legal No.3 - birth injury - gtg - Hackettstown Weekly

Are You Aware of the Legal Ramifications and Signs of Common Birth Injuries?

All licensed medical professionals are subject to the Texas laws of medical malpractice and medical negligence. In Texas, medical malpractice is a general term describing any type of medical injury a patient sustains. Birth injuries are one of several types of medical malpractice. They cover injuries or negligent behavior toward both expectant mothers and their babies.

Birth injuries are usually caused by obstetricians, delivery teams, nurses, hospitals, and intake personnel, but may also include midwives and other birthing professionals.

Birth “defect” cases can affect an entire family. But those who are harmed the most are the mother and/or the child. Sometimes a single act may cause a birth injury and also harm the mother. This is one of a large list of reasons why birth injury cases are inherently complex and require highly experienced birth injury attorneys (along with an exemplary investigative team) to properly sort through medical records and all other forensic evidence to identify the negligent parties responsible for injuries sustained by mother and child: leading up to, including and after the birth.

Birth injury cases generally fall into two types. A doctor, nurse, or other medical professional fails to properly diagnose or provide adequate treatment to an expecting mother, fetus, or newborn baby, resulting in harm to the mother or child. The other occurs when a doctor, nurse, or other medical professional or health institution acts outside accepted professional treatment norms which, either negligently or recklessly, results in harm to the mother or child.

Within the first type of birth injury case are the harms suffered while a baby is in utero, such a maternal medication interactions or the failure to properly diagnose or treat injuries to the mother or child immediately after birth. Many birth injury cases affecting the mother usually fall into this category.

The second type of birth injury case usually surrounds injuries occurring at or around the time of birth: to include labor, delivery, or immediately following the child’s birth. Most birth injuries affecting the newborn fall into this type of case. It can include subsequent diagnoses of cerebral palsy, brachial plexus nerve injuries, shoulder dystocia, brain injuries, disfigurement, and other neurological, skeletal, or muscular injuries.

Often, birth injuries are suspected or identified by medical professionals at the time of birth, but this information is rarely shared with the new parents. Medical personnel fearfully wait to disclose this information usually out of embarrassment or the fear of a lawsuit. This withholding of vital information can delay a diagnosis until the child is old enough to indicate something is wrong when developmental challenges become more evident in the child: even if sometimes the injury heals itself.

A delay in diagnosis is like a ticking bomb – the earlier a diagnosis, the sooner a mother or child can undergo treatment and begin recovery. Delay of a diagnosis may be a sign of obstetrician (OB) medical malpractice or other birth professional medical malpractice.

Do you suspect a possible birth injury occurred during pregnancy, or labor, delivery, or the birth of your child? In many instances, birth injuries are preventable and are caused by the negligence of your doctor or delivery team. Though these injuries are most-often preventable or more easily treated with timely diagnosis, when they occur, they can be life-altering (or life-threatening): not only for you, but your child and devastating to your entire family.

Our Law Firm has seen many cases where the afflicted family did not want to sue or litigate against their doctor. Not wanting to litigate a claim did not mean that the family didn’t seek compensation – they preferred a mediated settlement and apologies with the parties responsible for the birth injuries and cerebral palsy. Our birth injury attorneys and medical support team pride themselves on providing a variety of options for you and your family. One will certainly be comfortable, and appropriate for you to pursue.

In many cases, the doctor responsible may have been a family friend or the aggrieved family was part of a small community and wasn’t comfortable pursuing a lawsuit – even if the family still needed and wanted answers and some level of compensation for their child’s injuries and resulting long-term care. We empathize with the struggles a family has when caught between the rock of community and the hard place of trying to make the best decision for their child. And under these circumstances, we agree with clients who prefer discretion as well as a quiet, firm resolve in securing rightful compensation in a dignified manner.

Our Texas birth injury attorneys and medical support team pride themselves on providing a variety of legal options for you and your family. We view our clients as our extended family at our Texas Law Office. We empathize with the struggles your family must deal with when trying to make the best decision for your child and your family. Contact us for a free consultation and find out how we can help you and your family fight for your legal rights.

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Signs of Normal Birth Injuries to a Newborn

We at our Texas Law Office frequently hear the same questions from concerned parents time and again: how can we tell if there is a birth injury? How can we tell if our child’s injury is a normal injury or abnormal? How can we tell if these injuries are the result of medical malpractice?

Our answer: it’s very difficult to answer these questions without reviewing all the medical records, transcripts and witness accounts. Each birth is special and very different from other experiences. Babies are born with soft, flexible bones and travel through a tight birth canal. Minor injuries are to be expected in the birthing process, especially for vaginal birth deliveries.

We have put together a list of some common signs and symptoms for both normal and abnormal injuries that occur during pregnancy, labor, delivery, the birth, and after birth of the child.

Bruising – The birthing process will often result in minor swelling and bruising along the newborn’s scalp, forehead, nose and neck. If the baby is delivered in a breech position, bruising may occur on the baby’s hips, buttocks, and legs. Bruises usually clear up in a matter of days after birth. Bruises lasting longer than a week are a sign for concern. But an abnormal sign might be if the bruising is widespread or causes lumps or depressions in the skull. The newborn should be carefully monitored for several days until bruising recedes or other medical action is taken. Abnormal bruising can suggest birth injuries from instruments used to extract the newborn and may be a cause for medical malpractice.
Pink marks – These marks are usually referred to as “stork bites,” and are merely small clumps of dilated capillaries that form a small birthmark on the skin. Stork bites are usually present along the forehead, eyelids, and back of the neck. These birthmarks usually fade on their own as the infant grows older and are not a cause for concern.
Milia (small white cysts) – These may appear as tiny pimples across the nose, cheeks, and forehead of a newborn child. They are simply clogged sweat gland ducts. This condition clears up on its own in a few weeks.
Broken bones – newborns with broken collarbones (clavicle bone) are rare, but don’t usually suggest malpractice on the part of the delivery team. However, other broken bones, especially arms, legs, and shoulders, are a warning sign for future long-term birth injuries.

