Pennsylvania Birth Injury Lawyers
Nine long months have passed while you anxiously awaited the arrival of your little bundle of joy. You remember feeling the first kick and imagining what a perfect little life is inside of you. What should be one of the happiest moments of your life may end up leaving you with despair and heartache at the hands of someone else’s mistake and lack of due care. Injuries to your baby caused during delivery can require life-long care and can seriously impact your child’s quality of life. Babies may sustain fractured bones, nerve damage, cerebral palsy, or paralysis from mistakes made at birth. While you expect the greatest care to be given to you and your baby in a hospital, terrible mistakes and oversight can leave you or your baby with a devastating injury and huge medical costs, and result in the shattering of one’s hopes and dreams for their family.
Birth injuries occur when a healthy baby sustains traumatic injuries during the birthing process. Birth injuries are distinguishable from birth defects. A birth defect is an abnormality affecting a bodily function or body structure that arises due to the genetic composition of the parents. Birth injuries, on the other hand, are caused during labor and delivery, often in the birth canal.
Common birth injuries include:
- Fractured bones
- Erb’s Palsy or brachial plexus injury
- Cerebral Palsy
- Paralysis
- Hemorrhage or excessive bleeding
- Shoulder dystocia
- Cephalohematoma
- Spinal cord injury
- Sepsis or overwhelming infection
- Cord prolapse
- Premature birth
- Group B strep infections
Negligence and malpractice on the part of an obstetrician, nurse, midwife, anesthesiologist, paramedic, or other medical professional could lead to catastrophic birth injuries to your child. Failing to monitor the baby’s heart rate and oxygen levels could lead to oxygen deprivation and a catastrophic brain injury with grave, life-long consequences. Lack of oxygen to the baby during birth can cause cerebral palsy, which causes delays in motor development, and problems swallowing, communicating, and walking. A physician’s incorrect use of forceps may cause facial paralysis and bruising of your baby. Failure to correctly identify and treat shoulder dystocia often leads to Erb’s Palsy or brachial plexus injuries and result in permanent paralysis.
Other causes of birth injuries include:
- Failure to respond to fetal distress or monitor condition of baby
- Misuse of forceps
- Inappropriate administration of Pitocin
- Failure to observe or respond to umbilical cord entrapment
- Failure to appropriately respond to bleeding
- Failure to attempt to delay premature labor
- Failure to control high blood pressure, eclampsia, or seizures of the mother
- Allowing labor to go on too long
- Failure to administer oxygen during labor
- Delay in performing C-section
- Failure to recognize or treat placental abruption
- Failing to properly treat shoulder dystocia
- Failure to provide antibiotics when needed
Birth injuries are not your fault and you may be entitled to compensation for injuries caused by a medical professional’s mistake. Birth injuries can cause enormous despair and suffering to both mother and child. Some injuries are severe, cause permanent disabilities, and require lifelong medical care. If your child has suffered an injury during birth or labor, the experienced Pennsylvania birth injury attorney and medical malpractice lawyers of Reiff & Bily may be able to help you. Our team of lawyers, doctors, and nurses has over three decades of experience litigating birth injury and medical malpractice claims. We understand the pain, anguish, and devastation birth injuries cause, and we will fight to hold negligent medical professional accountable for their mistakes. Contact one of our birth injury lawyers for a no-obligation, confidential consultation.
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Reiff & Bily
1125 Walnut Street
Third Floor
Philadelphia, PA 19107
Local: (215) 246-9000 • Toll Free: (800) 421-9595