Las Vegas Birth Injuries Lawyers
Giving birth can be a difficult yet joyful process. What isn’t so joyful, however, is when the mother or the baby suffers a birth injury due to negligence. While injuries do sometimes occur, you or your baby shouldn’t suffer from the carelessness of a doctor, medical provider, or hospital. If you do, contact Lerner and Rowe’s Las Vegas birth injuries lawyer.
What Is a Birth Injury?
A birth injury is when a mother or her baby gets injured in the process of giving birth. Birth injuries differ from birth defects in that a birth injury affects an otherwise healthy infant/mother, whereas a birth defect usually occurs before birth because of a genetic predisposition.
When birth injuries are avoidable, there’s no reason the mother or the infant should be harmed. If an injury does occur in these circumstances, it’s usually a result of negligence and medical malpractice. This means that the doctor or another healthcare professional acted without reasonable care and caused injury. If you believe you or someone you know suffered from a medical malpractice injury, contact our Las Vegas birth injuries lawyer at Lerner and Rowe to discuss possible courses of action.
Some examples of birth injuries include the following:
- Cephalohematoma – This is a term for bleeding between the skull and the skin. While normally resolved without intervention, this condition leaves the baby more vulnerable to more serious conditions such as jaundice, anemia, and meningitis.
- Brain Injuries – These injuries can occur when the baby gets too little oxygen (hypoxia) or no oxygen at all (anoxia) in the brain. If serious enough, the child could grow up with severe developmental and mental impairments. Worse still, the baby could die if deprived of oxygen for long enough.
- Fractures – When an obstetrician pulls too hard or in an incorrect way on the baby during delivery, a fracture can occur. Fractures aren’t always unavoidable, but if a cesarean section is a viable option of delivery and the OB still decides to deliver the baby in a way that it gets injured, medical malpractice may have occurred.
- Erb’s Palsy – Sometimes, a mere fracture is the least of a baby’s injuries. Similar to a fracture, Erb’s Palsy can come from tugging too hard or in an improper way on the baby’s limbs. Specifically, the brachial plexus bundle of nerves near the shoulder area may suffer harm, causing numbness, weakness, and loss of motion in one or both arms.
- Paralysis – If too much pressure is placed on the baby’s skull, or if forceps/other tools are used incorrectly, a baby could left temporarily or even permanently paralyzed in their facial area.
How to Identify Birth Injury Malpractice
It’s not always easy to spot a malpractice case. Our Las Vegas birth injuries lawyer wants you to be aware of the key criteria in a medical malpractice case. Here are some things to keep in mind:
- Medical Relationship – A medical relationship must have existed at the time of the birth injury. Such a relationship doesn’t have to be explicitly stated, and it can be established through documents such as medical records and doctors’ notes.
- Negligence – For malpractice to occur, the doctor or other medical provider must have acted outside the bounds of reasonable care. This means that any other competent, reasonable doctor/healthcare professional would have acted more carefully in a similar situation.
- Harm – Finally, there must be harm as a direct result of the doctor’s/healthcare professional’s negligence. If a birth injury occurs independent of negligence, medical malpractice may not be at play. However, if the injury did come from the carelessness or reckless behavior of someone caring for you or your baby, medical malpractice may have occurred. Contact Lerner and Rowe to address all your birth injury malpractice questions.
How to Address Birth Injury Malpractice
If you believe medical malpractice did occur, there are some things you can do to pursue compensation.
- Collect evidence – Gather all medical documents and records related to your care and the delivery of your baby. Close inspection of these documents can help reveal when and where a careless error occurred that harmed you/your baby.
- Focus on Recovery – It can be tough when a birth injury occurs. However, don’t feel overwhelmed. Recovery should be your and your baby’s primary concern.
- Get Legal Help – While you recover, let the medical malpractice team at Lerner and Rowe take care of your legal case. We’ll focus on your compensation while you focus on resting and healing.
Suffer from a Birthing Injury?
If you or someone you know suffer from a birth injury, contact Lerner and Rowe Injury Attorneys right away. Our experienced medical malpractice team will be at your side throughout the process fighting to get you the compensation you deserve. We work tirelessly for you, so don’t hesitate to contact us for a free consultation.
Reach us during our office hours from Monday to Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. You can also call us anytime at 702-877-1500. Additionally, you can contact us online through a web form or by taking advantage of our LiveChat feature. Consultations are free, and we don’t take a penny until we win your case, so don’t wait; contact us today!