Signs of an Abnormal Pregnancy, Delivery or Possible Birth Injury Malpractice

During pregnancy, did your obstetrician (OB), birthing consultant, or another medical professional adequately track, treat, or warn you of developing or existing medical conditions and their effect on your child, including hypertension, preeclampsia, diabetes, prolonged nausea and vomiting leading to malnutrition, or other long-term, treatable maternal conditions?

Did your OBGYN, pregnancy caregiver not adequately track, treat, or warn you of any complications or dangers present in your pregnancy? Did they or did they not take steps to prevent harm to you and your child, including any medicine or drug side effects and their effect on your baby? This is often seen in patients who take medication (prescribed or otherwise) for depression, asthma, other conditions requiring prescription medication, other drugs, or general decreased bodily functions such as poor kidney function, weakened hearts and other conditions.

During labor, did the medical staff and delivery team at the hospital or birthing center delay hooking the birth mother up to fetal monitors. Or did the medical staff or delivery team disregarded data from the fetal monitors that may have shown fetal distress, or did that data reveal an abnormally high or low heart rate that went untreated?

Was an epidural inappropriately, negligently, or recklessly administered, resulting in harm to the mother or newborn child? Such form of injury to the child is often evident with decreased breathing at the time of birth, or failure of the lungs to inflate properly.

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Problems During Delivery That, if not Treated Properly, Might Suggest Malpractice

The baby may have been abnormally positioned. Abnormal positions cause a vaginal delivery to be difficult and dangerous, often leading to a birth injury to both the mother and child.

The baby might have been abnormally large and/or the birth canal was too small for the baby to pass through normally, yet the doctor performed a vaginal delivery anyway rather than the traditionally accepted delivery method of Cesarean section (C section). In cases where the baby is too large to pass through the canal, instrumentation and complicated maneuvers are used, often to the detriment of mother and child.

The doctor may have used instrumentation such as forceps, a pressurized vacuum, or other instrumentation that forcibly pulled the baby through the birth canal and risk significant injury to both the mother and child, often in the form of head or brain injuries or brachial plexus injury.

At the time of birth:

The baby shows symptoms of asphyxia (no oxygen in the blood): is pale in color, listless- weakly breathing or not breathing at all, and has a dangerously slow heart rate. The baby might also show symptoms of hypoxia (too little oxygen in the blood) and present with a bluish skin color, weak or no breath, slow heart rate.

The baby may have low APGAR scores, or the doctor does not perform APGAR scoring. These scores are often significant evidence of injury to the child. Scoring takes place one minute after birth; a score of less than 5 strongly indicates the baby needs medical attention. Scores less than 4, at later intervals could suggest long-term neurological damage and a heightened risk for cerebral palsy.

After the birth of the child:

The baby has no interest or little interest in feeding or exhibits problems with the instinctual feeding mechanics (suckling, grappling). The baby is lethargic, sluggish, or exhibits asymmetrical movements in the face, arms, or legs.

After the birth, the baby shows signs, symptoms, or is diagnosed with neurological seizures. Symptoms of newborn seizures include repetitive movements, prolonged or continuous sucking, drooling, or sticking the tongue out, rapid eye movements, long pauses in breathing, and rapid muscle jerks.

These are a few of the major warning signs that an injury may have occurred during pregnancy, or labor, childbirth, or after the birth of the child. This list is not conclusive, but a general overview of clues that might suggest birth defects: possibly as the result of malpractice. A full review of your specific situation is critical to determining whether a birth injury is due to medical malpractice or medical negligence.

Our advice to parents is to trust your instincts. If something doesn’t seem right with your child or the way the medical staff is treating you or your child, start asking questions. Request your medical records from your prenatal doctor and all records from the hospital or birthing center where the child was born. Regardless of what the staff or administrators at the birth hospital might tell you, seek a second medical opinion, preferably with a doctor who does not use the hospital where the birth took place.

If you are not satisfied by that second opinion, or if that second medical opinion confirms your suspicions of malpractice-related birth defects in your infant, then call the birth injury malpractice lawyers at our Texas Law Office and have our independent medical experts review everything you’ve collected. Our staff can begin asking questions and getting answers. We have more than twenty years of experience working with parents and families affected by medical malpractice. If nothing else, you and your family deserve answers.

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The Most Common Situations that Can Produce Malpractice-Related Birth Defects

During pregnancy, the two most typical birth injuries to mothers and fetuses can be traced to drug interactions or the failure of the prenatal doctor to monitor or treat existing conditions appropriately.

Teratogenic medicines are drugs given to mothers that are known to produce side effects in a developing fetus. First identified in Thalidomide during the 1950’s, these types of prescription drugs are sometimes administered to expectant mothers with little regard for their effects on the fetus, and can lead to significant detrimental effects on the baby: including improper organ development and altered blood or brain chemistry. Some medications have no known effects on developing babies. But many drugs are listed as teratogenic and it is the doctor’s responsibility to not prescribe them, or discontinue their use, or warn the mother of potential birth defects due to these medications. If the doctor or pharmacist fails in this responsibility, these medical professionals may be liable for resulting birth defects, birth injuries, and medical negligence.

