You Can Trust Midwest Injury Lawyers
When you choose a birth injury attorney, you are putting your child’s well-being and family’s financial future in their hands. At Midwest Injury Lawyers, our compassionate and professional legal team understands the extreme concern and anger that often come with a birth injury.
Our legal team is on your side and can help you pursue a claim for medical malpractice against a medical provider or facility. Whether the birth injury happened at a large facility like Community Hospital or a smaller birthing center, we can help.
Although no amount of money can ever truly compensate for a child’s birth injury, it can help to bring about a sense of closure and justice for you, your child, and other family members. Our skilled legal team will be in a position to explore all of your legal options and help you pursue the best course of action in your birth injury claim or lawsuit.
For a free case evaluation and legal consultation with a skilled Hammond birth injury attorney, please contact us today to learn more.
How do Birth Injuries Typically Happen?
A child’s birth injuries may happen for various reasons, but typically result from a medical provider or medical facility’s negligence. One of the most common causes of birth injuries is improper delivery room techniques. Both nurses and doctors who work in a delivery room setting must provide the necessary and proper care to their patients at the appropriate times. Serious issues may arise when these medical professionals do not follow accepted protocols in hospital delivery rooms.
For example, a child may not receive the oxygen needed during the delivery process, leading to a birth injury that affects them (and their ability to function) for the rest of their life. In addition, a medical provider might allow too many individuals to be present in the delivery room or may refrain from wearing a mask or other protective equipment. Failing to use the proper procedures and techniques in the delivery room can also unnecessarily delay a child’s birth.
In addition, some birth injuries happen when medical providers fail to regularly monitor the fetus’ heart rate during all stages of the delivery process. Medical providers must use special equipment to continuously monitor the child’s heart rate, especially during labor.
If they detect an abnormal heart rate, they have a duty to take the necessary medical actions to prevent additional problems. If a medical provider does not quickly control a fetus’s heart rate, the child may ultimately suffer a birth injury that leads to additional complications.
Medical providers also have a duty to properly monitor their patients in the delivery room. They must ensure that their patients receive proper medical care when they need it and must constantly measure their patient’s vital signs. If an emergency or other irregularity happens, a medical provider must provide prompt care right away. If they fail to do so, a severe complication may occur that leads to a birth injury.
Although many medical providers try to keep their patients as comfortable as possible during the birthing process, they must not prescribe excessive pain relievers and other medications to expectant mothers. If an anesthesiologist or medical provider gives patients the wrong dosage, it can result in harm to the mother as well as to the unborn child.
Medical providers also have a duty to use the proper equipment when delivering a child. For example, delivery room nurses and doctors must correctly use tools and equipment, including forceps, clamps, and other medical instruments. If the provider fails to use these instruments carefully, the child may suffer a wound or other injuries during delivery, which may cause medical complications later in life.
In addition, some birth injuries happen when a medical doctor’s negligent actions or inactions in the delivery room deprive the child’s brain of sufficient oxygen. This is especially true when medical providers do not perform birthing procedures, such as C-sections, in the correct order. If the medical provider delays a birthing procedure too long, the child may not receive the oxygen they need at that critical time. Consequently, the child may suffer irreversible brain damage.
Finally, birth injuries may happen when a delivery room doctor or nurse improperly delays a C-section for too long. If a medical doctor delivers the fetus too late or too early, the child may suffer brain damage from lack of oxygen. In addition, if a provider uses the incorrect tools to perform a C-section, the baby may suffer an injury that causes them complications later in life.
If your child suffered injuries as a result of one of these types of medical negligence, you should speak with an experienced and compassionate Hammond birth injury lawyer as quickly as possible. The skilled legal team at Midwest Injury Lawyers can meet with you to discuss what occurred and determine your legal options for moving forward.
We can also assist you with every step of filing a medical malpractice claim against a delivery room obstetrician, nurse, anesthesiologist, or another medical provider. If the medical provider’s insurance company refuses to offer you fair and reasonable compensation for you and your child, we can file a lawsuit in the court system after satisfying the proper notice.
How Can a Birth Injury Complicate a Child’s Life?
A birth injury that results from a medical provider’s negligence in the delivery room can seriously affect a child for the rest of their life. In some instances, the effects of medical negligence may appear right away. However, at other times, a birth injury may not manifest itself for months or even years after the child’s birth. During the time when a child is growing and developing, parents should be aware of any potential symptoms that may point to a birth injury.
While not all potential symptoms indicate a birth injury, others may suggest that some damage happened while a medical provider was delivering the child.
