Laurel, MD Birth Injury Lawyer

Medical science has come very far, and birth and delivery are much safer than they used to be, but the process is not without risks. One risk that is hard to prepare for is negligent doctors who injure newborns.

Birth injuries might stem from various causes, such as misdiagnoses or a failure to treat medical conditions. They might instead stem from physical trauma before or after the delivery. Birth injuries might lead to lifelong complications for newborns and severe emotional distress in parents. The people directly responsible for birth injuries are usually nurses, doctors, and other medical professionals involved in the pregnancy and birth. Hospitals should also be included in these cases for employing negligent doctors. Damages from birth injuries may include the cost of medical bills, your child’s future care, and deep pain and suffering. We need medical records about the birth to prepare your case. A medical expert should review these records to help us determine how and when the injuries happened.

Our birth injury lawyers at Rice, Murtha & Psoras can arrange a free assessment of your potential case if your child was born with injuries if you call (410) 694-7291.

How Birth Injuries Might Occur in Laurel, MD

While many birth injuries are caused during delivery, some are caused before or even shortly after delivery. Understanding how the injuries occur is key to getting fair compensation from the hospital and the negligent doctors who caused the injuries.

One possibility is that the child or the person carrying the child had a medical condition that doctors misdiagnosed or failed to diagnose. For example, a pregnant person might develop gestational diabetes, which, if left unchecked, can lead to numerous complications, including cerebral palsy in newborns. While the birth injury might not have been discovered until after delivery, it might have arisen while the fetus was still in utero.

In other cases, doctors properly diagnose a risky medical condition that might lead to complications if left unchecked. Unfortunately, some doctors fail to treat the condition, leading to complications and birth injuries. For example, your doctor might have correctly diagnosed you with gestational diabetes, but perhaps they did not think it was serious enough to treat and would resolve itself. If the failure to treat leads to complications or birth injuries, that doctor should be held liable.

Many birth injuries are caused by physical trauma. Considering how fragile newborns are, it might not take a lot of force or trauma to cause serious injuries. For example, doctors sometimes use medical devices like forceps to help deliver newborns. If doctors misapply the forceps or use too much force, they might seriously injure the newborn, causing brain or nerve damage.

Suing the People Responsible for Your Child’s Birth Injuries in Laurel, MD

Families often sue negligent doctors, nurses, and other medical professionals for birth injuries. It is often the case that birth injuries are the direct result of negligent medical care. Proving these medical professionals were negligent may be challenging, and you should speak to a lawyer about how to prepare your case.

Proving medical negligence means establishing that the treatment you received during the pregnancy or delivery did not meet the standard of care. This standard is based on what a reasonable doctor would do in the same situation. If a reasonable doctor would not have made the choices your doctor did, you might be able to prove medical negligence.

It is important to note that people are not the only ones who might share liability in your case. Our birth injury attorneys can help you sue the hospital itself because they employed the negligent medical professionals who caused the birth injuries.

Birth Injury Damages You Might Claim in Laurel, MD

Your damages should reflect the financial toll and the emotional and psychological impact of the birth injuries. Both these categories of damages might be substantial, and you should speak with an attorney about how much compensation you deserve.

One of the largest contributors to your monetary damages is medical bills. You should claim the medical bills from the injurious birth as part of your damages. Depending on your child’s condition, they might require additional medical care. In some cases, injured newborns need lifelong care for their injuries. This costly future medical care should also be claimed in your damages.

Dealing with the immediate fallout from a birth injury can be challenging, and many parents must leave their jobs while caring for their injured newborn, at least for a while. If this sounds similar to your situation, you can claim your lost income as part of your damages.

Birth injuries have a way of dealing staggering psychological blows to parents and families. People are often in great distress when they realize their child has a birth injury and possibly a lifelong disability. Your emotional anguish and suffering should not be discounted. These injuries might be something your family lives with forever, and you deserve fair compensation for the distress and anguish you experience.

How to Prepare Your Birth Injury Case in Laurel, MD

Medical records related to the pregnancy and delivery of your child are crucial to your case. We must obtain these medical records quickly to prepare your case. Since medical care and treatment might be at the heart of the case, we might need to have your records evaluated by other medical experts.

Medical experts, usually doctors experienced in birth and delivery, can review the records from your child’s birth and determine if any medical negligence was involved. If there is, our medical expert can testify about how the injuries occurred and who is to blame.

We might also need evidence to help us establish the extent of your damages. While the medical records might show how your child was injured, we need information about medical bills and costs to help us show how expensive everything is and might be in the future.

Call Our Laurel, MD Birth Injury Attorneys for Help Immediately

You can schedule a free, private review of your case with our birth injury attorneys by calling Rice, Murtha & Psoras at (410) 694-7291.