How to Determine If It’s a Birth Injury
There are few things more heart-breaking that learning your child has a poor health condition. This is especially true for a newborn; after all, you likely just spent nine months planning and dreaming and waiting for the delivery.
It’s important to know the difference between a birth defect and a birth injury. The latter was caused by someone’s negligence. As horrified as you are to learn your baby is injured, it’s made worse with the knowledge that the birth injury was the result of a preventable mistake.
A birth defect is rooted in the child’s DNA. Conditions such as a cleft palate or a heart murmur, as examples, are part of the child’s makeup. These conditions occurred through no one’s fault. The only differential is that there are cases where a birth defect is caused by someone’s negligence. Let’s say, for example, a doctor prescribes a medication that is contra-indicated for pregnancy or that doesn’t work in conjunction with another medication. If taking the medication caused the birth defect, the doctor may be held liable for the error.
On the other hand, birth injuries are defined as health concerns that could have, and should have, been prevented. An nurse’s failure to properly monitor a woman during pregnancy or a doctor’s failure to determine a Caesarian section was indicated are two examples of preventable mistakes that occurred due to negligent behavior.
Common birth injuries include:
- Mistakes made during delivery
- Misuse of birth assisting tools
- Medication errors
- Failure to monitor the mother or baby for signs of distress
- Failure to diagnose a condition such as the umbilical cord being wrapped around the baby’s neck or a breech position.
Both birth injuries and birth defects can affect the child for his or her entire life. However, if your child’s condition was caused by a doctor or nurse that failed in their duty to provide high quality medical care because they didn’t pay attention or were too experienced to diagnose a problem, you have a right to hold the negligent provider responsible for their mistakes.
Medical malpractice cases, especially those that result in birth injury, are not always open and shut cases. Even when a birth injury was caused by medical negligence, there may be circumstances out of the doctor’s control existing concurrently. For example, a very difficult labor and delivery may have caused the doctors to focus on what they considered to be the biggest risk. Meanwhile, other risks factors were in play that caused the injuries.
Birth injuries don’t always occur in the hospital, either. Failure of the doctor to diagnose a condition during gestation, such as low birth weight, can be cause for preventable birth injury.
Further, though this is quite controversial, a doctor has a responsibility to notify parents of a birth defect if it is detected — Down Syndrome for example. If the doctor failed to notify the parents about the birth defect prior to the birth, the physician may be held liable because the parents weren’t given proper information in time to make thoughtful decisions about the birth.
If your baby was injured due to preventable mistakes made by a healthcare professional, you have a right to sue for compensation. Since birth injuries often result in long-term consequences for the child, including cognitive and physical delays and disabilities and emotional problems, health care costs going forward may be considerable.
Contact a birth injury lawyer who will fight for your family’s right to maximum damages. At the LaDuca Law Firm, you can count on us to get the justice your baby deserves.
