- Physical pain
- Special education, accommodations, and therapy
Hiring a Birth Injury Lawyer.
If your child has a birth injury, it’s important that you reach out to a qualified attorney. Lawsuits involving a birth injury can be complex, so they require a lawyer with a vast amount of knowledge regarding these types of cases. Lawyers handling your case should specialize in birth injury lawsuits to ensure that everything is being done correctly and with care.
At Latona Law, we focus only on medical malpractice and birth injury cases. Our expertise and experience in this field give you the best chance of winning your case. We offer a free consultation for families in Dunmore who suspect their child has a birth injury. This way, we can walk you through any questions you have and take the next steps if necessary. If you do decide to take legal action, we work on contingency fees, so you won’t get paid until we do.
If your child has a birth injury, or you have questions regarding what your options are, contact us with any questions or concerns you may have.