Common drugs which should not be prescribed during pregnancy include: Albuterol, Singulair, Celexa, Lexapro, Effexor, Paxil, Prozac, Wellbutrin, Zoloft and Accutane. Common maternal medical conditions which require significant warnings or different treatment during pregnancy include asthma, diabetes, depression, stress and anxiety, most cancers, skin conditions, hypertension, heart disease, bacterial infections that require antibiotics, inflammatory bowel disease, and chronic nausea and vomiting during pregnancy aside from traditional morning sickness which usually disappears before the end of the mother’s first trimester.

If a pregnant mother has a pre-existing condition or was diagnosed with a particular condition during pregnancy, such as hypertension, preeclampsia, or diabetes, it is a doctor’s responsibility to ensure that resulting treatment will minimally affect the developing child. Failure to monitor either maternal condition or the developing fetus’ condition may lead to medical negligence for any resulting injuries, harms, or aggravated conditions to the baby.

It is vital that both expectant parents be proactive in these situations. If that doesn’t happen, at the time of birth, there are several possible serious physical injuries that may result from medical negligence or medical malpractice arising from mismanagement of teratogenic prescription drugs.

Birth injuries that occur to the mother during delivery are often recognizable and usually caused by ripping, tearing, and disfigurement as a result of the baby passing through the birth canal. On their own, these injuries are rarely a result of medical negligence; however, improper diagnosis or treatment of these injuries can have life-long effects and these effects are legally actionable.

Birth injuries to a newborn child are much less recognizable by new parents. These physical injuries can include nerve damage, broken bones, severe bruising, blood clots and hemorrhages, head and brain injuries, and significant neuroskeletal damage. These serious injuries can lead to a later diagnosis of cerebral palsy, Erb’s palsy, brain damage, retardation, developmental delays, and disfigurement – all of which may have been preventable.

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Birth Injury: Cerebral Palsy

Cerebral palsy (CP) is an umbrella term used to describe a group of conditions affecting the coordination of muscles, bodily movement, and posture. Cerebral palsy is often caused by a brain injury that typically occurs anytime beginning the second trimester of pregnancy through two years of age. Injuries leading to cerebral palsy are to a very specific area of the brain.

Signs of cerebral palsy generally occur by the first year of the child’s life, though there may be early hints of the condition beginning at the time of birth, including low APGAR scores, presence of seizures, and uneven or asymmetrical movements. All forms of cerebral palsy can be managed to some extent with continuous therapy. However, cerebral palsy is incurable.

There are four major types of cerebral palsy:
Spastic cerebral palsy, characterized by stiff, spasm-like movement.
Ataxic cerebral palsy, characterized by a lack of depth perception and lack of balance.
Dyskinetic cerebral palsy, characterized by a lack of control of bodily movements.
Mixed cerebral palsy, characterized by stiff, involuntary movements.
These types of cerebral palsy are correlated to the specific location of the brain that is injured during its development. This brain injury may have been caused by a number of factors. In about a third of the reported cases, this specific injury is sustained during the birth of the child. In many instances, the mistake or negligence of a doctor, obstetrician, nurse, or other medical professional may have caused the brain injuries resulting in cerebral palsy.

A diagnosis of cerebral palsy requires a lifetime of therapy, treatments, and accommodations for your child and your family. These costs can spiral into the hundreds of thousands of dollars, even for mild forms of CP. Few families can handle the costs associated with treatments, even those families with excellent health insurance. And many parents wonder whether their child’s CP was preventable.

The answer can be complex. A total review of your pregnancy, labor, delivery, and birth by an experienced birth injury malpractice attorney is essential to determine whether cerebral palsy could have been preventable and whether it can be attributed to medical malpractice. At the very minimum, your family deserves answers and options after a cerebral palsy diagnosis. Our birth injury attorneys and our medical-legal support team can help you to learn more about your family’s options after a cerebral palsy diagnosis, and help you receive the most appropriate damage compensation available to you.

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Birth Injury: Shoulder Dystocia & Brachial Plexus Injuries

Shoulder dystocia is a childbirth condition where one shoulder of the baby gets caught and stuck in the birth canal. This condition occurs in about 30% of vaginal deliveries and often involves serious, dangerous, risky maneuvers and techniques in order to free the shoulder and birth the baby completely.

Dystocia may be preventable in some instances by using ultrasound to determine whether the baby is at risk because of his or her size, or position or in mothers who have an unusually narrow birth canal. If an ultrasound shows any of these conditions, a C-section is the recommended method of delivery. If a doctor does not utilize an ultrasound or proceeds with a vaginal delivery, shoulder dystocia may be evidence of medical malpractice. But most of the time, there is usually evidence of a separate birth injury to the child in addition to the shoulder dystocia that will suggest medical malpractice.

Some of the birth injuries that may result from shoulder dystocia, will be to the shoulder itself or the surrounding bones, muscles, and nerves. Erb’s palsy, also referred to as brachial palsy, is a specific type of injury to a nerve bundle known as the brachial plexus. If this nerve bundle is injured during birth, the resulting injury is characterized by a loss of movement in the arm and shoulder with the affected nerves. In cases of Erb’s palsy, the nerve damage is caused by pulling the head away from the neck, a clear mistake on the part of the delivering doctor. Erb’s palsy is severe and has long-term effects. Often, this condition can be directly correlated to dystocia. The child will never operate that shoulder and arm normally, nor will muscles fully develop in that shoulder and arm, creating a certain amount of lifelong disability. Significant therapy, accommodations, and treatment may help the condition, but in many cases, these injuries and resulting conditions may have been preventable: and are caused by a doctor’s mistake or negligence.

