Babies can suffer serious injuries during or immediately after labor and delivery. These are called birth injuries, and they can be serious, sometimes leading to the baby’s death.
If your child suffered severe or fatal birth injuries due to a healthcare practitioner’s negligence, you can pursue compensation. Speak with a DeLand birth injury lawyer at The Florida Firm. Our medical malpractice attorneys have a stellar reputation in the local legal community and beyond, thanks to our extensive experience, genuine compassion for our clients, and consistently excellent results.
Birth Injury Cases We Handle
Many babies are born with injuries that resolve on their own or with minor intervention. Although it is upsetting when your newborn has visible injuries such as a swollen scalp or hemorrhaging in the eye area, these are common complications that usually have no lasting impact.
Other birth injuries can affect your child’s development and even lead to death. Our attorneys represent parents in DeLand whose children have suffered severe injuries at birth, such as:
- Brachial plexus injury
- Cerebral palsy
- Hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy
- Intercranial hemorrhage
- Paralysis of the facial nerve
- Spinal cord injury
- Skull fracture
These conditions often result from the birth team’s carelessness, poor judgment, or mismanagement of labor.
The impact of these injuries may be apparent early in your child’s life, but sometimes you may not realize the degree of harm until your child misses developmental milestones. The law allows you to file a lawsuit claiming that medical negligence caused a birth injury anytime before your child’s eighth birthday. This extended time frame allows you to develop a fuller sense of your child’s injuries so that you can demand appropriate compensation.
How Do You Establish Liability for a Birth Injury?
Proving medical negligence requires you to show that a healthcare provider did not meet the appropriate standard of care. You must prove that the injury is the direct result of a medical practitioner’s failure to perform with the same degree of knowledge, judgment, and skill as other similarly credentialed providers working in the area.
Before taking legal action, malpractice lawyers in DeLand must investigate the cause of the birth injury by seeking the opinion of a medical expert. Florida Statutes § 766.106 requires another practitioner in the same specialty as the provider you intend to sue to review your child’s medical records. The medical expert must then complete an affidavit stating that your provider did not meet an appropriate standard of care.
You must give the healthcare provider advance notice of your intent to sue. Sometimes their insurer will attempt to reach a reasonable settlement before a lawsuit is filed. If no pre-suit settlement is reached, mediation is mandatory before a case can go to trial.
Managing a Child’s Compensation
Severe birth injuries can lead to substantial settlements and verdicts. The Florida Firm has resolved several birth injury cases for sums exceeding $1 million. Our DeLand attorneys could explain your obligations regarding the funds your child is awarded in a birth injury lawsuit.
Your lawsuit may include claims for your emotional distress, your child’s extraordinary medical expenses, and your lost wages if their condition requires you to be their caregiver. You are entitled to use that money in whatever way you choose. However, funds to satisfy your child’s claims are theirs and will be managed by the court until your child turns 18.
Your child’s money is usually placed in a restricted account or set up as a structured settlement that pays the funds incrementally over time to meet the child’s future needs. The court will often appoint a guardian of the funds, who may be a parent or a third party. Court approval is required for the guardian to remove funds from the child’s account, and courts generally approve these requests only in exceptional circumstances.
Seek Damages for Your Child’s Birth Injuries With a DeLand Attorney
Birth injuries can have an enormous impact on your family, and your child may experience the effects forever. The medical professionals who caused the injuries must be held accountable. Talk to a DeLand birth injury lawyer at The Florida Firm about pursuing a medical malpractice lawsuit. Consultations are free, and you pay nothing unless we obtain compensation for you, so get in touch with us today to get started on your case.