Birth Injury Lawsuits Explained

The birth of a child is a potentially dangerous and stressful experience, but families expect their medical professionals and doctors to ensure a high quality of care. Birth injuries can be devastating for families when they are not treated appropriately.

Contact a birth injury attorney for help should you suspect that your child suffered a preventable injury during birth due medical malpractice. A reputable lawyer will review your case with no upfront costs. A successful claim will require proving the four elements of your case.

Duty of Care

Few things in life are more joyous and special than the birth of a baby. However, the birth process can be traumatic for parents who have medical errors cause serious injuries to the baby during labor or delivery. These mistakes can be irreparable, creating a lifetime of challenges for the entire family.

Medical professionals and doctors owe a legal duty to provide patients with the level of care and competence that is expected of health care providers in their respective fields under similar circumstances. This is referred to as the duty of care. In order to win a case against a healthcare provider who is at fault you must show that the medical professional breached this obligation. This usually involves demonstrating how the medical professional's actions, or lack thereof, differed from what a competent and reasonably trained medical professional would do under similar circumstances.

The second aspect of a negligence claim is causation. You must prove, through medical evidence and expert testimony that the at-fault provider's negligence led to the injury to your child. For instance, a physician might not have been able to observe your child's vital indicators during labor and birth. This could have caused brain damage from prolonged oxygen deprivation.

The final component of a successful negligence case is damages. You must prove that you and your child have suffered significant financial losses, which are quantifiable, resulting from the healthcare professional's inability to meet their obligation of care. This usually includes past and future medical expenses, lost wages and non-economic losses like pain and suffering.

Causation

Medical professionals owe a duty to patients to provide treatment in line with the highest standards of care in their area of expertise. If a nurse or doctor is not able to meet this standard of care, they could cause injury to the patient, and lead to a claim for damages. In order to win a birth injury lawsuit the attorney must prove that the breach of duty directly led to the injuries suffered by your child. This has to be proven by evidence such as medical documents or expert testimony.

It is also essential to prove that your child would not have suffered the injury even if the medical professional adhered to the standard of treatment. Medical experts are required to review the case to determine if the doctor or hospital acted in a manner not in line with the accepted medical practice.

Birth injuries can be life-changing and require medical care for the rest of your life. It is essential to hold hospitals and doctors accountable for their mistakes and seek compensation to pay for the future needs of your child.

A lawyer with experience in handling medical malpractice cases will manage the entire legal process for you, which includes responding to insurer requests and filing lawsuits against the responsible parties. They can also construct an evidence-based case and secure expert testimony, locate medical records along with other records, and fight for an appropriate settlement to cover the loss of your family as well as lifelong costs of care.

Damages

Medical experts are required to review medical records, evidence from you and your family members, and other evidence in the birth injury lawsuit. They will help establish that the doctor in your case has violated their duty of provide care and harmed your child. Then, they will estimate the damage you have suffered as a result of those injuries. Included are your present and future medical expenses in addition to lost wages, loss in quality of life emotional distress, and other losses.

If nurses, doctors, and other medical professionals make preventable errors before, during, or after the birth of your child, it can result in devastating consequences for your family. It can be difficult to take legal action against doctors and hospitals that may have committed negligence or malpractice. They have lawyers on staff who work full-time to protect their clients, reject claims or decrease settlements.

You can hold medical professionals accountable for their actions by hiring a New York birth injuries lawyer. Your lawyer will handle communication with insurance companies, present your claim in court, and create an evidence-based case to prove the responsibility. They will also fight to secure you an appropriate settlement or verdict from a jury for your losses and life-long expenses for medical care. They may also start a lawsuit before the deadline for any applicable statute of limitation in the event that the clock begins to tick from the time the malpractice or medical error occurred.

Statute of limitations

Four factors are essential to be successful in claiming for compensation when Birth injury law firms injuries occur. 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 that you demonstrate that the defendant was under a duty of caring towards your child, and that the defendant violated that duty, and that his breach caused the injuries to your child. It is essential to prove causation in order to prevail in an action. This means that the defendant's actions, or inability to act could not have caused the injuries to your child.

Defendants can challenge each of these elements. They can argue that there is no doctor-patient relationship, or that the standard care is not what you claim it to be. In addition, they can challenge your evidence and your expert witnesses or their opinions.

You'll need to provide medical records, any other documentation in addition to an account of what happened during the birth of your child. You will also need to submit an demand package that contains the names of the parties you believe should be named defendants. An experienced lawyer will assist you in identifying the proper defendants and make sure they have adequate insurance coverage. A lawyer can also help in advancing the costs associated with litigation like the cost of highly qualified medical experts. This can ease some of the financial stress that comes with litigating an injury claim arising from birth.