After you have waited more than nine months to hold your baby in your arms, having that joy interrupted by pregnancy complications or birth injuries can seem like too much to bear. Watching your newest family member suffer may feel almost intolerable. As a parent or guardian of a child who sustained an injury at birth, you may have the right to compensation. Our birth injury lawyers in Maryland can help you seek compensation for your child’s injuries and offset the costs of your child’s ongoing medical needs.
You cannot undo the harm that a medical professional’s negligence or wrongdoing caused. However, a Maryland medical malpractice lawyer may help you hold the responsible parties accountable. An attorney can help you navigate the often complex medical malpractice laws that govern these claims. At the Jaklitsch Law Group, we know that this can be a vulnerable time, and our birth injury attorneys are ready to help your family recover the compensation you deserve.
Birth Injuries Are Varied in How They Happen and Their Impact
Birth injuries include any injury to a baby during pregnancy, labor, delivery, or the time immediately after delivery. Many newborns experience some kind of birth injury, such as bruising or swelling from the labor and delivery process. These are obviously minor and typically resolve in a few hours or days. Other forms of birth injuries can be severe, impacting your child’s cognitive and physical development, or in some cases, causing permanent disabilities.
Not all birth injuries happen during labor and immediately after. We do not want grieving families to miss an opportunity to hold a provider accountable for injuries that may have occurred due to inadequate or negligent prenatal care.
Living With Birth Injuries
Birth injuries can have symptoms with varying levels of impact. Some may require you to spend those first sleepy days in the hospital watching your newborn undergo surgical procedures or other evaluations and interventions to address concerns. Others may not appear until they are older, but they will stick with them for the duration of their life.
Some birth injuries, such as cerebral palsy and other anoxic brain injuries, can cause severe disability that requires assistive devices, mobility aids, surgery, medications, and several types of therapy before your child can hope to live an independent life.
Medical Negligence Throughout Pregnancy Can Cause Birth Injury
Determining whether your child’s injury may qualify as a birth injury born of negligence is our first goal. Our birth injury lawyers here in Maryland may need to look back to the beginning of your pregnancy to gain a complete idea of what happened. Negligence at different points in your experience may affect who you pursue in your claim and the damages you might be eligible for.
For example, if your physician failed to appropriately address and treat early indicators of pre-eclampsia that resulted in anoxic brain injury, you may be eligible to claim damages for losses from the time the doctor should have seen the issue.
Improper Prenatal Care
More than ever, parents are entering pregnancy with pre-existing conditions, and the number of them experiencing childbirth complications has increased by nearly 32% in recent years, according to a statement by Blue Cross Blue Shield. In most cases, obstetricians or maternal-fetal medicine specialists have the resources to prevent or manage expected complications.
However, preventative intervention or early management is dependent on a thorough and competent evaluation. A physician’s failure to provide proper prenatal evaluation and care to prospective parents may have significant consequences.
Inadequate Screening Procedures
Most people who have been pregnant will say that it feels like you’re getting blood drawn or undergoing some kind of test or evaluation every time you go. This is because part of your obstetrician’s job is to identify any existing complications and anticipate possible or likely complications given the test results.
The American College of Gynecology provides guidance on what standard testing should look like. These include tests for STIs, RH factor, Group B Strep, and Gestational Diabetes, as all of these may alter the appropriate course of treatment.
Inappropriately Managed Gestational Health Concerns
Medical conditions that are poorly treated or untreated during pregnancy can dramatically increase the risk of complications and birth injury. Conditions like heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, and certain infections can make a pregnancy high-risk. If a medical professional knew or should have known about these conditions but failed to provide treatment that aligns with the accepted standard of care, they may assume liability for any resulting birth injuries.
Medical Negligence During Childbirth
Pre-natal care often includes working with several providers in non-emergent situations, allowing more opportunity for them to identify and treat any concerns. However, this is not often the case when it comes to childbirth. Physicians should be constantly vigilant during labor and delivery.
Even a low-risk patient has the opportunity for complications that require quick intervention, especially if the prenatal provider failed to provide adequate preventative care. This necessitates ongoing training for managing emergent birth complications. If you can provide evidence that your physician was inadequately trained on the necessary skills, or that other physicians in a similar circumstance would have been able to prevent the issue or minimize risk, it is likely that the conduct is considered medical malpractice.
Asphyxia
Asphyxia during birth means that the baby’s brain and vital organs were deprived of oxygen at some point before, during, or immediately after delivery. During asphyxia, the lack of oxygen leads to acid buildup in the baby’s cells, which can cause cell death, organ failure, or brain damage.
The causes of asphyxia vary, but are most often related to a lack of blood flow to the baby. This may be the result of complications such as a prolapsed umbilical cord, shoulder dystocia, or placental abruption or hemorrhage. Any of the above situations can restrict blood flow and oxygen to the baby.
