Philadelphia Birth Injury Lawyer
A birth injury can turn what should be a joyful occasion into a medical crisis with devastating financial implications. Common birth injuries like cerebral palsy are almost always entirely preventable with proper monitoring and medical care during birth. These injuries usually result when doctors, nurses, or other medical staff are negligent in providing care. Birth injuries are particularly tragic because they dramatically impact the rest of the child’s life. A condition like a brain injury caused by a traumatic birth will not only cause ongoing stress for the parents but can require enormous future expenses for necessary medical treatment.
Birth Injuries Caused by Medical Negligence
If you believe your child’s injuries resulted from medical negligence, a birth injury lawyer from Eisenberg, Rothweiler, Winkler, Eisenberg & Jeck, P.C. can investigate your case. Before filing a lawsuit, we will get answers about what happened to your family. Then, we take into account not only your past damages but all future expenses as well. This includes future medical treatments as well as any necessary changes to your home and more. We have extensive experience handling birth injury cases for clients throughout Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and nationwide. In one case, we helped our clients reach a settlement of $8.9 million on behalf of a child who suffered a brain injury due to lack of oxygen during birth. We have successfully handled many birth injury cases for our clients; contact us today to see how we can help your family with a birth injury lawsuit.
Medical Malpractice During Childbirth
Although childbirth often requires quick decision-making by medical personnel, negligence is never acceptable. Typically, you have grounds to file a medical malpractice suit if the doctor, nurse, midwife, or medical practitioner:
- Chose a medically inappropriate course of treatment
- Failed to exercise proper skill or care during the delivery
It is also important to know that any medical personnel assisting during childbirth must meet the “Medical Standard of Care.” This is a legal concept that requires a doctor, nurse, or midwife to act as any other similarly skilled practitioner would under like circumstances. If a medical practitioner fails to meet this standard, then that action (or inaction) can be considered malpractice.
Injuries during childbirth are in news reports daily; read more from our attorneys on childbirth facts and statistics.
How Do You Prove Negligence in a Birth Injury Case?
Proving that a healthcare provider’s negligence caused a birth injury is key to a malpractice claim. You must be able to establish a connection between the negligence and the injury; without that connection, it will be impossible to prove your case.
For plaintiffs to receive compensation for their damages, they must prove these four elements:
- A doctor-patient relationship existed.
- The doctor breached his/her duty of care.
- The breach of care resulted in patient’s harm.
- The patient suffered specific damages.
The doctor’s negligence and the harm resulting from the negligence are at the center of most birth injury claims. Determining whether a doctor acted negligently during labor and delivery comes down to comparing their actions with what a reasonably careful physician, with similar expertise, would have done in the same situation. Typically, plaintiffs use expert witness testimony to prove this element during a case. Pennsylvania courts require expert testimony except in rare cases where it is unnecessary to pursue the claim.
The first step toward seeking the full and fair compensation you deserve in a birth injury case involves identifying the doctor or healthcare worker’s negligence as the cause of injury. Our lawyers can explain the elements of proof needed to show who was responsible for the birth injury. Our attorneys can also collect all the evidence required to build a strong case.
Filing A Claim For an Injury at Birth
To file a birth injury lawsuit, you must be able to prove:
- Negligence – this means proving that the doctor acted in a way that another qualified doctor would not have under similar circumstances.
- Causation – you must prove that the negligence was the direct cause of the birth injury.
- Harm – you must prove that the health care provider’s negligence or carelessness caused damages. Doctors sometimes make mistakes that do not cause harm. You may only file a lawsuit if you incur damages from the healthcare provider’s negligence.
Who Can Be Held Liable?
1 Potential at fault parties may include:
How Do I Know if Medical Malpractice Caused My Child’s Birth Injury?
Not all complications during childbirth are grounds for a medical malpractice case or birth injury lawsuit. All medical procedures, including delivering a baby, carry a degree of uncertainty. When doctors and nurses follow proper procedures, this uncertainty is minimized. Nevertheless, in order to file a case for medical malpractice, you must be able to prove the following:
Negligence.
