Birth Injury Attorney

When a child is seriously injured during delivery, the emotional toll on the family can be devastating.

Unfortunately, medical errors are common in childbirth, where many of these mistakes could have been prevented if medical professionals had administered proper care.

Did your newborn sustain a preventable birth injury as a result of medical negligence? If so, it's crucial to act right away to protect your legal rights and ensure that you receive compensation for any damages caused by negligence or misconduct.

Our experienced personal injury attorneys at Rosenfeld Injury Lawyers, LLC, are here to help you recover compensation for all related costs and losses caused by this preventable accident.

Contact our Chicago personal injury law office at (888) 424-5757 (toll-free phone number) or use the contact form today for immediate legal advice and schedule a free consultation. All confidential or sensitive information you share with our legal team remains private through an attorney-client relationship.

Defining Birth Injuries

You undoubtedly have many questions and worries if you had significant problems during childbirth or delivered a newborn who suffered birth injuries.

What is the distinction between a birth injury and a birth defect?

Birth injuries occur during the labor and delivery process. It might range from a bruise to a bone break to more significant problems, including spinal cord damage and brain injuries.

More common injuries arising during pregnancy, labor, or the birthing process could include:

• Shoulder dystocia: In some deliveries, the child's shoulders are lodged in the birth canal when pressed against the mother's pelvic area. In many shoulder dystocia cases, damage to the child's shoulders results from a mistake made by the nurse or obstetrician.
• Brain trauma: Fetal distress could lead to brain injury during birthing. The length of time the child does not have sufficient oxygen will determine the severity of the condition that might lead to ongoing medical treatment, the need for occupational/physical therapy, and lifelong disabilities.
• Facial nerve palsy: This condition can develop when too much pressure is placed on the newborn's facial nurse during birth. The palsy could result in a loss of voluntary muscle movement of the facial muscles.
• Brachial plexus: A brachial plexus injury (Erb's palsy) affects a network of nerves beginning at the spinal cord radiating down the arms nerves. When a child suffers damage to the brachial plexus, it might result from neuropraxia, neuroma, rupture, or avulsion of the complex nurse in that area.

A birth injury occurs when the mother or infant is injured due to malpractice. For example, the injury might result from a misdiagnosis, mistreatment, or birth complications when the injured child suffers some trauma or wrongful death by the delivery doctor, medical team, or other medical professionals.

Often, injuries occur when a medical professional deviates from typical medical protocols and standards of care by not anticipating, noticing, or reacting to a scenario are risk factors that could lead to the child's birth injury promptly.

Lawyers for Cook County Birth Injuries

You can take legal action to get compensation for the emotional and financial costs of the birth injury and the future medical expenses of caring for an injured child who has sustained a birth trauma.

However, it is a daunting task to face insurance companies and healthcare providers who are well-experienced in defending these claims, especially while handling the aftereffects of medical negligence or medical errors.

Call our law office to speak with a Chicago birth injury attorney to learn more about how we can help. Then, when you call for your free consultation, we will discuss your legal options.

Our experienced Chicago birth injury lawyers work with you every step of the way after we begin the attorney-client relationship.

Lawyers Holding Medical Professionals Accountable

Our Chicago birth injury attorneys are committed to holding hospitals and medical professionals accountable to allow families to recover the compensation needed to care for their child's birth injuries.

The costs of raising a child with a birth-related injury can be considerable. However, our many birth injury lawyers understand the actions that need to be taken to allow you the best chance of financial compensation.

Our legal firm offers a free case evaluation to start the process and will be by your side 24/7 to see your congenital disabilities or injury case through to the end.

Are you wondering how much birth injury lawyers cost when you are struggling under the weight of mounting bills from negligent medical care? We can help you today because our attorneys work on a contingency basis, meaning that we are not paid unless you are.

If your birth injury case is not successful for some reason, you are not presented with a bill for your legal fees. In addition, you do not need to write us a retainer check up-front, nor do you need to pay hourly legal fees.

