Boston Birth Injury Attorneys
Our Boston birth injury attorneys know that most parents regard the birth of their child as one of the single most important moments in their lives, a memory to cherish as the child grows and matures. However, the occurrence of a birth injury can turn a joyous occasion into a lifelong nightmare. Children with birth injuries often struggle to cope with the consequences for the rest of their lives, and their parents are faced with a lifetime of medical expenses and worry about their child’s future care.
No family should have to pay for the consequences of a birth injury caused by someone else. If your child suffered a birth injury as a result of errors on the part of your medical caregiver, we might be able to help you get compensation to help give your child a more secure future. Our staff includes a practicing nurse-midwife to provide in-house expertise on the issues involved in these serious and important cases. Our Boston birth injury lawyers represent families throughout New England, including Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island.
Contact Crowe & Harris, LLP at (617) 404-3417 for a free consultation about your case.
On This Page:
- Do I Need a Birth Injury Attorney?
- Why Should I Choose Crowe & Harris, LLP to Handle My Case?
- Birth Injury Cases We Handle
- Why Should I Seek Compensation?
- Birth Injury Statistics
- Crowe & Harris, LLP Will Fight for You
Do I Need a Birth Injury Attorney?
Birth injuries may lead to a wide range of permanent physical, cognitive, and emotional conditions. At Crowe & Harris, LLP , our attorneys have experience representing clients in a variety of birth injury cases.
Medical professionals who cause birth injuries need to be held accountable for the consequences of their actions. By taking legal action against these negligent professionals, you can not only obtain compensation to provide for your child’s future medical needs, but you may also be able to help prevent similar injuries to other children in the future.
Why Should I Choose Crowe & Harris, LLP to Handle My Case?
Crowe & Harris, LLP has worked hard to secure more than $300 million for our clients. We have specifically recovered $39 million for our clients whose children were harmed by a doctor or member of the medical staff during birth. At Crowe & Harris, LLP an entire team of professionals will be assigned to your case, not just a single individual. Our dedicated team of attorneys, nurses, paralegals, law clerks, and legal secretaries work hard to develop a personalized strategy for each case.
Our experience, record of success, and satisfied clients are proof of our commitment to excellence. Our mission statement “Righting Wrongs, Rebuilding Lives, Representing You” is not just a motto, it is what drives us every day.
Birth Injury Cases We Handle
A birth injury can be one of the most traumatic and devastating experiences a family will go through. There are some potential birth injuries that may be the result of a doctor’s error or negligence during delivery. Our team of attorneys is experienced and can help you fight for the compensation your family needs after your child was injured during birth. We have successfully worked on behalf of clients in a variety of cases, including:
Cerebral Palsy
Cerebral palsy is a lifelong disorder that can drastically affect a child’s life. Unfortunately, a medical professional’s negligence may cause a child to have cerebral palsy.
Although the symptoms may not become apparent until later, a child may have suffered from an injury during birth if they develop:
- Muscle weakness
- Strange movement
- Loss of muscle movement
- Loss of coordination
- Tremors
- Paralysis on one side of the body
Brachial Plexus / Erb’s Palsy
Erb’s palsy may result when the brachial plexus, a set of nerves near a person’s neck that controls arm function, is damaged. Signs of Erb’s palsy include single arm weakness, numbness in a single arm, or partial or total paralysis in a single arm. If a negligent doctor caused your baby to develop Erb’s palsy during or just after childbirth, you may be entitled to compensation.
Cephalohematoma
This is a serious condition that refers to the collection of blood in an infant’s head. Sadly, cephalohematoma is very painful for the newborn and can be caused by the negligence of a nurse or doctor. Further damages that may occur in trying to treat the condition include tearing of nearby blood vessels, nerve damage, infection, hemorrhage, bleeding, cranial pressure, or emergency surgery.
Fetal Heart Monitoring Interpretation Errors
Fetal heart monitoring is crucial to ensuring your baby has a regular and controlled heartbeat during childbirth. However, doctors sometime may misread a baby’s heart monitor, resulting in birth injuries. Unfortunately, this is a case where the baby directly suffers from a doctor’s negligence in monitoring a fetal heart monitor. Here, negligence can be attributed to fatigue, overwork, distraction, untrained hospital staff, or recklessness. These behaviors could put an innocent baby at risk for a birth injury, all because a doctor or other hospital staff member failed to take the appropriate steps or actions so they could accurately read a monitor.
Prenatal Testing
During pregnancy, women typically must undergo various prenatal tests in order to ensure that they and their babies are healthy. While many prenatal tests are standard and go off without error, sometimes doctors or other medical practitioners make serious mistakes in performing or interpreting prenatal tests, potentially creating unsafe conditions for a mother and her child. In some cases, these errors can lead to serious, life-changing birth injuries.
Therefore, prenatal testing is critical. Although these are often low-risk tests, sometimes doctors make mistakes in performing or interpreting prenatal tests, potentially creating an unsafe environment for the mother and her child. Prenatal testing helps doctors detect potential fetal health issues to prepare for special measures that may have to be taken during childbirth.
