Preventable Birth Injuries & Medical Malpractice

 It happens every day throughout New York--a mother goes into labor only to have the child born with a serious birth injury. The injury often affects the child for a lifetime, forever altering his or her mental and physical development. The types and causes of these injuries are myriad. Sadly, in far too many cases the underlying harm is caused by medical malpractice--when doctors, nurses, and other involved in the birth make mistakes or fail to act appropriately in response to emergency situations.

Types of Birth Injuries
There are many different names for harm that strikes newborns, but a few injuries pop up again and again which are frequently connected to medical errors. Some of those common birth injuries include:

Cerebral Palsy: Perhaps the most well-known birth injury, cerebral palsy actual refers to a series of disorders which affect the newborn brain. Oxygen deprivation during childbirth often leads to the condition. Depending on the scope of the brain injury, the child may experience a range of symptoms, often affecting movement and motor function. There are different types of cerebral palsy based on the symptoms. These include: spastic, ataxic, diskinetic, and others. Unfortunately, there is no cure for cerebral palsy, but there are treatments that can be pursued which might improved the child's independence and overall ability to live as full a life as possible

Brachial Plexus Injury: The brachial plexus is a bundle of nerve groups that connect the spinal cord to to shoulders, arms, wrists, and fingers. During a traumatic birth, when excessive force is applied this bundle of nerves on the child can be damaged. This injury is sometimes referred to as "Klumpke's Palsy" or "Erb's Palsy." The damage may cause significant mobility problem with the shoulder, arm, wrist, and fingers. The injury falls along a spectrum from slight stretching and nerve tears to outright severing of the nerve from the spinal cord. https://askcompetentlawyer.com/ At times surgery may be an option to repair the damage and provide the child with increased use of the damaged limb. In the worst cases, with complete tears, surgery is often not an option.

Shoulder Dystocia: While not an injury in itself, shoulder dystocia is a condition that leads to many birth injuries. This refers to a situation when a child's arm is caught in the mother's pelvic bone. When not handled quickly and deftly by medical personnel, shoulder dystocia can lead to a spectrum of birth injuries. From cerebral palsy and brachial plexus damage to broken bones and even death, many children are harmed by poor response to this birthing complication.

When Malpractice is to Blame
The undeniable reality is that many birth injury could be prevented with proper medical care and response to birthing challenges. The law holds all medical professionals to specific "standards of care" that must be met at all times. Those standards include specific actions that should be completed by the professionals when faced with certain situations during birth. Failing to meet those standards while causing injury is medical malpractice.

For example, when shoulder dystocia strikes during a birth there are very specific physical maneuvers that medical professionals are trained to perform to extract the child without injury. If they do not properly perform those maneuvers, or if they delay in doing so, then the standards of care might have been violated.

Legal Help in New York
No family whose child is injured during birth is expected to understand the complex medical details that are part of specific medical standards of care. That is why it is critical to contact a New York birth injury lawyer for guidance on how the law might apply in your case. A legal professional experienced with these cases can explain if malpractice was likely involved in your child's injury and what legal action is most appropriate to receive accountability and redress.