Other injuries resulting from shoulder dystocia can include head and brain injuries. When the baby is stuck in the birth canal, the child rarely receives adequate oxygen to the brain. The longer the child goes without adequate oxygen, the more that infant is at risk for serious brain injury that will affect the child for his or her entire life. Fetal monitors will often show abnormally high heart rates when the baby is distressed or not receiving enough oxygen. If this continues for more than a minute or so, the fetal heart rate will quickly plummet, endangering the baby’s life. A situation where shoulder dystocia occurs and results in low APGAR scores, as well as a white or blue appearance and lack of or minimal breathing at birth, is a clear warning sign for serious brain and neurological injuries.

After a devastating diagnosis or risky delivery situation, you need answers and options following shoulder dystocia at the birth of your child. Our experienced birth defect attorneys can give you the answers and options your family needs as you choose your compensation strategy for medical bills, adaptive technology, and other immediate and long-term needs for your child. This will likely include long and costly physical therapy bills your family will incur as a result of a preventable Erb’s palsy, shoulder dystocia or brachial plexus injury. Our birth injury attorneys, investigators and medical experts stand ready to help you every step of the way.

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Head and Brain Injuries that May Occur During a Difficult Delivery

Head injuries are a typical occurrence in the birth and delivery process. Swelling and bruising of the scalp and forehead are common minor injuries, the direct result of traveling through a tight birth canal. Newborns may also exhibit a pointed head due to the soft cranial skull bone surrounding the brain. And even though most of the time, these conditions are temporary and return to normal within a few days of the birth, because the skull is soft and flexible, brain injuries are quite possible: sometimes with traumatic results.

Overzealous use of forceps, improper canal pressure, and the baby becoming stuck in the birth canal can lead to blood clots and hemorrhages in the brain, hypoxia (lack of oxygen) leading to brain damage, skull fractures, and other serious brain-related injuries. Though many of these injuries may be preventable, improper diagnosis or treatment of these injuries could have serious effects on the life and abilities of your child. Because of this, these injuries may be a form of birth injury medical malpractice.

One of the most common symptoms of brain injury is asymmetrical (uneven) body movement in your newborn child. Mothers will notice that one side of the face or the body does not respond or match the movements of the other side. This is described as a droopy smile or uncontrolled reflex movements rather than symmetrical (even and coordinated) body or facial movements. The affected side may be more sluggish to respond or does not respond at all in many forms of brain injuries. Correct and timely diagnoses are important while the child is developing so that treatments and therapies can begin as early as possible: which will hopefully minimize any effects from the brain injury.

If your child exhibits any or all of these types of injuries, or you suspect your child may have several characteristics of any of these symptoms of possible birth injury, contact our Texas birth injury attorneys and medical-legal team immediately. Our Law Firm retains highly-skilled medical experts to determine whether a doctor, nurse, or medical professional was a fault for these injuries and resulting conditions. If this is so, your family and your child are entitled to legal compensation for these injuries and you need to contact us as soon as possible to discuss your situation or birth injury case with our specialized attorneys.

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The Difficulty of Determining if Birth Injury Has Occurred and Identifying the Liable Defendants

Because birth injury cases are legally complex, a highly experienced birth injury attorney, a medical malpractice lawyer, birth injury medical experts, and a full support team are essential to your case’s success. This team works together with one goal in mind: to provide your family with answers and a full array of effective options for the injuries you, your child, and your family have sustained: and must endure every day.

Birth injury cases are classified as medical malpractice and medical negligence. This means that birth injury legal cases have many procedural nuances that your legal team must successfully negotiate, or the court could dismiss your case forever. In a birth injury case, your attorney must show that a doctor was negligent in the diagnosis, treatments, or actions. In addition, nurses, pharmacists, hospitals, clinics, and anyone else working in a health-related capacity who might have been negligent in the care of the mother or child, and if their negligence resulted in an injury to you or your child might also be liable. However, determining who held the “smoking gun” requires expert legal investigators, doctors and medical professionals to identify with certainty, just whose negligence led to this disaster.

As you can imagine, assessing negligence can be very difficult, and just as tough to prove. The medical community is very reluctant to point fingers and declare anyone liable for their actions. The medical community also likes to hide behind its science, declaring there is no definitive answer to prove a doctor or some other healthcare professional caused injury or harm.

It’s also difficult to prove what happened during the pregnancy, labor, and birth of the child. But our medical experts are very gifted at reviewing and interpreting medical records of the mother and child as well as any notes, admissions, or statements made by medical staff or delivery team: whether they’re formal (on-the-record) or informal (off-the-record). The longer a doctor or medical professional waits to diagnose an injury or determine its extent which led to the harm done, the less likely that the evidence of malpractice will exist. This is why it’s so very important to retain an attorney who specializes in birth injury malpractice as soon as possible. Parents and their legal investigative team must act quickly to preserve as much evidence as possible. Proactive measures such as pregnancy journals are a great way to refresh your memory about the nine months prior to the birth of the child. Plus, such journals also serve as a record of what is usually a very memorable time in the lives of both parents and their child: once he or she is old enough to appreciate the experience.

Here’s why: as soon as questions are asked about your pregnancy, the labor stage, the delivery and birth of your child, medical professionals overreact and alert their insurance companies to a possible future lawsuit, even if nothing was inappropriate or wrong. Then the medical malpractice insurance company launches its own investigation, gathering all evidence, from the tiniest details to the largest actions – all with a single goal: to show that any injuries or resulting harms sustained by you or your child were NOT the result of medical malpractice or medical negligence by any medical professional involved at any point through your pregnancy, labor, or delivery.