You must have proof that your doctor or nurse acted in a way that another qualified doctor would not under similar circumstances. For example, your obstetrician may neglect to monitor the baby’s heart rate during delivery, even though this is standard procedure.
Causation.
Even if medical negligence is present in your case, it must be a direct cause of the birth injury. For example, if your child was born with a genetic birth defect, you might not be able to collect compensation even if your doctor failed to monitor the fetal heart rate.
Harm.
Sometimes doctors make mistakes that cause no actual harm. For example, an obstetrician might not have monitored a baby’s heart rate, but the child was born perfectly healthy anyway. If so, you could not file a birth injury lawsuit because no injury resulted from the doctor’s negligence.
It is not always easy to determine whether a birth injury resulted from medical malpractice. In part, the reason is that medical professionals rarely inform patients when they make a mistake. Additionally, parents and doctors alike may not notice a birth injury until the child grows older and starts showing symptoms.
However, a birth injury lawyer from our law firm can alleviate your confusion and worry. We have experience investigating these kinds of cases, and we can get answers about what happened to you and your child. If we find evidence of medical malpractice, our attorneys can help get the compensation you need.
Most Common Types of Birth Injuries
Birth injuries can occur as a result of negligence before, during, and after childbirth. In order to prevent birth injuries, it is important for obstetricians and other medical staff to continuously monitor the mother and child. When they fail to do so, serious birth injuries can result.
The most common types of severe birth injuries and resulting conditions include:
- Hypoxic-Ischemic Encephalopathy (HIE). This injury is commonly referred to as birth asphyxia. It is a deadly brain injury that occurs when a baby is deprived of oxygen during delivery. If the mother’s blood pressure drops during delivery, or there are problems with the umbilical cord, then the baby could become deprived of oxygen.
- Neonatal brain injury. A number of medical mistakes may result in brain injury to a newborn. Improper delivery techniques, as well as misuse of forceps and vacuum extractors, may cause these injuries. Lack of oxygen during birth is another common cause and may result from many kinds of medical mistakes, including failure to perform a C-section and/or monitor the mother and child for signs of distress. In addition to conditions like cerebral palsy, an infant brain injury may cause delayed development, other motor control conditions, and even death.
- Brachial plexus injuries. Nerve damage to the upper spine may cause a brachial plexus injury (BPI), which affects the ability to move one or both arms. The most severe cases, such as cases of Erb’s Palsy, involve the total paralysis of a limb. These injuries can often be prevented by a C-section. Misdiagnosed cephalopelvic disproportion, a condition where the baby is too large to fit through the birth canal, is a common cause of BPIs.
- Spinal cord injury. When medical negligence causes a baby’s spine to twist during delivery, the result may be a spinal cord injury. This can result in paralysis of varying degrees, depending on the site and severity of the damage.
- Intracranial Hemorrhage. Bleeding may occur within the brain or in the area between the brain and the skull. If the bleeding is not promptly treated, the affected area of the brain could have permanent damage. Babies with an intracranial hemorrhage may develop cerebral palsy.
- Shoulder Dystocia. This injury occurs when the infant’s shoulders become stuck in the birth canal during vaginal delivery. A delay of just a few minutes between the emergence of a baby’s head and shoulders can have an impact on the baby’s health, requiring swift action on the part of the doctor handling the delivery.
A mother could also suffer from any of the following injuries:
- Perineal Tearing. This is a laceration of the skin or soft tissue structures that separate the vagina from the anus. Medical malpractice claims are typically filed if medical personnel provide inadequate or negligent treatment after such tearing occurs.
- C-Section Injuries. A C-section is a medical procedure where an unborn child is delivered through an incision made through the mother’s abdomen and uterine wall. The bladder is the most frequently injured organ when medical malpractice occurs during a C-section.
