Birth Injury Lawsuits Explained
Childbirth is a risky and stressful experience, but families expect their medical professionals and doctors to uphold a high standard of care. Birth injuries can be devastating for families if they're not treated properly.
Contact a birth injury lawyer to get help in the event that you suspect your child suffered a preventable injury at birth due to medical malpractice. Reputable attorneys will evaluate your case without imposing any upfront costs. To prove your claim, you must demonstrate the four elements.
Duty of Care
Few events in life are more joyous and special than the birth of a baby. Unfortunately, this process can be stressful for parents if medical errors cause serious injuries to their child during the birth process and during labor. These mistakes could be irreparable and cause a family to confront a long list of challenges.
Doctors and other medical professionals owe a legal duty to provide patients with the level of care and skill ordinarily expected of health professionals in their respective fields under similar circumstances. This is called the duty of care. In order to win a case against a healthcare provider who is at fault you must prove that the medical professional violated this obligation. This typically means proving that the medical professional's actions or failure to act was in violation of what a reasonably educated and competent medical professional would have done in the same circumstances.
The second part of a negligence claim is causation. You must prove, through medical records and expert testimony, that the at-fault provider's negligence caused the injury of your child. For instance, a physician may have failed to monitor your child's vital indicators during labor and birth. This could have led to brain damage due to prolonged oxygen deprivation.
Damages are the most important part of a successful negligence case. You must demonstrate that you and your child have suffered significant financial losses, which are quantifiable, resulting from the at-fault healthcare professional's failure to perform their duty of care. This includes future and past medical expenses in addition to lost wages, and also non-economic damages such as discomfort and pain.
Causation
Medical professionals are required to their patients to provide treatment that is in line with standards in their area of expertise. If a physician or nurse does not meet the standards of care, it could cause injury to the patient, and lead to an action for damages. To win a case of birth injury the attorney must show that the breach of duty directly caused your child's injuries. This has to be proven by evidence such as medical documents or expert testimony.
It is also crucial to establish that your child would not be injured when a medical professional provided the standard of medical care expected. Medical experts are required to examine the case to determine if a doctor or the hospital behaved in a way that was not in line with accepted medical practices.
Birth injuries can have a profound impact on your life and require medical treatment for a lifetime. It is crucial to hold at-fault physicians and hospitals responsible for their negligence, and to seek compensation to help provide for your child's future needs.
A lawyer who has handled medical malpractice cases is able to manage the entire legal process including responding to insurance requests and bringing a lawsuit against the responsible parties. They can also create an evidence-based case and secure expert testimony, retrieve medical records as well as other documents, and fight for an appropriate settlement to cover the losses of your family and continue to pay for care costs.
Damages
Medical experts are needed to review medical records, witness statements from you and your family members, and other evidence in the birth injury lawsuit. They will help establish that the doctor who is involved in your case acted outside of their duty of provide care and harmed your child. Then, they will determine the amount of damage you have suffered as a result of those injuries. This includes your future and current medical expenses, the loss of income, the loss of quality of life, emotional distress and other losses.
If nurses, doctors or other medical staff commit mistakes that are preventable prior to, during, or after the birth of your child, it can result in devastating consequences for your family. It isn't always easy to bring legal action against doctors and hospitals who have acted negligently or with a lack of care. They have teams of lawyers who are employed full-time to defend their clients, deflect claims or limit settlements.
If you hire a New York birth injury lawyer who can hold the at-fault medical professionals accountable. Your lawyer will contact the insurers and file a claim in court and develop a solid evidence-based case to establish the liability. They will also try to secure you an appropriate settlement or jury verdict to cover your losses and future expenses for medical care. They may also start a lawsuit before the deadline for any applicable statute of limitation and the clock starts to run from the day the medical malpractice or negligence occurred.
Statute of Limitations
Four essential elements are required for a successful claim to be compensated when birth injuries occur. Your attorney can help you understand the various elements and develop an effective legal argument to support your claim.
Medical negligence claims rely on showing that the defendant owed you the obligation of care, that the defendant breached this duty and that the breach directly led to the injuries to your child. For a claim to succeed, it is also essential that you establish causation, which means that your child's injuries wouldn't have occurred but for the defendant's actions (or negligence).
Defendants can challenge each of these elements. They can argue that they haven't established a doctor-patient relationship, or that the standard of care is different from what you claim it to be. Additionally, they may contest your evidence and expert witnesses opinion.
To prove that you have breached your duty, you'll need provide medical records and other evidence as well as a written statement that describes what went wrong in the birth of your child. You'll also have to provide a demand package which contains the names of all parties you believe should be named defendants. An experienced lawyer can help in identifying the appropriate defendants and ensure that there is adequate insurance coverage. Lawyers can assist in advancing costs related to litigation, including the expenses of highly qualified medical experts. This helps ease some of the financial burden associated with litigating a birth injury claim.