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Medical Malpractice Insurers, and the Doctors they Cover, Work against Your Claim or Case from the Moment They Know Something is Wrong

Here’s why: as soon as questions are asked about your pregnancy, the labor stage, the delivery and birth of your child, medical professionals immediately alert their insurance companies of a possible future lawsuit, even if nothing was inappropriate or wrong. Then the insurance company launches its own investigation, gathering all evidence, from minute details to the largest actions – all with a single goal: to show that any injuries or resulting harms sustained by you or your child were NOT the result of medical malpractice or medical negligence by any medical professional involved at any point through your pregnancy, labor, or delivery.

Medical malpractice insurance companies take in millions of dollars each year to protect doctors from mistakes, negligence, and recklessness. A single error on the part of the doctor may cause a doctor to lose his medical license and causes the insurance company to lose the money that doctor paid for his or her premiums. So the insurance company – and the excellent defense attorneys who represent them – twists the facts to suit their purposes as they build a case against you with one goal: to not pay you a single dime for any medical bills, adaptive equipment, physical therapy, and other basic needs for your child, and your family as a result of birth injury medical malpractice.

But that’s just one series of challenges. The other surrounds the fact that Texas has enacted tort reform measures that make medical malpractice cases harder to prove. But even if you and your birth injury attorney prove your case, your monetary recovery amounts are capped: in most cases at $250,000 from any single malpractice defendant, no matter whether a jury believes the amount should be much higher based on the facts of your case. Regardless of whether the court believes you and your family deserve compensation for pain and suffering, disfigurement of you or your child, or emotional turmoil brought on in your family as a result of these injuries, the state decides how much you will receive: not the jury.

However, this is where investigation can come in handy. As often as not, medical malpractice can be the product of several instances of negligence by more than one healthcare professional. So if – for example – our investigation reveals four liable defendants, each might be forced to pay the full capped amount ($250,000) which produces a total damage recovery of $1 million.

This is why you must have an experienced and shrewd birth injury malpractice attorney who can properly investigate, then prove your case against a powerful partnership of medical professionals and their insurance company following a preventable birth injury brought on by medical malpractice.

Our Texas birth injury attorneys and medical support team pride themselves on providing a variety of options for you and your family. Our clients are family at our Texas Law Office and we empathize with the struggles your family must deal with when trying to make the best decision for your child and your family. Contact us for a free consultation and find out how we can help you and your family fight for your legal rights.

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Birth Injury Attorney. Our lead attorney Discusses Brain Injuries that Occur During Labor

It is possible that during a difficult delivery that your child could have suffered a traumatic brain injury due to the negligence of a medical professional. If this has happened to you, Texas law allows you the right to seek compensation for damages incurred through an insurance claim or possibly a civil lawsuit if your claim is denied. The attorneys of our Law Firm are here to help your family receive the justice they deserve.

It is not unusual for a birth injury to be suspected or even identified by medical professionals at the time of birth. But sometimes these medical professionals will keep that fact to themselves and not share this news with the parents. We find this negligence in diagnosing this condition is often due to embarrassment or a genuine fear of a lawsuit. But withholding of vital information can delay a diagnosis until the child is old enough to indicate something is wrong, when developmental challenges become more evident in the child: even if sometimes, the injury heals itself.

A delay in diagnosis can be a ticking bomb that brings greater harm simply because the earlier the diagnosis, the earlier a mother or child can undergo treatment and begin recovery. Delay of a diagnosis may be a sign of obstetrician (OB) medical malpractice or other birth professional medical malpractice.

Do you suspect a possible birth injury occurred during labor, delivery, or birth of your child? In many instances, birth injuries are preventable and are caused by the negligence of your doctor or delivery team. Though these injuries are most-often preventable or more easily treated with timely diagnosis, when they occur, they can be life-altering, or life-threatening, not only for your child but devastate an entire family.

Our birth injury attorneys and medical support team pride themselves on providing a variety of options for you and your family. One will certainly be comfortable, and appropriate for you to pursue. It is in that spirit that we share this valuable information about birthing brain injuries so you and your family can make the best, most informed decisions on how to handle your medical malpractice civil action and deliver the rightful damage compensation that will pay for the medical care you and your family need, and discourage repeated behavior by the medical professionals who caused this catastrophe.

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Several Different Types of Brain Injuries can Occur at Birth

Brain injuries at birth range from minor to severe; each carrying its own characteristics and consequences. The birthing process is inherently traumatic. And every woman’s ability to physically conduct a normal vaginal birth is different. During birth, babies are pushed via uterine and lower abdominal contractions through a tight birth canal. Complications can arise quickly and without much warning.

Most often, these difficult “normal births” are due to either an even smaller than normal birthing canal, or opening in the lower “saddle” of the mother’s pelvis which makes it difficult to impossible for the baby’s head to pass through. Women often refer to it as trying to “push a basketball through a garden hose.” Newborns often exhibit facial and cranial bruising from the travel through the birth canal, their heads slightly pointed due to soft, flexible skull and bone structure. And the proper thing to do is for the delivery team to perform a Caesarean section (C-section).

