Who Can Help Me if My Child was Born with a Birth Injury?

Birth Injury Experience When It Counts Most

Was your child born with a birth injury? Do you suspect it would have been preventable had your medical provider been more careful with your child’s care before, during, or shortly after birth? You have the right to seek justice for yourself and your wrongfully injured child by filing a birth injury claim against the negligent parties. Brett Oppenheimer, PLLC in Louisville can help.

Types of Birth Injuries

There are a wide variety of conditions that are defined as birth injuries, which is essentially any sort of harm or deformation suffered by an infant before, during, or soon after birth. It is estimated that 7 of every 1000 births in the United States result in a birth injury, mostly due to a medical provider’s negligence. Some injuries may be temporary, but the pain and hardships experienced by the child and their family are just as real. In other cases, birth injuries may cause permanent, life-changing harm. In a worst-case scenario, a birth injury can be fatal to the mother and/or her child.

Birth injuries may result from:

• Placental Abruption
• Preclampsia
• Brachial plexus palsy
• Brain damage
• Cerebral palsy
• Erb's Palsy
• Fractured bones and Shoulder Dystocia
• Arnold Chiari Malformation
• Kernicterus (resulting from undiagnosed Jaundice)
• Necrotizing Entercolitis

Possible Causes of Birth Injuries

Birth injuries can occur in both low-risk and high-risk delivery scenarios. Even in perfectly normal pregnancies, birth injuries can still occur if medical providers are not being careful or not following accepted medical standards.

There are many forms of negligent medical care that can cause a birth injury, such as:

• Failure to recognize fetal distress
• Delay in performing a necessary Cesarean section (C-section)
• Delegating important procedures to inexperienced or junior staff or nurses
• Failing to identify and treat conditions such as maternal and fetal infections, placental abruptions, maternal or gestational diabetes, and Rh incompatibility
• Failure to properly administer/monitor Pitocin during labor
• Improper birthing techniques
• Mishandling the newborn during birth
• Misuse of forceps or vacuum extractor
• Deprivation of oxygen

It is important that a doctor or medical health care provider is alert to the warning signs of pregnancy, labor and birth complications. If the mother is thought to be suffering problems during her pregnancy, then proper medical testing should be administered. If labor is prolonged and complicated, the medical team should utilize fetal heart rate monitoring, and/or perform c-sections in a timely manner.  If the baby is hurt or suffers oxygen deprivation during delivery, then the doctors and nurses need to immediately diagnose and treat the birth injuries. Finally, the physician and staff should follow appropriate medical procedures in monitoring and providing care for your newborn in the hospital nursery.  Quality medical care should follow your baby throughout their developmental years. 

Contact Louisville Birth Injury Attorney Oppenheimer

If you believe that your child was harmed during your pregnancy, labor, and or delivery due to medical negligence in Kentucky, you should speak to a local attorney who will help you through these devastating circumstances. While you focus on your health and the health of your family, he focuses on your case. Brett Oppenheimer will meet with you free of charge to discuss your potential case.  Should you decide to move forward, he will be on a contingent fee, so there will be no out of pocket fees for you.  Attorney Brett Oppenheimer is committed to helping his clients through the legal and emotional hurdles they may face while preparing, filing, and managing a medical malpractice claim in a birth injury case.