Caring for someone with cerebral palsy may leave a tremendous financial, physical, and emotional impact. Many parents of children with the condition bear this burden by themselves, which they should not have to do if their child’s cerebral palsy resulted from someone else’s negligence.
Though it may result from a genetic mutation or other natural occurrence, cerebral palsy may result from damage that occurs during pregnancy or delivery. If a healthcare professional’s negligence led to your child’s cerebral palsy in Miami, Florida, you may be entitled to receive compensation that may help you pay for ongoing treatment, medicines, and therapy.
A Miami cerebral palsy lawyer from the Birth Injury Lawyers Group may review your case in a free consultation and explain your right to possibly file a claim or lawsuit to get the compensation you may be entitled to. Call our team at (800) 222-9529 to get started.
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Understanding How Cerebral Palsy May Happen
The group of disorders known as cerebral palsy results from a disrupted or abnormal development of the brain. Such abnormalities may be linked to genetic mutations, but in other cases, a disruption in brain development may have happened before a baby is born, and under some circumstances, it could have potentially been prevented.
A wide variety of factors may lead to abnormal or disrupted brain development, and the medical professionals caring for a mother throughout her pregnancy and delivery should be mindful of conditions that may prompt these negative factors. Some potential catalysts for this type of injury to the brain may include:
- Infections in the mother
- Infant infections
- Bleeding in the brain
- Oxygen deprivation
- Fetal stroke
- Traumatic brain injury
Obstetricians and other healthcare providers who participate in the pregnancy and delivery process should know the risk factors that may cause these outcomes.
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Risk Factors
If a physician identifies a risk factor, they should move to take appropriate measures and precautions to avoid or prevent damage to the brain’s development. The following conditions may be red flags for any obstetrician and delivery team:
- Breech presentation, or being born feet first
- A mother with zika virus, herpes, toxoplasmosis, syphilis, cytomegalovirus, or rubella
- Multiple fetuses in the womb
- A baby with low birth weight
- A newborn with viral encephalitis, bleeding into the brain, jaundice, or bacterial meningitis
- Premature birth
When the doctors, nurses, or other medical providers stay informed of these risk factors, they may be positioned to make decisions to try and prevent the catalysts that disrupt brain development and may lead to cerebral palsy.
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Establishing a Medical Provider’s Negligence
Your right to pursue compensation from a medical provider for your child’s cerebral palsy may depend on your ability to prove four essential arguments:
- Your medical provider owed you a duty of care to act in a way that a healthcare professional in the same position with similar training would act to keep you and your baby from harm.
- The healthcare provider violated this duty of care.
- This breach of duty led to your child’s cerebral palsy.
- You suffered economic and non-economic damages as a result of the injury.
There are many aspects of pregnancy and delivery that a Miami cerebral palsy lawyer may be able to investigate to determine if you and your child suffered from a medical professional’s negligence.
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Monitoring and Alerting of Fetal Distress
An obstetrician should check your condition throughout your pregnancy. Any indication of an infection or virus should be cause for immediate action. Careful monitoring, too, should raise flags if your baby is found to be in a breech position, which may prompt the delivery team to be prepared for complications.
Especially critical is the monitoring of fetal distress resulting from an insufficient supply of oxygen. If the nurses and other team members were not monitoring the fetus’s heart rate and oxygen levels, they may have missed an urgent stress signal and, therefore, missed the opportunity to alert the physician to potentially correct the situation. Finally, if for some reason the medical team did not alert the physician of fetal distress in a timely manner, it may have delayed a response long enough to cause complications.
Responding to Fetal Distress
Any indication of fetal distress should prompt corrective or risk-mitigating action from the physician, surgeon, or other medical professionals involved. Sometimes, the risk of fetal distress calls for an emergency Cesarean section. If this procedure was an appropriate measure to take in your child’s delivery and was not performed in a timely manner, your child’s brain may have been deprived of oxygen, which may lead to cerebral palsy.
Such failure to act could qualify as medical negligence and be sufficient grounds for your claim against the medical provider or facility. If you believe this type of negligence occurred in your childbirth experience, call the Birth Injury Lawyers Group at (800) 222-9529. Our team offers free initial consultations and may be able to fight for your right to receive compensation you may be entitled to.
Recoverable Damages
No two cases of medical negligence or malpractice are exactly the same. As such, the damages you may recover could be different from the compensation entitled to another parent suing a potentially negligent doctor.
However, the following types of damages are often connected with this type of claim:
- Doctors’ and surgeons’ fees
- Physical therapy
- Hospitalization
- Lost wages
- Mental anguish
- Emotional distress
- Loss of consortium
- Diminished quality of life
- Pain and suffering
- Diminished potential earnings
A lawyer may review your medical records and evidence from a potential investigation to determine the value of your case and present a damage letter to the insurer of the negligent party.
A Miami Cerebral Palsy Lawyer May Be Able to Fight for Your Compensation
Be aware that each state enforces a statute of limitations that sets a timeframe in which you may take legal action for medical negligence or malpractice. The clock starts at the time of the injury; however, in the case of a birth injury, this statute can sometimes be paused (or “tolled”). Ask your lawyer about whether this may be a possibility in your case.
The sooner you hire a Miami cerebral palsy lawyer, the sooner they may be able to investigate your case, collect evidence, and prepare to help fight for compensation you may be entitled to.
Call the Birth Injury Lawyers Group at (800) 222-9529 for a free case review.
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