When medical negligence during pregnancy, labor, or delivery results in preventable injuries to mother or baby, families are thrust into a devastating situation. Birth injuries caused by medical malpractice can result in lifelong disabilities, enormous medical expenses, and emotional trauma. If you or a loved one has been affected by medical negligence, trust Estey & Bomberger, LLP to fight for you.
Our San Diego birth injury attorneys bring decades of experience and proven results, providing the compassionate and aggressive representation these cases demand. We know how to navigate the medical standards that govern obstetric and neonatal care, work with leading medical experts to build compelling cases, and fight tirelessly to secure the substantial compensation necessary to provide for your child’s future. Schedule a free consultation today and learn how we can protect your family’s rights.
Damages Available for Families Affected by Birth Injuries
When your child suffers a birth injury due to medical negligence, your family not only faces significant trauma but also financial burdens that can last a lifetime. Families deserve compensation for the full scope of damages caused by preventable birth injuries, and California law allows you to claim compensation for all of these losses.
The following damages are commonly available in San Diego birth injury lawsuits:
- Medical Expenses: You can recover costs for all medical treatment related to the birth injury, including emergency care, surgeries, medications, physical therapy, and ongoing rehabilitation. This covers both past medical bills you have already paid and future medical expenses your child will need throughout their lifetime.
- Lost Wages and Income: If you needed to take time off work to care for your injured child or if your child’s earning capacity has been diminished due to their injuries, you can seek compensation for these economic losses. This includes both immediate lost income and future earning potential.
- Pain and Suffering: Some impacts of a birth injury cannot be quantified by receipts or bills. Your child can receive compensation for the physical pain, emotional distress, and reduced quality of life caused by their birth injury.
- Lifelong Care Costs: Many birth injuries require ongoing care, specialized equipment, home modifications, and educational support. You can recover compensation for these future expenses to ensure your child receives the care they need.
Determining Liability in Birth Injury Cases
Liability in malpractice cases can be complex and confusing. To determine whether or not you have grounds for a viable childbirth injuries malpractice lawsuit, keep these two conditions in mind:
- First, you must be able to prove that your attending physician or obstetrician committed a breach of their duty, either by deliberate misconduct or (more frequently) by negligence.
- Second, you must be able to prove that this negligence harmed you or your baby in some fashion—either by injuring you or your baby, or by relegating you to the hospital for many days and causing you to lose wages or productivity, or by racking up high medical bills.
If these two conditions have been satisfied, you and your childbirth injuries attorney may be able to file a lawsuit against the hospital or the doctor who caused the injury to you or your infant and recover a financial settlement.
To establish whether or not the doctor or obstetrician’s mistake was preventable, your San Diego birth injury lawyer will bring in expert testimony from other natal physicians and obstetricians. This establishes the proper standard of care for the jury in civil court, who will then decide whether or not your doctor failed in their professional duties. There is unfortunately no way to determine what type of settlement or what amount you may expect to receive; it is up to the judge and jury to decide how grievous the doctor’s negligence was, and how badly you and your infant were hurt or inconvenienced by that negligence.
How Are Birth Injury Legal Claims Handled?
Medical malpractice is a term which describes accidental harm done to a patient by a doctor or medical worker’s negligence or misconduct. If a medical professional fails in some aspect of his or her duties, and their failure causes you, the patient, further harm or financial or physical inconvenience, then you are within your rights to file a lawsuit and recover damages.
One of the most tragic ways in which malpractice may harm an individual or a family is childbirth injuries, especially those which cause cerebral palsy. There are numerous things which can go wrong during childbirth which are not the attending physician’s fault, but when a physician fails to take the proper care during a mother’s labor, the infant may sustain a variety of injuries: cerebral palsy, seizures, broken bones, or Erb’s or Klumpke’s palsy, which damages nerves in the infant’s arms and hands.
