Why You Should Hire a Birth Defect Lawyer

If your child was born with an anomaly in the birth it could have a devastating effect on you and your family. Medical bills, therapy expenses and other expenses can quickly mount up.

A Hyattsville lawyer that specializes in birth defects could assist you file for compensation to cover the costs of taking care of your disabled children. Legal claims for birth defects are complicated and it is essential to seek legal advice as soon as you can.

Medical Malpractice

Medical professionals are required to adhere to a certain standard when treating pregnant women or their infants. Doctors can be held liable for damages if their actions result in birth defects or injuries. A DC lawyer with experience in birth defect lawsuits can help you determine whether your child's condition may be due to an error in medical care during pregnancy or delivery.

A doctor could be held accountable for birth injuries if they fail detect fetal distress or fail to respond appropriately. This can lead to a range of serious problems, including hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy (HIE) and brain injuries like cerebral palsy.

Birth injuries differ from birth defects because they are caused by circumstances during pregnancy, delivery, or labor. The causes of injuries include conditions like Erb's Palsy which is caused when the nerves that energize and control the arms of an infant are stretched or damaged during birth and the caput succedaneum is a swelling of the scalp. Both of these can lead to lifelong disability and require ongoing treatment, which can result in large medical expenses. A Washington, DC lawyer who is an expert in birth defects may provide a no-cost consultation to review your case, and determine the most appropriate course for you and your baby.

Prescription Drugs

A birth defect lawyer might be able help parents determine the cause for a child's birth injury. Many birth defect lawsuit defects result from the genetics of the baby or other factors during pregnancy. However, certain medications can also cause birth defects. A number of commonly used medications have a profound effect on fetuses and babies, particularly during the first trimester of pregnancy. These include anti-nausea medications, NSAIDs, chemotherapy drugs, certain antibiotics, and more. These medications have been proven to increase the risk of limb and heart defects, brain deformities, and craniosynostois.

It is the duty of a doctor to consider these risks when prescribing medications for women who are pregnant. If doctors fail to adhere to this standard of care, they could be held accountable for malpractice. Pharmaceutical companies could be held accountable for not adequately informing mothers about the risks associated with their medicines. For instance, Zofran, a medication used to treat nausea in cancer patients, has been found to significantly increase the risk of major congenital problems in first trimester pregnancies.

An attorney who specializes in birth defects can help a family get compensation for medical expenses, loss of income and quality of life. This could include hospital costs as well as doctor's fees, pharmaceutical costs, and other expenses, as well as assistive devices and therapy.

Chemical Exposure

A birth defect lawyer can file an action on behalf of families of children who suffer from congenital disabilities that result from the negligence of businesses that expose pregnant women to chemicals or drugs that cause birth defects. They are trained to determine the cause of birth defects, so that they can bring a case against companies who expose pregnant women to teratogens at workplace or at home.

Metals, fungicides, herbicides, and pesticides are a few chemicals that can cause birth defects. These chemicals are referred to as Teratogens because they interfere with the normal development of a the fetus via chemical changes that cause abnormal organs, or disrupt normal cell function. These chemicals can be present in a variety settings, including semiconductor manufacturing and metal cleaning.

Other harmful chemicals that could cause birth defects are aliphatic hydrocarbons with aliphatic chlorinated chemistry such as trichloroethylene, perchloroethylene and dichloroethane. These chemicals have been proven to cause birth defects, such as cardiac defects, in babies born to mothers who were exposed to them while in the womb.

Parents have filed lawsuits in order to hold companies accountable for exposing families of soldiers at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina exposed to harmful chemicals. Some of these birth defects lawyers have secured significant settlements for families that had children born with serious defects as a result of the exposure to toxic chemicals at the base.

Environmental Exposure

Certain birth defects can be caused by an unintended medical error and environmental conditions or chemical. If a family believes that the birth defect of their child could be the result of medical negligence, prescription drug overdose or exposure to harmful chemicals, they should contact an DC birth injury lawyer to discuss the situation.

If pregnant women inhale or absorb contaminants from their environment they could develop serious birth defects. These chemicals are referred to as Teratogens. Over 4 million chemicals exist in our food, air and water, and some of them could be harmful if they come into contact with a woman who is pregnant.

For instance, arsenic in drinking water, and cadmium from coal that is contaminated may cause numerous birth defects and other health issues. Certain birth defects are associated with industrial solvents like benzene (a metal degreaser) as well as toluene (a solvent for plastics) and trichloroethylene. Glycol-ethers also increase the risk of birth defects among women. These chemicals are used for the manufacture of semiconductors as well as silicon chip displays and video displays.

The experienced attorneys at LK's firm for birth defects have filed a variety of lawsuits on behalf of children suffering from various birth defects due to accidental exposure to toxic chemicals or chemicals at work or at home. These lawsuits usually involve a an extensive scientific analysis as well as expert witnesses, such as toxicologists and epidemiologists, geneticists, occupational medicine specialists and embryologists.