Terre Haute Birth Injury Lawyer

Your baby’s birth should be a joyful event for your family. Joy quickly turns to sorrow if something goes wrong. If obstetricians, nurses, and other medical personnel attending a baby’s birth make a mistake or are negligent, babies and mothers can face life-altering consequences—some that will require additional medical care for extended periods.

The National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) estimates that 8,000 babies are injured during the birth process each year. If you are a parent who experienced this traumatic and avoidable event, our experienced medical malpractice attorneys could help. A Terre Haute birth injury lawyer has the expertise to hold negligent medical professionals and hospitals accountable and protect your right to compensation.

Types of Birth Injuries

Newborns are not the only victims of negligence. New mothers can suffer from hemorrhaging, infections, delayed Caesarian sections, and other errors. If mistakes are made while caring for the pregnant mom, those mistakes often affect the baby. The same goes for any errors made during the birth process. Some outcomes that are common when negligence invades the delivery room include:

• Cephalohematoma, bruising of the area near the brain.
• Cognitive impairment caused by oxygen deprivation, such as birth asphyxia.
• Lack of oxygen also causes persistent pulmonary hypertension (PPHN) or cerebral palsy.
• Misuse of forceps or botching a vacuum extraction can cause broken bones, bruising, and crushed skulls.
• Erb-Duchenne paralysis, or Erb’s Palsy, often leaves a baby’s arm paralyzed because of neck traction, usually from pulling a newborn’s arm, using forceps or vacuum extraction, or if the baby is too large for the birth canal.

Poor pregnancy care, errors in prescribing medicine, failure to properly monitor a mother in labor, or ordering a C-section too late for the struggling baby are preventable and should lead to a personal injury lawsuit compensating families devastated by the negligence of medical professionals. Call a Terre Haute birth injury attorney to find out what compensation is available.

Seeking Compensation Through a Medical Malpractice Claim

Medical malpractice is a personal injury tort committed by physicians or other medical personnel. It can also include defendants such as the hospital or other care facility where the negligence occurred. Compensation is based on the severity of the injuries. Prevailing plaintiffs are reimbursed for economic and non-economic damages.

Economic damages are more easily proved because they are based on what the family is paying and will pay in the future to treat and care for a baby injured at birth. They also take into consideration the wages the child will not be able to earn as an adult because of the injuries sustained at birth.

Non-economic damages place a dollar value on subjective losses, such as how much pain the baby will suffer, for any disfigurement, and for psychological or emotional damage associated with the type of injuries the child will have to live with.

A Terre Haute Birth Injury Attorney Advocates for Your Family

When your dreams of expanding your family are shattered by a negligent obstetrician or other medical professional, our attorneys are here to advocate for you. Nothing is as precious and important as your family, and those who injure your newborn must be held accountable.

Call a Terre Haute birth injury lawyer at Fleschner, Stark, Tanoos & Newlin to schedule an initial consultation.