If you think that a medical mistake caused you or your child to have a birth injury, brain injury, or fetal distress, hiring a birth injury attorney — maybe even specifically brain injury lawyers — is an important step toward getting the settlement you deserve for the injuries your child has suffered.
Doctors, nurses, and other people who work in health care make mistakes, just like professionals in any other field. But in the medical field, making a mistake at work doesn’t mean missing a deadline or losing a client. Instead, it can lead to physical and mental problems, like cerebral palsy, that a child will have for the rest of their lives.
Doctors have a duty to take care of their patients, which includes you and your child. If they make mistakes that could have been avoided if proper procedures had been followed, they should be held responsible for any birth injuries to you or your child.
Here are three reasons why you might want to hire a birth injury lawyer if you think you might have a case of medical negligence or malpractice.
1. A Medical Malpractice Lawyer Can Help You Determine If You Have a Case
Giving birth is a complicated and hard process, and birth injuries can happen for many different reasons. Some of the most common and mild injuries that happen during birth, like bruising, broken bones, and problems with the umbilical cord, may not be preventable. However, others happen because a medical team made a mistake during the process, which is grounds for a birth injury lawsuit. This could happen if the baby didn’t get enough oxygen, which could have been avoided but caused problems.
In cases of birth injuries, the first step in getting compensation is to figure out if the injuries were caused by medical malpractice or negligence or were just an unfortunate side effect of the complicated delivery process. That is, you will have to decide if the injuries were caused during birth or if they were there from the start.
In some cases, a doctor may try to pass off a mistake or mistaken diagnosis as a birth defect. Birth injury lawyers have the knowledge and skills to look into how the injury happened and help you decide if you have a case based on the right way to give birth and standards of care.
One important thing to remember is that a medical malpractice lawsuit must be filed within a specific amount of time in order to claim damage. There is an exception for victims who have had a lot of damage done to their reproductive organs, which can happen when medical malpractice causes birth trauma.
2. An Experience Malpractice Lawyer Can Help You Secure Compensation for Damages
The first step in getting paid is figuring out what kind of damages you’re owed. Even though this seems simple, setting a realistic amount for the cost of damages is a very complicated and detailed process.
Lawyers who specialize in medical malpractice do more than just think about how much money is needed to cover the costs of a birth injury today. They also take into account the pain and suffering you have been through. They look at the situation and make a full list of all the costs involved, such as lost income from missed work, loss of life enjoyment, in-home medical costs, possible counseling costs, present and future medical costs, home modification costs, and physical therapy funds, just to name a few.
This requires a lot of knowledge about the medical field and the costs that come with it. If you don’t know all the possible costs you might have, you won’t know to add them to your total damages. Your lawyer can also look at your medical records to get a more complete and accurate picture of your case and figure out how much money you should get.
3. A Successful Suit Can Help Make Doctors Responsible for Their Work and Raise the Standards of Care
Taking care of a baby while it’s still in the womb and giving birth to that baby are both complicated tasks that require years of medical training and experience. Even though every pregnancy has some risks, many of those risks can be managed if the right medical care is given by a trained medical team. If a doctor or nurse deviates from this standard on purpose or doesn’t follow it, they should be held responsible.
With the help of the experts at a birth injury law firm, you can file a claim for a birth injury and get your family the money they deserve. You can also reduce the chances that the same medical team or facility will make the same mistake in the future.