While these injuries may also be caused by something other than malpractice, they are frequent side-effects of a physician’s negligence during childbirth. In addition to the physical injuries which may result from an improperly conducted childbirth procedure. Doctors and obstetricians are also capable of displaying negligent behavior or incompetence both before and after a birth.
The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) reported in 2012 that hospitals and medical facilities in the United States shelled out more than $3 billion to victims of medical malpractice. Malpractice remains the third leading cause of death in America, following close behind heart disease and various types of cancers.
Types of Childbirth Injuries
There are numerous ways physicians or obstetricians may display negligence during the childbirth process. These may happen before or after the birth. Negligence during prenatal care can harm both the mother and the fetus. Examples of professional misconduct during prenatal care (on the part of either the attending physician or the obstetrician) include but are not limited to:
- Misdiagnosis or failure to diagnose potentially harmful medical conditions in the mother (gestational diabetes, Rh incompatibility, preeclampsia, anemia, or hypoglycemia)
- Failure to spot or take steps to address a birth defect
- Failure to spot or adequately treat an ectopic pregnancy
- Failure to spot a mother’s disease which could be passed to the baby (neonatal lupus, genital herpes, etc.)
Obstetricians or doctors may also demonstrate negligence during the actual act of childbirth in some of the following ways:
- Inability to foresee or prepare for complications during the birth regarding the baby’s size and weight
- Not noticing that the umbilical cord is tangled
- Missing or failing to remedy any sign of fetal distress
- Neglecting to order or perform cesarean sections when needed
- Misuse or incompetent use of a vacuum extractor or forceps
In 2013, Los Angeles County was forced to pay $7.5 million to the mother of a child born at the LA County-USC Medical Center. The mother alleged that negligent medical staff caused brain damage to her infant son. The 25-year-old mother, who had formerly been homeless, filed the lawsuit on behalf of her 1½-year-old son Micah, alleging that she had been 39 weeks pregnant and had experienced abdominal pains. Upon being taken from the homeless shelter to the medical center, she spent 14 hours in the labor unit before being discharged and returned to the shelter without ever having seen an obstetrician. Twelve hours later she was rushed back to the hospital again with a ruptured uterus, which the lawsuit alleges caused her son irreparable brain damage.
Common Challenges in San Diego Birth Injury Claims
California’s medical malpractice laws have specific requirements and limitations that can trap unwary families, and healthcare providers typically have teams of lawyers defending against your claim. You need an attorney who is equally dedicated to protecting your rights.
At Estey & Bomberger, LLP, we will help you navigate these obstacles, such as:
- Proving Medical Negligence: Establishing that a medical professional deviated from the accepted standard of care requires extensive medical expert testimony and documentation. Estey & Bomberger, LLP works with qualified medical experts who can analyze your case and provide compelling testimony about how negligence caused your child’s injuries.
- Overcoming Defense Tactics: Defense attorneys often employ aggressive strategies to minimize or deny your claim, such as questioning your child’s diagnosis or arguing that injuries resulted from natural complications rather than negligence. We anticipate these defense tactics and build comprehensive cases that counter their arguments with solid evidence and expert medical opinions.
- Calculating Future Damages: Determining lifelong care costs and lost earning capacity requires extensive analysis and careful calculations. We collaborate with economists, medical professionals, and life care planners to accurately project your child’s future needs and associated costs.
The Childbirth Injuries Attorneys at Estey Bomberger Can Help
This is why it’s so important to hire a childbirth injuries lawyer. A competent law firm can help you wade through the confusing maze of personal injury and malpractice law. We’ll never settle for a compensation figure that’s less than you deserve, and we spare no expense in hiring medical experts to lend their voices to your case. We routinely take cases that even other lawyers have turned down or claimed are “unwinnable” and have turned them into record-setting verdicts or settlements. If you want experienced, aggressive legal representation in the courtroom, then contact the law firm of Estey & Bomberger, LLP at 1.800.925.0723 or go to www.ebtrialattorneys.com.