Because the skull is not hard and calcified, many types of brain injuries are easily incurred – some with greater consequence. Most of them can be avoided. Some of these occurrences are just a sad and statistically likely event and “just happen” in spite of the best efforts of the obstetrician and the delivery team. However, many brain injuries are the direct result of negligence on behalf of the doctors and support staff that help deliver the child. When such an event has occurred the parents of the child have every legal right to seek compensation on behalf of their child in order to compensate the child for his or her injuries (and the family who must pay for any and all subsequent treatment). Even minor mistakes in the delivery room can result in millions of dollars in extra healthcare, loss of earning potential throughout the life of the child and in extreme cases, debilitating, life-long physical and mental defects.

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Birth Injury: Skull Compression

Because the skull of a newborn is soft specifically so it can pass through the mother’s pelvis and birth canal, compression of the bony structure into the brain matter often occurs. And an infant’s skull seems magically capable of being able to compensate for a short period of physical pressure on the brain and recover: call it the magic of birth. But if that pressure lasts for longer than a minute or two, this extended pressure on the brain can disrupt the child’s development, resulting in retardation, changes in head muscle structure and performance, changes in neural and sensory development, changes in speech and vision, and disruption of the circulatory system. One or more of these conditions can become present in an infant as a result of a long period of cranial compression due to a complicated birth. And this compression of the baby’s skull can lead to many different forms of birth-related brain injuries, including:

Caput Succedaneum – This is a medical term for what is essentially a bump on the head. These often take the form of large knots on the scalp of the newborn, but rarely have much effect than to provide the newborn a pounding headache. Typically these bruises are observed, but often treat themselves within a day or two of birth. Rare is the case when this condition can leave the child with major injuries.

Cephalohematomas are small blood clots between the skill and the scalp of a newborn baby. These clots are usually brought on by a prolonged labor or by use of a vacuum to pull the newborn’s head through the birth canal. Cephalohematomas are typically not too worrisome either. But in severe cases, they may lead to jaundice, anemia, or hypotension, or may be indicative of a skull fracture and resulting infection. And any infection in a newborn can quickly become a Petri dish of other secondary infections that, if improperly treated, can threaten the baby’s life, or lifelong well-being.

Did You Know?
Our attorneys have been fighting for birth injury victims` rights for over 30 years. Call us to discuss your case.

Birthing injuries like the ones above are not all that unusual. And since they are easily recognizable by the parents, the OB/Gyn or delivery team members are more apt to be up-front in sharing diagnosis sooner than later since most of them clear-up rather quickly or can be normally treated, with the odds of secondary problems being very low. But the three below are a bit more sinister and most often, the source of many of the delivery brain injuries suffered by newborns.

Subgaleal Hemorrhage/ Hematoma are two terms that refer to bleeding between the scalp and skull. Typically, subgaleal hemorrhages develop two-to-three days after the birth: but if the condition is severe, symptoms may become evident much sooner. Because this space can hold up to 50% of a newborn’s blood supply, medical personnel must carefully observe the growth of the hematoma across the scalp. And failure to properly monitor or treat this condition early can lead to shock or the sudden death of the newborn. Additionally, this affliction can also lead to hyperbilirubinemia, a condition associated with significant brain injury, retardation, and potential death of the newborn. Though existence of the hemorrhage itself is not a legally actionable birth injury, failure to treat it (and any resulting detrimental conditions due to that failure) is.

Epidural Hemorrhage/ Hematoma is a very serious form of traumatic brain injury. These hematomas occur between the skull and brain matter, putting growing pressure on a portion of the brain. This condition as the potential to permanently damage the functions that area of the brain controls. These hematomas are often due to blunt impact on a portion of the brain, but can be also fueled by intracranial bleeding. Often, newborns will have a lucid interval for a day or so after birth as the blood slowly seeps into the brain, creating pressure that builds against the skull, then reverse-pressures the newborn’s brain, quickly rendering them unconscious. This type of severe brain injury most often directly points to medical negligence in many cases as the level of trauma required for an epidural hematoma is higher than most typical birth injuries.

Hydrocephalus was once referred to as “water on the brain.” It is is the accumulation of spinal fluid between the skull and the brain. Signs of hydrocephalus include an abnormally large head or rapidly growing head, a rounded soft spot on the scalp, eyes that look downward, and seizures that can be as small as barely-perceptible shudders to all-too-apparent uncontrollable shaking. The treatment for hydrocephalus is simply to surgically remove excess fluid and insert a small shunt in the skull to help regulate cranial pressure.

Though hydrocephalus itself is not a birth brain injury, again, the key to preventing resulting injury from cranial pressure, the buildup of fluid, or infection is early detection and quick treatment. A doctor, pediatrician, or obstetrician who fails to notice these symptoms (or fails to take timely action on these symptoms) risks serious consequences for the child, including development delays, organ system problems and failure, and paralysis. These injuries are clearly viewed as birth injuries and if your child’s doctor was negligent in diagnosing, treating or monitoring this condition, it is often medical negligence.

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Birth Injury: Hypoxic-Ischemic Encephalopathy

(HIE) is also called Hypoxia or decreased oxygen in the blood. The blood carries oxygen to all cells and organs. Some also refer to it as ischemia, which means decreased blood flow through the baby’s circulatory system. However it is referred to, this condition can result in severe consequences – most of which are preventable. HIE means that during pregnancy, labor, delivery, or birth, the baby did not receive enough blood or oxygen to the brain, resulting in significant injury. During labor and delivery, the proper use and monitoring of fetal monitors are essential to determining the general health and state of the baby prior to and during delivery. These monitors keep track of the baby’s heart rate and temperature – if the baby’s heart rate or temperature takes a sudden sustained jump, the baby is in distress and emergency action must be taken.