Contact an Experienced Birth Injury Lawyer

Rosenfeld Injury Lawyers has successfully litigated birth injury cases in Chicago, including labor and delivery negligence cases across Illinois.

In one instance, our Illinois law firm recovered $6.14 million for a child who developed cerebral palsy after the obstetrician failed to perform a cesarean section when signs of fetal distress were present.

Our personal injury lawyers have handled many types of severe and common birth injuries cases in which the child experienced developmental or neurological problems that will accompany them for life.

Different types of injuries during birth:

• Cerebral palsy
• Erb's palsy
• Spinal cord injuries
• Other conditions that require long-term care or a permanent care provider can place a great deal of stress on the family, and a tide of medical bills

While investigating potential birth injury lawsuits, our law offices regularly assemble medical records from:

• Prenatal care and delivery
• Fetal monitoring strips
• Ultrasounds
• Laboratory testing
• Interviews with nurses and physicians
• Evaluation of the client with a psychiatrist
• Reports regarding their long-term care needs
• Reports from economists regarding the present cash value of care required

We work with medical experts to establish that the doctor committed malpractice that caused serious injury to your child.

Statistics Relating to Birth Injuries

Unfortunately, childbirth injuries are too common, even in developed countries like the United States.

However, the different types of birth injuries have little to do with healthcare technology and everything to do with the level of care that the medical professional exercises.

Birth injuries are not a matter of economics as children from wealthier areas will still suffer at the same rate as children from poorer areas.

It's estimated that as many as 8 in every 1,000 children in the United States will suffer childbirth injuries. The low end of the statistical estimates is 6 out of every 1,000.

So roughly 134 out of every 100,000 children will die from childbirth injuries. It works out to around one in every 800 births.

Most birth-related injuries will be categorized as moderate to severe. Doctors have cut the rate of birth injuries in recent years as they are more likely to perform a cesarean section surgery more quickly, in part due to the legal liability they may face for delaying these vital procedures.

They realize that they can be found liable for medical malpractice when they unreasonably delay this surgery in maternal or child distress cases.

Representing Families in Chicago, Illinois

Any time an infant is born with birth defects, permanent injury, or childbirth injuries requiring ongoing medical care, the situation merits close evaluation.

Once you engage with us, we begin gathering information about the birthing process to determine what happened and why. Then, our birth injury law firm will prove that the doctor or medical professionals were negligent.

Proving negligence and malpractice in a birth injury case involves comparing what the doctor did in your case versus what a reasonable doctor would have done under the circumstances.

It is why birth injury cases require an experienced attorney with experience in medical malpractice cases.

These cases are fact-intensive, and an attorney needs to understand the science involved. Therefore, our law offices regularly probe medical documents to get a clear picture of the types of birth injury involved.

Damages that Chicago Birth Injury Attorneys May Pursue

There are two primary tasks that your experienced personal injury attorney must accomplish in birth injury cases. First, as we just covered, they must prove that the doctor was negligent.

Then, they must either negotiate a fair settlement with the insurance company or persuade the jury to grant you adequate damages.

Childbirth injuries will put your family under a lifetime of financial strain. The medical expenses alone can break a family, even if they have health insurance.

After establishing negligence, our birth injury attorneys work toward establishing damages, so a judge or jury can value the case fairly, and our clients can receive the verdict or settlement they are owed.

Like any Chicago personal injury occurrence, you are entitled to money to compensate you for both your economic and non-economic damages.

Here are some of the following medical malpractice damages that you can recover after your child's birth when a negligent doctor harmed them:

• Past and future medical costs
• Lost earnings for time missed caring for the child
• Wrongful death
• The cost of future home care or rehabilitation for the child
• Special education costs
• The child's past and future pain and suffering
• Compensation for loss of a normal life
• Mental and emotional suffering
• Punitive damages if the doctor's malpractice was especially glaring

Why Childbirth Injuries Happen

Many childbirth injuries happen because the child suffered from oxygen deprivation during the delivery.

