A difficult labor and delivery can cause many forms of injury in a newborn. This injury is unexpected and can be traumatic. Whether a brain injury or spinal injury, our New York Birth Injury Lawyer staff at Stephen Bilkis & Associates, PLLC can help you determine if negligence lead to this injury. In many cases, a physician, Ob/Gyn or nurse committed a reckless or careless action that lead to the child’s birth injury. If this is the case, you may be able to file a medical malpractice claim or possibly an obstetrical malpractice claim against the irresponsible healthcare provider. Contact our law firm to discuss your legal options.
Preventing a birth injury is one of the main factors in having prenatal care. An Ob/Gyn must manage every aspect of the delivery, including the use of medical instruments and prescription of medications. There are many ways a birth injury could be sustained, such as a doctor error, hospital mistake, nursing error, or due to wrong medication. With any birth injury, the damage can be severe, from nerve damage, a brain injury such as an anoxic brain injury, a spinal injury or most tragically, a wrongful death.
A spinal cord injury can occur during a delivery due to many different factors, such as excessive rotation or traction. There is a higher incidence of a breech baby suffering from a traction-related injury. An appropriate level of medical care, prior to and during the delivery, can prevent this type of spinal injury.
Our New York Spinal Birth Injury Lawyer group at Stephen Bilkis & Associates, PLLC has found that difficult deliveries often result in medical complications. Some mothers state that their difficult delivery was caused by an abnormally large infant or abnormally small material pelvis. With either of these delivery characteristics, the newborn can suffer from a shoulder dystocia injury or possibly from a brachial plexus injury. In a few rare instances, this type of injury can lead to a more severe type of paralysis, such as found in Klumpke’s Palsy medical cases or Erb’s Palsy medical cases. Treating these types of spinal injury can involve extensive physical therapy, multiple visits to specialists, permanent physical disfigurement and permanent physical impairment.
As is often the case, these types of birth injuries occur as a result of medical malpractice. This deals with an area of law involving negligence. In order to have a cause of action for negligence, four elements must be present. There must be a duty of the part of the doctor or medical practitioner to act reasonably and professionally. This duty must have been breached, and the breach was the cause of the injury. Finally, there must be damages as a result of the breach.
Let our experienced New York Injury Lawyer staff at Stephen Bilkis & Associates, PLLC help you hold the negligent medical party responsible for your child’s injury. We have years of experience with medical malpractice and personal injury cases. We can help you obtain an award to compensate for the baby’s physical injury, impairment, disfigurement, pain and suffering, medical expenses and for your lost time from work, mental anguish and pain.
If you believe you have a claim, it is important to not delay. There are strict time limitations within which to file a lawsuit. This is called the statute of limitations and is governed by NY C.P.L.R. 214-a. This rule states that a claim must be filed within one year and 6 months from the date of the mistake. This can be tricky in misdiagnosis cases. A particularly well-known example is called, “Laverne’s Law.” This law has not passed yet, may in the near future. A Brooklyn woman went to the hospital ill and had a chest x-ray. Unfortunately, the technician missed a mass on the x-ray. Three years later, she returned to the hospital and was diagnosed with end stage lung cancer and died. Because of the time period that has passed, her daughter was unable to sue the x-ray technician for malpractice.
If your child is suffering from a birth injury, whether a spinal injury or other personal injury, contact our New York Birth Injury Lawyer team at Stephen Bilkis & Associates, PLLC to schedule a free consultation. Please contact us at 800.696.9529 or online. You may also contact one of our New York City offices in Manhattan, Staten Island, Queens, the Bronx or Brooklyn, our New York office in Westchester County or one of our Long Island offices in Nassau County or Suffolk County.