Watching new life enter this world should be the happiest time of your life. Giving birth to a baby boy or girl allows new parents to love and nurture someone they conceived through love. When simple procedures go wrong, however, a day of celebration can turn into a nightmare that will leave a lifetime of physical and emotional scars.
Doctors take the Hippocratic Oath, which is a sworn promise to comport themselves with equanimity in all matters of public health interests. Negligence by doctors and their nursing staff cause birthing injuries and death to the birthing mothers, and are avoidable in most cases.
If you or your loved one were injured while giving birth, you have options. Michigan Injury Lawyers will fight for your rights and get to the bottom of this horrific incident. In many cases, we can get compensation for you and the baby based on damage to that young child’s potential.
Contact us to discuss your situation with a Petoskey birth injury attorney. Our compassion for our clients matches our experience in medical malpractice law.
Legal Options You Have After a Birth Injury
Serious injuries that stem from birthing often include hypoxia, cerebral palsy, Erb’s palsy, or shoulder dystocia. Facial disfiguration, broken limbs and death are just some of the multitude of injuries babies experience before they take their first breath—if they get to take one at all.
If you or your child suffered a serious injury during the birthing process, or was diagnosed with a life-altering condition like cerebral palsy or Erb’s palsy after a difficult pregnancy, labor, or delivery, you or your infant may have a birth injury.
An experienced attorney can help you recognize what legal options exist in your situation, including your legal right to recover compensation. A birth injury not only alters the course of your child’s life (as well as your own life), it also typically results in a serious economic crisis for families since infant injuries will require months or years of medical care depending on the magnitude of the injury sustained.
Michigan Injury Lawyers will provide a free consultation. We handle cases in Petoskey and surrounding communities.
Types of Birthing Injuries
Despite modern advances in the delivery and birth process, medical professionals can and do still make mistakes. In some cases, attending nurses or hospital staff act negligently, leading to serious birth injuries that can affect both the infant child and the mother.
Some common birth injuries that affect infants include:
- Erb’s palsy, which causes paralysis in one or both arms
- Shoulder dystocia, which is painful and requires extensive surgeries
- Forceps injuries, including vacuum compression
- Cerebral palsy (which often results from lack of oxygen during birth)
- Cephalohematoma, or bruising that occurs between outer layers of skin and the brain
- Brachial plexus injuries, typically affecting the shoulders, hands, and arms
- Persistent pulmonary hypertension of the newborn (PPHN) due to lack of oxygen
Babies are not the only victims of birth injuries; moms can become seriously injured or lose their lives if medical mistakes are serious enough. Mothers may experience long-term injuries in the form of:
- Perineal tears
- Hemorrhaging
- C-section errors
- Abnormal uterine bleeding
- Sepsis or other Infections
- Preeclampsia or eclampsia
- Ruptured uterine area
Failing to perform C-sections or monitoring an infant’s heart rate are common causes of birthing injuries, although administering medications that cannot be taken by pregnant mothers can also cause birth defects. Delivery room mistakes, insufficient prenatal care, medication errors, and many other reasons exist for unwarranted birthing injuries.
Why Hire Michigan Injury Lawyers?
Michigan is incredibly complex when it comes to birth injuries. Medical malpractice is an evolving area of law and requires educated professionals who know how to handle sensitive cases like birthing accidents.
Birth injury claims require the same level of proof as other medical negligence cases, although an infant child that is suffering due to a surgical error or other act of gross negligence is often evidence enough that something went terribly wrong. Our firm has experience in proving cases that may seem too difficult on the surface for the layman to fight alone.
Every case has a negligent party, an insurer or third party with a vested interest in that negligent person’s mistake, attorneys for both parties, and the victim. Imagine walking into a conference room or courthouse without an attorney and knowing the opposing party outnumbered you four to one—and the other side not only has a numerical advantage, but legal and medical knowledge that most people simply don’t possess.
Medical malpractice, especially when it relates to birthing, is serious. When the stakes are high and you want the greatest possible outcome, our firm is prepared to zealously fight every angle of your claim with our experience and devotion to doing what is right.
Birthing injuries are serious enough to take your case to trial. Michigan Injury Lawyers want what is best for you and your infant, and will fight feverishly to make sure the negligent party is held responsible for your incident. All costs of litigation are provided should we take your case to trial, and we only collect when you win.
Contact Our Birth Injury Attorney Today
Due to complexities and mounds of evidence needed to prove your claim, Petoskey birth injury attorneys will often employ large teams to help streamline the process. We cannot guarantee the outcome of your claim, but can offer our unwavering support and representation in claims we do work on.
Understand that our firm works night and day to fight these more horrific accident claims. Bills won’t pay themselves when you are dealing with birth injuries, nor will wages earn themselves.
Michigan Injury Lawyers wants to listen to your claim, and is willing to discreetly discuss your case one on one to determine if we can provide legal assistance. There is no cost to consult with us, and we do not collect fees unless we win or secure an enforceable court judgment.
Call our office at (231) 649-2720 or contact us online for your free case evaluation.