Baltimore, MD Posterior Cord Injury Lawyer

The “posterior cord” is one of the main bundles of nerves within the brachial plexus. the brachial plexus is a series of nerve groupings that pass through the neck and into the shoulder, passing signals from the brain to the arm, neck, shoulder, chest, and other areas connected through those parts. Injuries to these nerves can occur in many ways, one of the most common of which is during childbirth injuries.

If you or a loved one suffered injuries, or if your child was hurt during childbirth and suffered a posterior cord injury, contact an attorney to discuss the potential of getting financial compensation for the injury. Birth injury attorneys like those at Rice, Murtha & Psoras may be able to help you file a lawsuit against a negligent doctor to seek compensation for your child’s posterior cord injury. To schedule a free legal consultation with our Baltimore, MD posterior cord injury lawyers, call our law offices today at (410) 694-7291.

Common Causes of Posterior Cord Injury During Childbirth

The posterior cord, along with the lateral cord and medial cord, passes through the muscles and tendons in your neck, providing signals to your chest, shoulder, arm, and other parts of the body. Injuries to the nerves in this cluster can cause significant complications for newborns, potentially resulting in palsies, partial paralysis, numbness, motor control issues, and other harm.

Doctors are responsible for providing reasonably safe medical care that helps their patients, which often means taking steps to avoid known causes of injury. In childbirth, doctors should be aware that the baby can be injured through cramped or awkward positioning and additional strain and stress on their body. Many times, prolonged labor, breech deliveries, and other complications can result in a baby suffering strain on the brachial plexus and the posterior cord, potentially resulting in injuries.

The actual mechanics by which posterior cord injuries occur can vary. In some cases, a baby’s arm might be raised over their head and cramped against the birth canal. Alternatively, the baby’s head might be pressed down and the to the side, or their shoulder might be cramped. In any case, the undue pressure on the shoulder and neck might strain or compress the posterior cord, potentially resulting in nerve damage that can cause numbness, partial paralysis, palsy, tingling sensations, and other injuries.

Suing a Doctor for Malpractice Leading to Posterior Cord Injuries

In some cases, an injury might be an unavoidable complication. However, in other cases, the injuries might have been avoidable. If the doctor’s failure to provide certain treatments or to use available techniques led to your injuries, you may be entitled to hold the doctor responsible for those decisions. Additionally, mistakes or errors that should have been avoided can also allow you to hold a doctor responsible for the injuries those mistakes caused.

Proving either a mistake or an error in judgment can be complex. Juries are typically responsible for making fact decisions in a lawsuit. Unless the case is settled before it gets to a jury, your lawyer will typically need to convince a jury of what the doctor did wrong. They will usually accomplish this by presenting testimony from other physicians and medical personnel in the room during the delivery and having another medical expert who performs similar procedures testify about what went wrong and what your doctor should have done differently.

The defendant will typically use their own expert to say that the mistakes were within the boundaries of normal complications or that the injury was unavoidable. However, your lawyer’s arguments can also help push a jury to agree with your position.

Damages for Posterior Cord Birth Injuries

If you can prove that your baby was injured by a doctor’s negligence, you can typically claim compensation for any damages that stem from the injury. Childbirth injuries often result in additional medical care, such as surgeries or treatments to try to quickly reverse the effects of the injury, ongoing physical therapy to attempt to improve the baby’s condition, and occupational therapy to help the baby cope with any permanent or lasting effects of the injury. These care costs can be expensive, especially after already having other standard costs for childbirth.

Our lawyers can help you claim the costs of additional medical care to treat a birth injury. Doctors, the hospitals they work for, and the medical malpractice insurance companies that represent them can be made to pay damages to cover these costs and more if they are found negligent.

Many lawsuits for injuries, including birth injuries and medical malpractice claims, can include damages for future harms as well. If your child suffered injuries that will cause ongoing disabilities, you may be able to claim future healthcare costs related to the injury. You may even be able to claim additional expenditures and financial damages, such as lost future wages for your child when they grow up.

You can also claim direct damages for the physical and mental effects of the injury. These are often organized into categories like “noneconomic damages” or “pain and suffering damages.”

Call Our Baltimore Posterior Cord Malpractice Lawyer for a Free Consultation

At Rice, Murtha & Psoras, our lawyers represent injury victims and their families and work to get them compensation for birth injuries and other types of injuries. If your baby suffered a posterior cord injury during delivery, call our Baltimore posterior cord injury attorneys today to schedule a free legal consultation. Our phone number is (410) 694-7291.