lady with baby and childFor all parents, the birth of a child is cause for celebration. While no one expects childbirth to be particularly easy, parents do not anticipate complications during labor or injuries during childbirth. When newborn infants spend the precious first moments of their lives being resuscitated, followed by days in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit of a hospital, the happy parents’ celebratory occasion turns into cause for concern, and the unanswered questions overshadow conversations with the medical professionals who must answer questions that parents hoped they would never have to ask.

The American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), an anti-medical malpractice lobby, would have you believe that your newborn’s birth injury is not the result of prenatal asphyxia, but a medical malpractice attorney who knows how to investigate birth injuries, can help you to determine whether the acts or omissions of the physicians, nursing staff, and hospital fell below the standard of care causing serious and permanent complications to the baby and/or the mother.

If complications arose during your pregnancy or labor, and your child suffers from neurological and cognitive deficits, and/or motor skills impairments, your child’s injuries could be a result of medical malpractice.  Pennsylvania law entitles the injured party to birth injuries compensation.  It is important for parents to contact a birth injury lawyer as soon as possible to discuss available legal options, and to begin a thorough factual investigation.

Birth Injuries:

Erb’s Palsy
A common birth injury is Erb’s Palsy– a nerve injury to the baby’s arms resulting from excessive pulling or stretching during delivery. The injury winds up disabling the child’s motor functions in the stretched arm or hand, which severely restricts the child’s functioning later in life.

Hypoxic Ischemic Encephalopathy
Another common birth injury caused by physician malpractice is hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy, caused by deprivation of oxygen to the newborn. This often results in Cerebral Palsy. Paul Lauricella and Slade McLaughlin recently won a $55 million birth injury verdict for a child who was born with hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy, against an obstetrician/gynecologist who elected not to perform an emergency cesarean section to deliver a baby, despite ominous signs of fetal distress during a prolonged labor and delivery.

Injuries to Mother:

Loss of Child Bearing Capacity
Mothers who deliver via C-Section are vulnerable to a host of surgical complications. For that reason, physicians tend to avoid caesarean section deliveries, but caesarean delivery may be necessary in some cases. Although it may not be malpractice for a physician to cut the uterus during delivery, it may fall below the standard of care if the physician fails to locate that cut and stop the blood loss.

If you, or a loved one, suffered unnecessarily during your pregnancy or childbirth, you should speak with a birth injury lawyer in our Philadelphia office.

What Can Be Recovered / Birth Injuries Compensation Entitlement

Pennsylvania law allows the parents, or child, who suffered from a birth-related injury to receive compensation for medical malpractice.

A child who suffered a birth-related injury may be entitled to damages for:

  • Current and future medical expenses;
  • Loss of lifetime earning capacity;
  • Pain and suffering;
  • Loss of life’s pleasures; and
  • Humiliation, embarrassment, and disfigurement

These figures can be difficult to calculate, but a skilled medical malpractice attorney will consult with the appropriate vocational, economic, and life care planning experts to determine the proper amount of damages that are due.

A mother who suffered an injury during childbirth may be entitled to damages for:

  • Current and future medical expenses;
  • Loss of wages;
  • Pain and suffering;
  • Physical, emotional, and psychological injuries; and
  • Loss of life’s pleasures.

A skilled attorney will ensure that parents and the injured child receive the related birth injuries compensation that they are entitled to receive. Only a thorough factual and legal investigation conducted by a skilled attorney who consults with the right experts, and has experience handling birth injury cases, is capable of securing just compensation for his/her clients.

Slade McLaughlin and Paul Lauricella are among the best birth injury attorneys in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Speak with an attorney at McLaughlin & Lauricella’s Philadelphia or New Jersey office about your birth-injury case today.