- Pelvic Fractures. If you are experiencing incontinence, back pain, or pain during urination, bowel movements, or sex, then you might have an undiagnosed pelvic fracture or tear. While medical personnel is supposed to prevent or help care for these types of injuries, they often go unnoticed and cause substantial problems.
Compensation for Birth Injuries
There are many different types of damages that families can suffer due to an injury to an infant or mother during birth. Although there is no amount of money that can turn back the clock on what has happened, our goal as your lawyer is to pursue the full amount you need to care for your child or yourself and move forward with your life.
Economic damages and Non-economic damages include:
- Medical bills (past and future)
- Lost wages
- Lost earning capacity
- Caretaking expenses
- Pain and suffering
- Loss of life’s pleasure
- Increased risk of future harm
- Shortened life expectancy
Your family should not have to worry about being able to afford the best possible treatment and care for your child after a birth injury. Let our attorneys review your case for free and explain what compensation you may be entitled to receive.
How Long Do You Have to File a Birth Injury Lawsuit?
In the state of Pennsylvania, birth injury lawsuits typically must be filed within two years of the date your child turns 18 years old. This is known as the statute of limitations. Wrongful death lawsuits must be filed within two years from the date of the death.
Philadelphia Birth Injuries Lawsuits
Caring for a child who was delivered prematurely, or with a birth injury like paralysis or brain damage can strain a family’s finances. In addition to specialized medical care, you may face expenses like home remodeling for accessibility, additional schooling, and/or daily living assistance costs. However, if medical negligence is to blame, you can recover compensation through a birth injury lawsuit to pay for your child’s care.
Our law firm has extensive experience handling complex birth injury cases. We work with families who are struggling to cope with catastrophic injuries that will impact them for the rest of their lives. Our birth injury attorneys know how tough these cases can be, and we are prepared to fight aggressively for the justice you deserve.
How Our Birth Injury Attorneys Can Help You
The birth injury lawyers at Eisenberg, Rothweiler, Winkler, Eisenberg & Jeck, P.C. can help answer the difficult questions about your child’s injury. Our experienced birth injury attorneys can help you to gather evidence if your child’s injury was the fault of a doctor or another medical professional.
We know how to investigate medical malpractice that may have led to your children’s birth injury; including:
- Review medical records. The medical records help us to evaluate the care and treatment that the doctors and other medical professionals gave before, during, and after delivery. The medical records may also show information about oxygen levels and vital signs that provide insight into what went wrong.
- Consult with experts. We consult with top-notch independent doctors, nurses, and others to determine whether your child’s injury resulted from the failure of healthcare providers to meet the proper standard of care. We speak with life-care planning specialists and other experts to determine what your injured child’s future needs will be.
- Seek a fair settlement or verdict. We aggressively seek a settlement with the individual doctors or other parties at fault in your case. We will fight for a full and fair amount that covers all past and future medical expenses, lost wages, and non-economic damages like pain and suffering. If the settlement offer is less than you deserve, we won’t hesitate to take your case to trial and present a fully prepared case to a jury.
Birth injury cases are complicated. At Eisenberg, Rothweiler, Winkler, Eisenberg & Jeck, P.C., we believe it is critical that you work with attorneys who pay close attention to details, overcome issues that may arise during the litigation, and protect your rights throughout the legal process. Our experienced birth injury lawyers will do everything they can to help you recover maximum compensation so that you can better provide for your child’s care.
For more videos on birth injury legal cases, click here.
Contact Our Birth Injury Lawyers in Philadelphia
If you or your child were injured before, during, or after birth from negligence, you should contact us right away. Our lawyers are experienced and here to help.
Call us today to schedule your free, confidential, no-obligation consultation. We handle all of our cases on a contingency fee basis. You won’t owe us anything unless you win your case.
We are located in downtown Philadelphia in the Center City district about a 5-minute walk from Rittenhouse Square.