In many cases of HIE, fetal monitors are not utilized, not monitored properly or completely disregarded: a clear form of medical negligence. The resulting injuries to the child can be catastrophic. Without enough blood or oxygen to the brain over an extended period (which can be as short as a few minutes, the risks of retardation, epilepsy, learning disabilities, cerebral palsy, seizures, and other lifetime brain and neurological conditions grow exponentially. These permanent injuries occur to approximately 30% of newborns diagnosed with HIE and an additional 30% even face death before birth because of continued lack of oxygen. HIE is often diagnosed twelve to twenty-four hours after birth, usually at the onset of uncontrollable seizures. But the birthing team might begin to see signs of HIE within a few hours of the birth. HIE Babies are often referred to as “blue babies” or “ischemic”. And if normal color doesn’t begin returning to the newborn almost immediately, this should be a clear warning sign for mothers, fathers, and medical personnel that something has gone wrong during the birthing process.

If any of the above serious conditions occurred during or shortly after the birth of your newborn, you need to ask questions: hard questions. And if the answers don’t satisfy you, for the sake of your child and family, contact an experienced birth injury attorney quickly. The health and well-being of your infant child is at-stake: maybe even at-risk.

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Birth Injury: Cerebral Palsy

The causes of this condition can be traced to Hematomas, Hydrocephalus or HIE. Cerebral palsy (CP) is an umbrella term used to describe a group of conditions affecting the coordination of muscles, bodily movement, and posture. Cerebral palsy is often caused by a brain injury that typically occurs anytime beginning the second trimester of pregnancy through two years of age. Injuries leading to cerebral palsy are to a very specific area of the brain.

Signs of cerebral palsy generally occur by the first year of the child’s life, though in more acute cases, they can reveal themselves within days of the birth. The first hint might include low APGAR scores (Appearance, Pulse, Grimace, Activity, Respiration), presence of seizures, and uneven or asymmetrical movements. All forms of cerebral palsy can be managed to some extent with continuous therapy. But others can be catastrophic and come with few treatment options (but years of continuous and expensive therapy). But today, in all cases, cerebral palsy is incurable.

There are four major types of cerebral palsy:

Spastic cerebral palsy, characterized by stiff, spasm-like movement.
Ataxic cerebral palsy, characterized by a lack of depth perception and lack of balance.
Dyskinetic cerebral palsy, characterized by a lack of control of bodily movements.
Mixed cerebral palsy, characterized by stiff, involuntary movements.
These types of cerebral palsy are correlated to the specific location of the brain that is injured during its development. This brain injury may have been caused by a number of factors. In about a third of the reported cases, this specific injury is sustained during the birth of the child. In many instances, the mistake or negligence of a doctor, obstetrician, nurse, or other medical professional may have caused the brain injuries resulting in cerebral palsy.

A diagnosis of cerebral palsy requires perpetual therapy, treatments and accommodations for your child and your family. And it’s a life sentence for all of you. These costs can spiral into the hundreds of thousands of dollars, even for mild forms of CP. Few families can handle the costs associated with treatments, even those families with excellent health insurance. And many parents wonder whether their child’s CP was preventable.

The answer can be complex. A total review of your pregnancy, labor, delivery, and birth by an experienced birth injury malpractice lawyer is essential to determine whether cerebral palsy could have been preventable and whether it can be attributed to medical malpractice. At the very least, your family deserves answers and if appropriate, legal and options after a disastrous cerebral palsy diagnosis. Our Law Firms’ birth injury attorneys and our medical investigative and support team can help you to learn more about your family’s options after a cerebral palsy diagnosis, and help you receive the most appropriate damage compensation available to you.

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Some Reasons Why Head and Brain Injuries May Occur During a Difficult Delivery

Overzealous use of forceps, improper canal pressure, and the baby becoming stuck in the birth canal can lead to blood clots and hemorrhages in the brain, hypoxia that remains after the birth can lead to brain damage. Skull fractures and other serious brain-related injuries can often occur. Though many of these injuries may be preventable, improper diagnosis or treatment of these injuries could have serious effects on the life and abilities of your child. Because of this, these injuries are often seen as a form of birth injury medical malpractice.

And yet, it is also possible that the injury could be the result of defective monitoring devices or other sophisticated equipment used to make birth’s easier to perform or less-dangerous to the mother and newborn-to-be. If our investigators find this to be the case, then there’s the likelihood of filing a defective product lawsuit against the manufacturer of the machinery. Or if it was improperly maintained, the provider who sells and services the apparatus could become a defendant: even the hospital.

Our Law Firm has deep experience in executing successful defective product insurance claims and civil cases over the past 30 years.

If your child exhibits any or all of these types of injuries, or you suspect your child may have several characteristics of any of these symptoms of possible birth injury, contact our birth injury attorneys and medical investigative team immediately. Our Law Firm retains highly-skilled medical experts to determine whether a doctor, nurse, or some other healthcare professional was a fault for these injuries and resulting conditions. If this is so, your family and your child are entitled to legal compensation for these injuries and you need to contact us as soon as possible to discuss this with our specialized attorneys.

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The Difficulty of Determining if Birth Injury Has Occurred and Identifying the Liable Defendants

Because birth injury cases are legally complex, a highly experienced medical malpractice lawyer, birth injury medical experts, and a full support team are essential to your insurance claim or civil case’s success. This team works together with one goal in mind: to provide your family with answers and a full array of effective options for the injuries you, your child, and your family have sustained: and will likely have to endure every day from now on.