Some early signs that point to a birth injury include:
Excessive drooling
Erb’s Palsy
Oxygen levels that are below normal
Difficulty with drinking, swallowing, or eating
Skull fractures
Muscle stiffness or looseness
Sensitivity to light
Low blood pressure or heart rate
If your newborn child exhibits some of these symptoms early in their life, it may indicate cerebral palsy or some other type of damage to the child’s brain. If your child shows any of these abnormalities, you should immediately seek prompt medical attention from a qualified medical provider. In general, the sooner you seek this medical attention, the higher your child’s chances of fully recovering.
In addition to these symptoms, other symptoms of potential birth injuries happen when a child is between one and two years old. In some instances, parents first notice these symptoms when a child misses a significant physical milestone as they get older
During this time, some of the most common signs indicating a birth injury include:
- Difficulty drinking or eating
- Inability to use various body parts
- Coordination difficulties
- Trouble walking or crawling
- Inability to respond to a loud noise
- Memory difficulties and other intellectual problems
- Difficulty using forks, spoons, and cups
- Difficulty sitting, crawling, walking, or standing without assistance from an adult
In addition to these symptoms, which typically manifest between one and two years of age, other symptoms of birth injuries do not appear until a child reaches elementary school age.
Their symptoms may include:
- Delays in language development that prevents them from speaking in a complete sentence
- Difficulty dressing, eating, or drinking without someone else’s help
- Deafness or muteness
- Hypertonia, or stiff muscles
- Jerky reflexes prevent a child from developing motor skills
- Various levels of autism spectrum disorder
If you become aware of any of these birth injury symptoms, you should take action right away. First, you should consult with an experienced medical provider who can determine if your child likely suffered a birth injury.
Next, you should speak with an experienced Hammond birth injury attorney at Midwest Injury Lawyers right away. Our legal team can help you determine your eligibility for filing a birth injury claim—or a lawsuit against the at-fault medical provider or medical facility in the court system. We can then aggressively advocate for your legal interests and help you maximize the total monetary compensation that you and your child deserve to recover.
Proving a Medical Negligence or Malpractice Case Due to a Birth Injury
In a medical negligence or malpractice case, the individual filing the claim, or the plaintiff, has the sole 
legal burden of proof. Insurance companies for medical providers and medical facilities will do everything possible to undermine a medical malpractice claim and avoid paying out fair monetary compensation to victims. Therefore, if you are filing a birth injury claim or lawsuit, you must have qualified legal counsel representing you at every stage of the case.
As part of a claim or lawsuit, you must first demonstrate that a delivery room medical provider, such as an obstetrician, nurse, or anesthesiologist, violated their legal duty of care.
For example, a doctor might have waited too long to deliver the child, improperly used instruments during the birthing process, or made another mistake that deprived the child of oxygen. In addition, you must demonstrate that your child suffered an illness or injury as a direct result of the medical provider’s negligence in the delivery room.
To receive monetary compensation in a medical negligence or malpractice case, you will typically need to find an independent medical provider who is willing to testify in your case. That provider must then review all of the related documentation and make an independent determination about whether malpractice or negligence likely occurred under the circumstances. The independent provider must also make this determination based on a reasonable degree of medical probability.
Plaintiffs who can satisfy their legal burden of proof may be eligible to recover various monetary damages, depending upon the extent of their child’s injuries and other complications. Every birth injury case is different, and not all plaintiffs will receive the same types and amounts of monetary damages. The economic damages that a plaintiff might recover include compensation for additional medical costs, as well as the costs of lifetime medical care if the child’s birth injury is permanent.
A medical malpractice plaintiff may recover monetary damages through settlement or litigation. Since taking a case all the way to a civil jury trial can be extremely costly for everyone involved, the majority of medical malpractice cases settle out of court.
The knowledgeable Hammond birth injury attorneys at Midwest Injury Lawyers can help you decide whether to accept a pending settlement offer from the negligent medical provider’s insurance company or file a lawsuit and litigate your case.
Contact a Hammond Birth Injury Lawyer about Your Legal Matter Today
Birth injury cases are frequently complicated and require solid legal knowledge and experience to achieve a favorable result. At Midwest Injury Lawyers, our team can promptly begin an investigation into your birth injury claim and help you make informed and intelligent decisions during every step of the process. We can also represent you in all legal proceedings and help you achieve the best possible result in your claim or lawsuit. Reach out to a Hammond personal injury lawyer.
For a free case evaluation and legal consultation with a skilled Hammond birth injury lawyer, please call us at (219) 200-0151 or contact us online to learn more.
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Midwest Injury Lawyers – Hammond Office
2901 Carlson Drive Suite 363,
Hammond, IN 46323
Phone: (219) 200-0151
A Word from Our Birth Injury Attorney
Birth injuries are complicated and heartbreaking – but you don’t need to face them alone. We’re here to fully investigate your case and defend your rights.
– Samuel R. Carl
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