Injuries that occur during labor or childbirth are among the most tragic in all of medicine. When an infant is irreparably injured due to the negligence of a doctor or hospital staff, their life is forever changed. The child suffers the loss of their own potential. The family suffers the financial burden of caring for the child. Both child and family suffer the loss of a normal life.
The Pittsburgh birth injury lawyers of Lupetin & Unatin have been helping victims of birth injuries and their families for over 40 years. We understand that injuries that occur during childbirth have a devastating effect, both financially and emotionally. Medical bills and the costs of caring for the child over the course of their life can be astronomical. Parents have a deep need to understand what has happened, and why, and our qualified medical malpractice attorneys would be happy to explain. They need to know whether there was anything that could have been done to prevent this injury from occurring.
What Constitutes a Birth Injury Case?
Birth injury cases may arise when obstetricians or obstetrical nurses fail to timely recognize and treat serious medical conditions affecting the mother, fetus, or both. For more information about how health care providers must monitor and protect the safety of a pregnant or laboring mother and her unborn child, see Monitoring the Fetus During Labor. You may be also be interested in Evaluation of a Birth Injury Case, in which we examine in detail how birth injury attorneys determine whether an injury that occurred was caused by negligence or medical malpractice.
Birth Injury Cases We Have Handled Include:
- Cerebral Palsy
- Delayed Diagnosis of Newborn Heart Defects
- Infections in the Newborn
- Negligent Resuscitation of a Newborn
- Failure to Diagnose or Treat Preeclampsia
- Shoulder Dystocia
- Erb’s Palsy
- Brachial Plexus Injuries
- Anoxic Brain Injury
Do you believe that your child was injured during or after childbirth?
In many cases when an infant suffers an injury during childbirth, the magnitude of the injury might not be obvious. On the other hand, you may be immediately aware that your child suffered an injury. Over time, it may appear that your baby is not behaving normally. If you suspect this problem is due to an incident that occurred during or shortly after childbirth, you should contact an attorney with experience handling birth injury claims.
Time Limits on Filing Medical Malpractice Claims in Birth Injury Cases
In the state of Pennsylvania, The Minors Tolling Statute states that claims involving children may be filed up to two years after the child turns 18. Do not delay. If your child has suffered a birth injury, not only can an attorney help you recover financial damages, we can also help you to obtain the medical care and support that you and your child need and deserve.
Cost of Filing a Medical Malpractice Claim in a Birth Injury Case
Our legal consultations are always free unless we recover money for you. During the course of our investigation into your birth injury claim, we advance any costs that we deem necessary for the proper handling of your case. If our attorneys do not recover money for you, you do not have to return any of the costs incurred associated with your case. This is called the Contingent Fee. For more information on how the Contingent Fee works.
Examples of Birth Injury Cases Our Attorneys Have Handled
We can provide you with broad examples of the types of birth injury cases we have handled, but due to a Pennsylvania Law called MCARE we cannot legally provide you with specific details including names of victims, doctors, hospitals, and settlement amounts.
We have helped find solutions for many families suffering from the heartache of a birth injury. This includes children afflicted with Cerebral Palsy, hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy, and brain injury as a result of medical malpractice, children who have sustained brachial plexus injuries and Erb’s Palsy during childbirth resulting from shoulder dystocia, and brain damage or other injuries occurring in the first month of life because of improper care management.
A sampling of cases by condition would include:
- A delay in recognizing and responding to fetal distress evidence on fetal monitor.
- As to the nurses and hospital, the failure to have or employ policies insuring the proper recognition and management of fetal distress when it appears.
- As to obstetricians and their prenatal care, failure to recognize the presence and significance of hypertension in pregnancy. This concludes a delay in treatment of pre-eclampsia and its complications, which can affect the mother and child.
- An obstetrician, who during a forceps assisted delivery, rotated the baby’s head 180° in the course of the baby’s birth resulting in a useless and now miniature right arm.
- The failure by obstetrical staff to recognize signs and symptoms of placental abruption (separation of the placenta or a part prior to birth) resulting in a fatal hemorrhage in the mother and brain injury in the infant when delivered.
- The failure to recognize during artificial rupture of the membranes that placenta previa was present (placenta near or covering the cervical canal) resulting in hemorrhage in infants before birth of such magnitude as to cause permanent bilateral kidney damage requiring kidney transplant.
- In failing after delivery of an infant where meconium was present, at the time membranes were ruptured to remove by suction from the infant’s airway after birth meconium which had entered the lung, thereby resulting in respiratory insufficiency and meconium aspiration syndrome.
- In permitting a midwife to manage the labor and delivery in a hospital obstetrical unit when a patient’s pregnancy was known to be at risk without requiring consultation by the midwife of the attending obstetrician where the mother was led to believe the midwife was a physician. And, where due to the presence of the midwife, another hospital staff failed to properly respond to the evidence of fetal distress resulting in the needless delay of a cesarean section and the infant suffered ruinous brain injury.
Call a Pittsburgh Birth Injury Attorney Today
If your baby has been harmed while they were coming into the world, we may be able to help. Our Pittsburgh birth injury lawyers have extensive experience to help you recover compensation. Call today.
