Birth Injury Lawsuits Explained

Families expect that their medical professionals and doctors will maintain a high level of care. If they don't, birth injuries can be devastating to families.

If you suspect your child suffered a preventable birth injury due to medical malpractice, contact a birth injury attorneys injury lawyer to get help. Reputable lawyers will evaluate your case for free and charge no upfront fees. In order to prove your claim, you must prove the four elements.

Duty of Care

The birth of a baby is one of the most exciting and significant events in the life of a person. Unfortunately, the process can be traumatic for parents who have medical errors cause serious injuries to the baby during the labor and delivery. These mistakes can be irreparable and create an entire series of problems for a family.

Medical professionals and doctors are under an obligation under law to treat their patients with the same respect and expertise that they expect from health care providers in similar professions in similar circumstances. This is known as the duty of care. You must prove that a medical professional breached this duty in order to prevail on an action. This typically means proving that the medical professional's actions or inability to act in a manner that was not consistent with what a reasonably educated and competent medical professional would have done under the same circumstances.

The second component in a negligence case is the causation. You must establish, through medical evidence and expert testimony that the at-fault provider's breach of duty caused the injury of your child. A doctor, for example could not have observed your child's vitals during labor and delivery. This could have caused brain damage due to the prolonged oxygen deprivation.

Damages are the final element in a successful negligence case. You must prove that you and/or your child experienced real and quantifiable loss as a result of the healthcare professional's failure in their duty of care. This includes past and future medical costs, lost wages, and non-economic losses like pain and discomfort.

Causation

Medical professionals are bound to their patients to provide treatment that is in accordance with standards in their field. If a doctor or nurse does not meet the standards of care, they could result in injury to the patient, and lead to a claim for damages. To prevail in a birth injury case the attorney must prove that the breach of duty directly caused your child's injuries. This can be proven with evidence, like medical records or expert testimony.

It is also important to establish that your child would not have suffered a traumatic injury when a medical professional provided the standard of treatment expected. Medical experts are required to examine the situation and give their opinion on whether the hospital or doctor did something that was not in accordance with accepted medical practices.

Birth injuries can cause life-altering consequences that require an ongoing series of medical treatments and other expenses. It is essential to hold at-fault doctors and hospitals accountable for their negligence, and to seek compensation to help pay for your child's future requirements.

A lawyer with experience in handling medical malpractice cases can handle the entire legal process for you, including responding to insurer requests and filing a lawsuit against the responsible parties. They can also construct an evidence-based case and get expert testimony, locate medical records and other records and then fight for an equitable settlement to cover your family's losses and lifetime cost of care.

Damages

A birth injury lawsuit requires the expertise of medical experts who will look over medical records, witness statements from your family and you and other evidence. They will help establish that the doctor in your case acted outside of their duty of care and caused injuries to your child. They will also estimate the damages that you have suffered as a result of those injuries. This includes the future and present medical expenses and lost wages, loss of quality of life, emotional distress and many other losses.

It can be a devastating experience for your family when nurses, doctors and other medical personnel make preventable mistakes before or after the birth your child. It can be also difficult to initiate legal action against the hospitals and doctors who may have committed negligence or malpractice. They usually have their own legal teams who are on call 24/7 to protect their clients and to deny claims or reduce settlement amounts.

By hiring an New York birth injury lawyer, you can hold medical professionals at fault accountable. Your lawyer will be in contact with the insurance companies and file a claim in court, and create a strong evidence-based case for establishing liability. They will also advocate for you to secure an equitable jury verdict or settlement for your damages and costs over your lifetime. They may also make a claim in time for any applicable statute of limitations in the event that the clock begins to tick from the date the malpractice or medical error occurred.

Statute of Limitations

A successful claim for compensation in a birth injury case requires four components. Your attorney can provide a detailed explanation of each element and develop a solid legal argument in support of your claim.

Medical negligence claims require you to establish that the defendant owed an obligation of care for your child, that the defendant violated that duty, and that this breach caused the injuries to your child. To be successful in a claim it is crucial that you prove causation, which means that your child's injuries would not have happened if not for the actions of the defendant (or failure to act).

The defendants can challenge any of these elements. They can argue that there is no doctor-patient relationship or that normal care isn't what you claim it is. Additionally, they may challenge your evidence as well as your expert witnesses or their opinions.

In order to prove a breach of duty, you'll need to submit medical records and other documentation, and provide a statement of what went wrong during your child's birth. Also, you'll need make an application for a demand form, which includes the names of the parties you believe should be named defendants. An experienced lawyer can assist identify the right defendants and ensure that there is adequate insurance coverage. A lawyer can help advance costs related to litigation, including the costs of highly skilled medical experts. This can help reduce some of the financial burden that comes with litigating a claim for birth injury.