In many cases, the doctor could have and should have performed a cesarean section surgery in a timely manner to deliver the baby because either the child or mother was in distress.

Instead, the medical professional missed these signs or failed to appreciate the danger.

In other cases, there was trauma during delivery. The doctor was either negligent in using medical equipment such as forceps or failed to perform a timely C-section surgery. In some cases, the umbilical cord is wrapped around the child's neck, cutting off oxygen.

All it takes is for the baby to lose oxygen briefly to suffer a serious, lifelong brain trauma or other types of birth injuries, and permanent disability.

Common Injuries that Our Chicago Birth Injury Lawyers See

Some more common childbirth injuries our national law firms see that may be associated with trauma during the birthing process or medical malpractice, leading to a lifetime of expensive medical treatment include:

• Cerebral Palsy (CP): Cerebral palsy is frequently manifested when a child loses their ability to control their muscles. Most CP cases are attributed to congenital issues, with the balance attributed to complications during the birthing process when the oxygen supply is interrupted. Unfortunately, there is no cure for CP.
• Facial Paralysis: Sometimes referred to as facial nerve palsy, the condition may be caused when a doctor puts pressure on a baby's face before or during delivery.
• Brachial Plexus Injuries: A brachial plexus injury is a group of nerves that controls movement in the arm, shoulder, elbow, and hand. The doctor may exert intense pressure when attempting to retrieve a child stuck in the birth canal.

Some of these childbirth injuries may heal independently, while more severe injuries involving severed nerves may be permanent.

• Spinal Cord Injuries: Particularly in difficult deliveries, babies may be put at risk for spinal cord injuries when medical professionals apply force or use aggressive maneuvers. Symptoms include lifeless limbs. Injury location dictates how the doctor will treat the birth injury.
• Intracranial Hemorrhage: Commonly referred to as bleeding within the skull, infants with intracranial hemorrhage may develop motor problems or cerebral palsy. When identified early, doctors may treat the condition with medication or surgery. However, prolonged pressure on the skull can cause bleeding and brain damage.
• Bone Fractures: These childbirth injuries are more common in situations where the doctor attempts to maneuver the child for delivery, occurring in approximately 1 out of 1,000 births. Depending on the location of the fracture and severity, the doctor may choose a treatment involving immobilization or surgery.
• Brain Damage: Oxygen deprivation is the leading cause of infant brain damage, occurring in 4 out of 1,000 full-term births. Even a brief interruption in a baby's oxygen supply, like strangulation from an umbilical cord around the neck, can have drastic consequences such as permanent brain damage or cerebral palsy.

Familiarize Yourself with the Legal Process in Illinois

When you hire a Chicago birth injury lawyer at Rosenfeld Injury Lawyers, LLC, you gain peace of mind that a caring and experienced attorney will see you through the process of taking legal action.

This process may differ between cases, but generally consists of the following:

• Birth injury claim investigation: In our initial free case evaluation, we will gather the details of your birth injury.
• Filing a birth injury claim: Your birth-related medical malpractice from Rosenfeld Injury Lawyers will draft and file your legal complaint against the defendant, describing how the birth injury occurred.
• Discovery: This phase entails obtaining all the evidence needed to try the case, including consultations with the appropriate medical practitioners.
• Settlement: Not all birth injury cases go to trial. It is possible to achieve resolution outside the courts, which may save time and money. Your top birth injury lawyer will guide you through negotiations for a fair settlement. Note that the settlement stage is not a part of every case. In some cases, the defendant may look to settle. When that happens, trying to negotiate is absolutely in your best interest. However, some defendants may not want to settle and will not offer an equitable resolution.
• Trial: If no settlement is reached, your lawyer will see your case tried in the courts before a judge or jury.
• Verdict and award: The jury or judge will determine if full and fair compensation should be awarded to the plaintiff. Once liability has been determined, your medical malpractice case will have a damages phase.
• Appeal: If you have won your case in court, you can expect the defendant to appeal the verdict because these verdicts and awards can often be large. An experienced birth injury attorney would advise you that the legal process in these cases does not work quickly. If your medical malpractice lawsuit goes all the way through to trial, you can count on it taking years. Even if your case settles, it could also take years as the defendant theoretically could settle any time before a jury verdict.

