The average individual trusts medical personnel to do what’s right and best for them and their loved ones. This is even more true when it comes to childbirth and post-birth care. Parents routinely trust the doctor’s judgment, as well as that of their support staff.
However, when healthcare professionals do not provide the recommended standard of care, it can lead to severe health problems like hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy (HIE) in newborns, which, in turn, can cause cerebral palsy or brain damage.
If your child developed HIE because of a medical practitioner’s mistake, error, or negligence, our hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy lawyers in Alabama can file a medical malpractice lawsuit. This will help you get some recompense and provide a means to take care of your child for as long as necessary.
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Establishing Fault in an Alabama Hypoxic Ischemic Encephalopathy Lawsuit
Before filing a compensation claim, it is important to establish who is responsible for your child’s birth injury. This means investigating all the healthcare practitioners who were involved in the birth of your child. The key thing is to establish fault and negligence.
So, you’ll have to gather proof of errors, mistakes, carelessness, and substandard care. If you suspect that there may also be a racial undertone—often rare, but it does happen—you should also investigate that.
Unfortunately, doing this by yourself whilst still taking care of your child is almost impossible. This is why you should let an experienced medical malpractice attorney familiar with birth injuries handle this. With the help of a skilled HIE lawyer, it’ll be easier to identify what caused the child to suffer from HIE.
If it was a natural cause that led to the injury, the lawyer’s investigations will show that. And if the child was injured because of medical negligence, the attorney will find out too. To determine if the hospital staff was negligent or made mistakes, the attorney will have to examine their actions in line with the established standard of care.
The Role of Standard of Care in Establishing Negligence
Standard of care is a series of procedures and caregiving that should be followed in an ideal healthcare situation. So, where there’s some form of inattention or carelessness, your lawyer will see if the defendants’ actions inadvertently led to the child developing HIE.
Some of the things that your attorney will check for include:
- Delayed diagnosis
- Evidence of hypoxia caused by poor attention
- Lax fetal and mother monitoring
- Misdiagnosis
- Delayed C-section
- Wrong medication or dose
- Poor or incorrect surgical procedure
- The lack of early detection of possible complications
- Lack of oxygen caused by inattention or negligence
- Delay in relaying critical information to more experienced personnel (e.g., a superior wasn’t notified of the mother and child’s situation early)
Your HIE lawyer in Alabama will look for these signs and more. And because they know what to look for, they’ll be better able to find evidence of these mistakes, even when there’s a cover-up.
However, please note that their investigations may also reveal that the medical personnel did a great job and that your child’s HIE was caused by something else.
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Compensation Claims in an Alabama HIE Birth Injury Case
In Alabama, some of the damages that you can claim for your child in a hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy case include:
- Medical expenses for past and future treatments
- Mental anguish and anxiety
- Lost income
- Reduced family income
- Pain and suffering
- Modifications to both transport vehicle and home for the child
- PTSD
- Cost associated with maintaining the home
- Caregiver expenses
- Wrongful death
As a parent, you just want your child to be well and avoid all conversations about suing a hospital or medical personnel. But the truth is that you need a lot of money to cater to, treat, or manage your child’s HIE. You are unlikely to afford those expenses out of pocket.
The most ideal way to settle all the accruing medical bills, lifestyle changes, and every other need that arises because of the child’s injury is to file a claim and pursue compensation from the negligent party.
And even though money may not undo the damage done by hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy, it can help with treatments and other expenses associated with the condition. If you have any questions, your Alabama HIE attorney will provide you with more details so that you can make an informed decision.
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Is There a Limit to the Compensation for Your Child?
No. There’s no limit to the compensation you can recover in a birth injury medical malpractice case. Therefore, the courts will award as much as they see fit.
And while that settlement is uncommon, it is not unusual for the courts to award six to seven-figure damages in medical malpractice cases involving child brain damage or injuries. The amount in recoverable damages largely depends on:
- The extent of the medical practitioner’s negligence
- Malicious or intentional actions of hospital staff
- How bad the child’s brain injuries are
- The cost of taking care of the child indefinitely
- Pain and suffering endured by the parents and relatives
- Lost family income and opportunities
- The possibility of the child making a full or partial recovery
- Loss of support
These are some of the damages that you may be able to recover in an Alabama birth injury medical malpractice lawsuit.
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Hire a Hypoxic Ischemic Encephalopathy Attorney in Alabama
Hiring a birth injury lawyer gives you a better chance of recovering the maximum compensation that will help you and your family give the child the best quality of life. This means adequate treatment, education, medical equipment, and other things that the child will need to live as normal a life as possible.
At the Birth Injury Lawyers Group, our lawyers are committed to helping you in every way possible while you wait for the outcome of your case. For instance, you can utilize the resources available at United Cerebral Palsy. Remember, information is very crucial in how you move forward in taking care of your child. Let us help you give your child the best.
Contact us today to speak to an experienced Alabama hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy attorney. You can fill out our free case evaluation form or call our office line today.
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