Birth injury cases are classified as medical malpractice and medical negligence. This means that birth injury legal cases have many procedural nuances that your legal team must successfully negotiate, or the court could dismiss your case forever. In a birth injury case, your attorney must show that a doctor was negligent in the diagnosis, treatments, or actions. In addition, nurses, pharmacists, hospitals, clinics, and anyone else who works in a health-related capacity may have been negligent in the care of the mother or child. However, determining who held the “smoking gun” requires expert legal investigators, doctors and medical professionals to clearly identify exactly whose negligence led to this disaster.

As you can imagine, assessing medical negligence can be very difficult, and just as tough to prove. The medical community is very reluctant to point fingers and declare anyone liable for their actions. It also likes to hide behind the “mysteries” of its science, declaring there is no definitive answer to prove a doctor or some other healthcare professional caused injury or harm.

They also claim the difficulty in proving with any certainty, what happened during the birth of the child. But our experienced medical experts and investigators are very gifted at reviewing and interpreting medical records of the mother and child as well as any notes, admissions, or statements made by medical staff or delivery team: whether they’re formal (on-the-record) or informal (off-the-record). The longer a doctor or medical professional waits to diagnose an injury or determine its extent which led to the harm done, the less likely that the evidence of malpractice will exist. This is why it’s so very important to retain an attorney who specializes in birth injury malpractice as soon as possible! Parents and their legal investigative team must act quickly to locate and preserve as much of the evidence as they can; even that which might have been hidden. Proactive measures such as pregnancy journals are a great way to refresh your memory about the nine months prior to the birth of the child. Plus, such journals also serve as a record of what is usually a very memorable time in the lives of both parents and their child: once he or she is old enough to appreciate the experience.

Here’s why: as soon as questions are asked about the delivery and birth of your child, medical professionals overreact and alert their insurance companies to a possible future lawsuit, regardless of whether such a claim is ultimately filed or not. Then the medical malpractice insurance company launches its own investigation, gathering all evidence, from the tiniest details to the largest actions – all with a single goal: to hopefully show that any injuries or resulting harms sustained by you or your child were NOT the result of medical malpractice or medical negligence by any medical professional involved in your labor or delivery.

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Medical Malpractice Insurers, and the Doctors they Cover, Work against Your Claim or Case from the Moment They Know Something is Wrong

Medical malpractice insurance companies take in millions of dollars each year to protect doctors from mistakes, negligence, and recklessness. A single error on the part of the doctor may cause this person to lose his or her medical license and causes the insurance company to lose the money that the doctor paid for their premiums. So the insurance company – and the excellent defense attorneys who represent them – twist the facts to suit their purposes as they build a case against you with one goal: to not pay you a single dime for any medical bills, adaptive equipment, physical therapy, and other basic needs for your child, and your family if they must pay a claim or civil judgment from a birth injury medical malpractice civil offense.

But that’s just one series of challenges. The other surrounds the fact that Texas has recently enacted tort reform measures that make medical malpractice cases harder to prove. But even if you and your birth injury attorney prove your case, your monetary recovery amounts are capped: in most cases at $250,000 from any single malpractice defendant, no matter whether a jury believes the amount should be much higher based on the facts of your case. Regardless of whether the court believes you and your family deserve compensation for pain and suffering, disfigurement of you or your child, or emotional turmoil brought on in your family as a result of these injuries, the state decides how much you will receive: not the jury.

However, this is where investigations can come in handy. As often as not, medical malpractice can be the product of several instances of negligence by more than one healthcare professional. So if – for example – our investigation reveals four liable defendants, each might be forced to pay the full capped amount ($250,000) which produces a total damage recovery of $1 million. But FYI – in a defective product lawsuit, there are no damage caps in Texas.

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The Best Weapon in your Fight for Birth Injury Malpractice Compensation is an Experienced Attorney

Since tort reform was enacted, there is a smaller pool of law firms that are willing to take on plaintiff malpractice cases. But our Law Firm believes that all victims deserve the right to recover legal damages, and need the right assistance, to seek and win fair damage compensation for any negligent medical malpractice.

Once our Law Firm is on the case, we will:

Contend with any insurance adjusters or insurance companies on your behalf.
Thoroughly investigate your child’s birth injury malpractice claim and gather every bit of evidence to prove your case.
Contact and retain recognized expert witnesses to assist in the investigation and testify on your behalf.
Deal with all communications with all involved parties, compose, receive, and manage all correspondence. We take care of ALL the paperwork and every contact.
Clearly prove all liability and damages to help you win the best and fairest compensation amount on behalf of your child and family.
Tirelessly and aggressively negotiate a fair settlement for you with the defendants, insurance companies and the attorneys who represent them so that you may not have to even see the inside of a courtroom.
Faithfully and diligently work to present the best malpractice case possible for you in court if a trial is necessary and compute a fair and representative damage request.
If your child was born hypoxic or ischemic, or was diagnosed with HIE, call our Law Firm to speak to our attorneys today

The attorneys at our Texas Law Office have over 30 years of experience with every type of medical malpractice case. We have an intimate knowledge of the changes enacted by the tort reform. All of our attorneys know how to secure expert witnesses and present your case in such a way that all the relevant conditions for success are met. In other words, we can ensure that the true extent of your child’s injuries is known, and we can convince a jury that your newborn was the victim of medical malpractice or medical negligence.

We have a successful track record in successfully negotiating and litigating hundreds of malpractice cases. All malpractice liability insurance companies know how successful we are at constructing bulletproof civil claims. Often, once they know we’re on the case, they usually offer our clients a favorable settlement without even taking a case to court, which means we can help you get back on your feet even quicker.

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legal No.3 – birth injury – gtg

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