If you're like most parents, the birth of your child is one of the happiest moments of your life. But if your child was injured during delivery due to medical malpractice, that joy can quickly turn to heartbreak.

Birth injury victims and their families may be eligible for financial compensation to help pay for the lifelong care that their child will require. In addition, your family could hold the doctor and other medical professionals responsible got injuries to both the child and mother.

Proving Your Birth Injury Medical Malpractice Case

To recover full and fair compensation in an Illinois malpractice negligence case, families must establish the truth of some aspects concerning the case.

As the plaintiff in the lawsuit, the burden of proof would be on you to establish that medical negligence occurred. The legal standard is that you must prove your case by a 'preponderance of the evidence.'

It means that what you are alleging about the birth injury is more likely than not to have happened. You must prove each of the following elements in your birth injury lawsuit:

• A healthcare provider-patient relationship existed between the OB-GYN and the mother
• The OB-GYN had a duty of care to the mother and her child
• The OB-GYN or medical staff breached their duty of care owed to the mother and newborn child
• The OB-GYNs or medical staff's breach of care was the proximate cause of injury to the child or mother
• The newborn baby or mother has incurred or is likely to incur some type of physical or emotional harm due to the doctor's conduct.

FAQs on Chicago Birth Injury Cases

Our Chicago, IL, birth injury support team understands that many families have unanswered questions about childbirth injuries and how to deal directly with an insurance company for medical malpractice cases or birth injury claims.

An attorney from our law office has answered some of those questions below. Contact us at (888) 424-5757 (toll-free phone number) or use the contact form for additional information.

Contact our Chicago Law Offices for a Free Consultation

Our Chicago birth injury attorneys work tirelessly to help prove medical malpractice and secure financial compensation so that families can return to what matters most; taking care of their injured child. Our attorneys have handled birth injury cases similar to yours.

We will investigate all details, including a review of medical records surrounding your child&'s devastating birth injury, to establish how they occurred and who is responsible.

By working with nationally recognized experts in medicine, counseling, and economics, our birth injury lawyers seek compensation that will aid in the comprehensive care of your child and family.

Looking to find a birth injury lawyer? Call us at (888) 424-5757 (toll-free phone number) or use the contact form for a free case review and take the first step to get the compensation you deserve for the birth trauma.

Given Illinois's time limits and the scientific complexity of these birth injury claims, it is best to start working with an attorney sooner than later.

We accept all birth-related medical malpractice lawsuits through contingency fee agreements. This promise ensures you pay nothing until your birth injury lawyer resolves your case through a jury award or negotiated settlement.

Resources:

• PubMed - Birth injuries: incidence and predisposing factors

Contact our Chicago Law Offices for a Free Consultation

Our Chicago birth injury attorneys work tirelessly to help prove medical malpractice and secure financial compensation so that families can return to what matters most; taking care of their injured child.

We will investigate all details, including a review of medical records surrounding your child's devastating birth injuries, to establish how they occurred and who is responsible.

By working with nationally recognized experts in medicine, counseling, and economics, we seek compensation that will aid in the comprehensive care of your child and family.

Call us at (888) 424-5757 (toll-free phone number) or use the contact form for a free case review and take the first step to get the compensation you deserve for the birth trauma.

Given Illinois's time limits and the scientific complexity of these cases, it is best to start working with an attorney sooner than later.

We accept all personal injury cases and wrongful death lawsuits through contingency fee agreements. This promise ensures you pay nothing until your lawyer resolves your case through a jury award or negotiated settlement.

Resources:

• PubMed - Birth injuries: incidence and predisposing factors
• NCBI - Birth Injury: Birth Asphyxia and Birth Trauma<