Failure to Perform Cesarean Section
From a baby’s conception to its birth, its health should be closely monitored by doctors and other medical practitioners to ensure that the baby’s condition and development remain normal and stable. Sometimes, however, issues can arise before or even during birth that indicate the need for a Cesarean section, or C-section. A C-section allows doctors to remove a baby when an immediate birth becomes necessary due to complications in the pregnancy or baby’s health. It is important for physicians to carefully track an infant’s health both before and during birth to determine if a C-section is required.
Traumatic Deliveries
A baby’s delivery should be an exciting and joyful time for a family. However, sometimes innocent babies are injured during delivery because of a traumatic delivery process. Traumatic deliveries are considered medical malpractice and can have lasting effects on a newborn. Traumatic deliveries occur when the attending physician or medical team mishandles labor and delivery. Injuries that may arise due to this include head injuries (such as cephalohematoma), cerebral palsy, Erb’s palsy, facial paralysis, spinal cord injuries, or infections.
Brain and Spinal Damage
One of the most devastating birth injuries is brain and spinal cord damage, which can permanently affect a child, as well as their family. Brain and spinal cord damage often require extensive, ongoing medical treatment, potentially leaving a family with insurmountable medical bills. However, the irresponsible medical professional at fault for the injury may be obligated to cover these frustrating costs.
Brain and spinal cord injuries can result from a variety of medical errors during childbirth, including mishandling of forceps or improper monitoring of an infant’s oxygen levels during birth. This damage can permanently affect a child. Associated issues caused by brain and spinal injury include mental retardation, delayed development, emotional abnormalities, paraplegia, and quadriplegia.
Effects of Infant Brain Damage
When a baby suffers brain damage, they will likely have a different physical, and often psychological, life than other babies. Their parents will also feel the effects of this situation.
Some of the effects of infant brain damage that can affect a baby and their parents include:
- Frequent hospital visits
- Physical and emotional therapy
- Total dependency throughout life
- Varied medical expenses
- Non-developing mental condition
These effects can be, understandably, quite difficult to face, not just for an innocent baby, but also for their parents. They involve not just emotional difficulties, but also hefty financial commitments.
Newborn Infections
Newborn babies have a high risk of infection, and it is crucial that medical professionals take necessary precautions to ensure the newborn’s safety.
Should a medical professional make a misstep during a delivery or otherwise behave negligently, newborns may develop one of the following serious infections:
- Viral respiratory infections
- Group B streptococcus
- Toxoplasmosis
- Herpes simplex
- Cytomegalovirus
- Bacterial infections
The effects of any one of these infections may be lifelong for your child, necessitating a number of medical treatments or medications. When the negligence of a medical professional or institution has resulted in a newborn developing an infection, that individual or facility may be held financially liable for their actions.
Shaken Baby Syndrome
Shaken baby syndrome is a serious injury that can result during the birth process. If a doctor or nurse is careless or negligent when handling a newborn by shaking them unnecessarily, then shaken baby syndrome may be the result. This injury causes the baby’s brain to be traumatically affected by destroying some or all of their brain cells and causing the brain to not get enough oxygen.
Symptoms include:
- Difficulty breathing properly
- Irregular eating habits
- Frequent vomiting
- Irritability
- Tremors
- Seizures
- Coma
Because shaken baby syndrome is likely to prevent proper development of brain cells and can lead to brain damage, medical professionals need to be especially careful when holding and treating newborn babies. Such brain damage can be difficult not only for the infant in question, but also for their parents, who face emotional trauma and financial difficulties as a result.
If your child suffered a birth injury, we can help you fight for justice and compensation. Contact a Boston birth injury lawyer at Crowe & Harris, LLP at (617) 404-3417 for a free consultation with an experienced member of our medical-legal team.
Why Should I Seek Compensation?
At Crowe & Harris, LLP , we believe that your family should not have to pay for the mistakes of a doctor or medical staff member. We understand that birth injuries can lead to a lifetime of medical bills and we believe that you deserve compensation for a negligent medical practitioner’s actions. You and your family may be eligible for compensation if the birth injury could have been avoided. Compensation will secure your child’s future and include present and future medical expenses.
Birth Injury Statistics
Thankfully, most child deliveries are performed successfully, and there are few to no complications. However, doctors and medical staff still make mistakes, and sometimes those mistakes can have serious consequences. According to Birth Injury Guide, 28,000 infants are born with a birth injury each year in the United States — that is equivalent to approximately 6-8 birth injuries out of every 1,000 deliveries, or 1 in every 9,714 people born with a birth injury.
Crowe & Harris, LLP Will Fight for You
The Boston birth injury attorneys at Crowe & Harris, LLP understand how important it is for your family to get the justice and financial compensation you deserve if your child suffered severe injuries during childbirth. Birth injuries can have a permanent effect on your child’s life and may require months, years, or a lifetime of medical care.
Birth injuries can be prevented with proper prenatal care and monitoring before and during childbirth, assessing and responding to potentially dangerous conditions, and adequate training and attention to detail in every case. Medical professionals who fail to fulfill these responsibilities must be held accountable.
Our firm is dedicated to helping you get the justice and compensation you deserve by providing you with compassionate and experienced legal representation in your time of need.
Send us a message or call us today at (617) 404-3417 to discuss your case.
