Labor & Delivery Related Injuries Are the Most Tragic of All. A child who sustains brain damage during the birth process never experiences a normal life. A child who suffers even more severe injury never gets to experience life at all. These are the most devastating losses, both for the child and for the parents. There is nothing that can prepare a parent for this type of experience. And a parent who is grieving over the loss of a child, or is swamped with the doctor’s visits, therapies, and home care that a brain damaged child requires, is in no position to seek the answers that justice requires. That is why, if you are in this position, you need the legal assistance and support that we can give.

Medical Negligence Causes Many Birth Injuries. A baby can be injured at any time during pregnancy, labor and delivery. The doctor, midwife or nurse may not recognize changes in the mother’s condition that affect the baby during pregnancy. These changes include preeclampsia accompanied by high blood pressure and gestational diabetes, in which the blood sugars rise during pregnancy. Other changes are more obvious, yet the health care provider may not treat the condition like the emergency that it really is. Clear emergency changes include placental abruption, where the placenta starts to separate from the wall of the uterus before the baby is delivered. It is a critical condition and must be treated immediately.

Many babies are injured during the actual process of labor and delivery as well. Labor can be very hard on a baby. Special monitors are used to track how well the baby is doing during this time. The monitors can tell if the baby is in distress and not getting enough oxygen. Sometimes, this is due to the umbilical cord being wrapped around the baby’s neck or knotted up in some way. Sometimes, the obstetrical team uses too much Pitocin to try to induce labor and makes the baby work so hard that its heart and oxygen supply cannot keep up. Sometimes the baby is too big to fit through the birth canal, or is caught up somewhere along the way and cannot descend.

Even though the labor and delivery team have the fetal heart monitor to tell them when these problems are occurring during the birthing process, sometimes they fail to recognize the problem, or they fail to act quickly enough. Then, tragedy happens.

Cerebral Palsy Is the Worst of These Bad Conditions.That is because it involves so many different body systems. It can affect intelligence, speech, hearing, walking, learning, reaching and nearly every other aspect of human growth and development. Seizures, muscle tightness, muscle weakness and nerve dysfunction all make even the simplest activities difficult or impossible. Personality issues such as anger often accompany these symptoms as well. At this time, there is still no cure for cerebral palsy. There must be lifetime care, therapy and treatment to prevent the child’s condition from worsening. These are heavy burdens for the parents, and many couples end up separating as a result. These burdens are unfairly placed on the parents when proper medical care could have prevented this terrible condition from ever occurring.

Doctors Will Conceal the Truth.Rarely, if ever, will a doctor admit that his or her action or inaction caused the injury or death of a baby. The national group of doctors who deliver babies has created a list of “standards” that they say must be met before a baby’s injuries can be associated with bad medical care. But these so-called standards are not scientific. They are written to avoid responsibility for negligent treatment. Even doctors who had nothing to do with the actual birth will tell you that the standards show that everything was done right.

The textbooks that doctors actually use in real-world medical practice do not agree with the “standards” that are used to keep you from seeking legal advice. Do not be fooled by them. Any child who had seizures shortly after birth, or who is mentally retarded or has been diagnosed with cerebral palsy may be the victim of negligent medical care. The child and his or her parents deserve to know whether bad medical care was involved, and we are here to help answer that question for you.

We Have Access to Nationally Recognized Experts.In any case, it is important to have the right expert witnesses. This is especially important in this type of very specialized case in which the hospitals and insurance companies will pull out all of the stops to try to avoid responsibility for bad medical care. We know the types of expert witnesses in many different fields that can prove not only that bad care was given, but also that the bad care was the cause of the child’s injuries. We also retain experts who can identify the special needs of children with cerebral palsy and other birth injuries.

We Understand How This Can Have a Life Long Effect On Your Child.A child with cerebral palsy and other brain injuries usually has very expensive medical needs. The special therapies and frequent visits to the doctor or hospital quickly exceed what parents can afford. These children may also outlive their parents and will need specialized housing and round-the-clock care after that. When the injuries are caused by negligent medical care, the child should not have to live a shortened life or be warehoused in the cheapest facility. The health care providers who caused the injury should be responsible for providing the child with fair and proper care.

About Time Limits on Suing. Because there are so many variables, we usually do not give advice over the Internet about the statute of limitations, or time within which the lawsuit must be brought. Many people, however, do not realize the extra time a child may have to file their claim. In Missouri, a child who is injured by bad medical care has until his or her 20th birthday to file the lawsuit. The parents’ own claim usually must be brought within two years of the negligent acts by the healthcare provider. If the child dies due to medical negligence, the time for the surviving parents to sue is three years. These are the time limits in Missouri. Other states vary.

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