Learning about your baby’s birth injury can bring excruciating pain. The fear that your baby will have to struggle with the injury throughout their life breaks your heart into a million pieces. Once you get hold of the situation a little, the first thing that comes to your mind is to get the best treatment for your baby as soon as possible. But treatment for birth injuries is quite expensive, so you also have to think about finances.
Arranging for finances can be a trial for parents who are already fraught with the stress of their child’s birth injury. However, in this mentally distressing time, the law provides some solace to the parents, allowing them to file birth injury lawsuits and claim compensation.
Before filing a birth injury lawsuit, you must know all about it. So here are some frequently asked questions about birth injury lawsuits that might help you if you are struggling.
- What is a birth injury lawsuit?
In a birth injury lawsuit, a legal complaint is filed against a medical professional, doctor, nurse, or a hospital for negligence during pregnancy, labor, or childbirth. People are often reluctant to implicate medical professionals for their oversight, and the number of birth injury cases is not dwindling. In the US, 28000 birth injuries occur every year, and many are preventable with proper care. This disturbing number has made birth injury lawsuits a widely adopted practice, making it mandatory for the affected families to come to the forefront. Organizations like birth injury justice center etc., are at the forefront of seeking justice for the parents and affected baby. By bringing the responsible parties to justice, you can help many other families to be vigilant about this issue.
- Do congenital disabilities qualify for a birth injury lawsuit?
A congenital disability happens to the baby due to its genetic makeup and is set before birth. Therefore, even if the baby’s delivery process goes smoothly, it comes to the forefront. On the contrary, a birth injury occurs due to the negligence of the medical staff and on-duty doctors. Therefore, you can file a lawsuit for a birth injury in your baby; a congenital disability does not qualify for it.
- How to be sure about a birth injury for filing a lawsuit?
It might be complicated to be sure of a birth injury. But there are signs to help you be sure that medical professionals’ medical malpractice or negligence led to a birth injury in your baby. For instance, complex and long labor can result in nerve damage in your baby, and the medical team can be held responsible for failing to recognize the danger. Other signs are a baby born with bluish skin, needing resuscitation, baby experiencing seizures and tremors. Birth injuries can also occur if the midwife uses forceps to hold the baby’s head and apply too much force. This undue force and jerking can cause a skull fracture.
- How long does it take for the birth injury lawsuit to conclude?
Generally speaking, birth injury lawsuits are among the most complicated personal injury claims. This is because so much goes behind the scene, about which you have to gather the information. You have to take witness statements and gather documents that prove that negligence was exercised in recognizing the situation with the mother or the baby. Moreover, the nature and details of every case are different too, so it is difficult to tell the exact time over which the case can stretch. But on average, a case can take a few months to a few years to get resolved.
- Can I file a birth injury after the statute of limitation expires?
The statute of limitation is the time available to the family to file a birth injury claim. Beyond that, you cannot file a birth injury claim. Therefore, it is always better to file the lawsuit sooner than later to speed up the process. The statute of limitation starts when your baby sustains the birth injuries. Though the statute of limitation may slightly vary in different states, normally, you have two to three years to sue the responsible party. But to be sure about the exact time, you must consult an experienced birth injury lawyer.
- What kind of birth injury claims am I eligible to file?
There can be many types of birth injuries. Therefore, the types of lawsuits filed for them vary too. Birth injury is also not limited to physical damage only; there can be mental and behavioral injuries and emotional damage too. The common types of birth injuries include Cerebral Palsy, characterized by brain damage, resulting in difficulty in movement, painful and spastic muscles, and other implications.
Skull fractures are another type of birth injury resulting in brain injury and internal bleeding. Some other birth injuries include nerve damage, damage to the spinal cord (though less common), jaundice, etc. You can file a birth injury claim for all these birth injuries and receive your rightful compensation.
Conclusion
Knowing about the Birth injury of your newborn can be a painful moment in your life. Simultaneously, it also means a loss of income as you may have to quit your job to take care of your baby. In this situation, a birth injury lawsuit can help you fulfill the financial commitments imposed by this setback, pay for the medical expenses, and improve your baby’s life quality. The frequently asked questions answered in this article can help you know about birth injury lawsuits, making filing a legal complaint much smoother.