Viral and Bacterial Infections
During pregnancy, the baby shares a blood supply with the pregnant parent. This exchange leaves the baby vulnerable to contracting bloodborne infections that the mother may carry. If the baby has a vaginal delivery, they may be exposed to other sources of infection through the birth canal, such as Strep-B. Typically, these are not a problem as long as your physician is aware of them beforehand, and they are often easily managed with IV antibiotics during labor or prophylactic processes like arithromycin eye ointment.
Failing to screen a new mother or appropriately treat them for infection can make the provider liable for resulting birth injuries.
Mechanical Injuries
Mechanical injuries refer to injuries resulting from some kind of physical force. According to a journal analysis discussing neonatal birth trauma, the majority of these types of injuries are scalp injuries. Other types of birth injury include things like eye injuries, bleeding inside the skull, bone fractures, skull fractures, or facial injuries. These may occur when the doctor uses forceps or upon removal during a shoulder dystocia.
Some instances may result in some scabs or swelling, while other cases may cause facial paralysis that may or may not resolve, or permanent brain damage that may cause significant functional impairments.
Jaklitsch Law Group Can Help Your Family Recover After a Birth Injury
When it comes to choosing an attorney to help you advocate for your child after a birth injury, the firm you choose matters. We are rarely as vulnerable as we are when we are coping with trauma or illness. In many cases, families that have a child injured at birth are trying to cope with both. The award-winning legal team at Jaklitsch Law Group understands that, and we operate with several key principles to make your experience better:
- You get to communicate directly with one of our attorneys
- We prioritize individualized support. We know that your case is unique
- We value your trust above almost anything else
- We are comfortable taking your case to trial to recover the compensation you need
- We diligently screen our cases, meaning we only take the ones we are confident we can win
Our firm has been an established member of the Maryland legal community since 1999, and our team offers more than 70 years of combined experience in the legal field. Our Maryland birth injury attorneys have a wealth of knowledge spanning from prosecutorial and courtroom experience to a deep understanding of how large companies will respond to significant legal problems.
Suing For Birth Injuries In Maryland
Sometimes, your child may experience a birth injury even with vigilant and competent medical care. However, if the injury is the result of a negligent physician, you and your family may be eligible to pursue compensation to help with the additional costs you incur and losses you suffered. The first step is calling a birth injury attorney to discuss your situation, and from there, they will investigate your situation to determine who is responsible.
Once we have gathered the necessary information, we can begin making our argument that medical malpractice caused your child’s birth injury. This process typically begins with the provider’s malpractice insurance company prior to taking the case in front of a judge.
It is not uncommon for insurance companies to settle out of court to avoid the added time and expense of a trial. However, we are not afraid to pursue the case in court to get the settlement offer you deserve.
Liability in Birth Injury Cases
Determining the responsible party can be difficult at times. However, given Maryland’s contributory negligence laws that prohibit you from recovering compensation if you are even 1% at fault, it is a critical component of your case. While it may seem obvious that a provider is at fault, additional responsibility may fall on the facility.
For example, a provider who is caught up thinking about personal drama and misses an important indicator of fetal distress may be responsible. However, a facility that fails to provide the appropriate equipment for lifesaving or preventative procedures may incur most of the responsibility.
Negligence in Birth Injury Cases
You must establish negligence to win your case. To do this, an attorney will gather evidence to show that the care provider had an established professional relationship with you or your child, and this relationship obligated them to a certain duty of care. They will then show that the provider violated or breached this duty of care and that the violation caused your child’s injuries.
Last, you must show that the accident of injury did harm. This is an area that might distinguish a case of cerebral palsy from minor bruising. Negligence may have caused both, but there is little damage to claim if the bruising resolves in a few days compared with the lifelong cost of caring for a child with CP.
The Financial Consequences of a Birth Injury
Parents and caregivers may suffer under the financial strain of caring for a seriously injured child. Providing the medical treatments and therapies your child might need to live a successful and happy life can cost an extraordinary amount of money, emotional time, and energy. In many cases, parents may struggle to figure out how to provide these necessary supports. Some of the damages you may be eligible to recover include:
- Medical costs
- Cost of supports for daily living
- Lost wages from time off work to care for your child
- Necessary home modifications
- Pain and suffering
No parent should have to worry about how they will meet their child’s increased needs because of a negligent doctor. The birth injury lawyers at the Jaklitsch Law Group are here to help you in the event that your family has been impacted by the negligent or wrongful acts of medical professionals during the birth of your child.
Our lawyers have spent decades helping families devastated by birth injuries receive the maximum compensation possible to support their injured child. Our Maryland birth injury attorneys have helped families all over the state hold doctors and facilities responsible for negligent care and the damage it causes.
Contact Our Birth Injury Lawyers in Maryland
Working with an experienced birth injury lawyer to file your claim can help your family access the financial compensation you need. Filing a birth injury lawsuit also holds the medical providers and hospital accountable for errors made while causing birth injuries to your child. We are passionate about helping families because our firm is family. Schedule a free consultation with our Maryland birth injury attorneys today.
