An error caused by medical staff can cause birth injuries in up to 2% of all birth injury cases. A medical error can increase the severity of an injury or permanence. If you believe that your child’s birth injury was a cause of medical errors, you may have a medical malpractice case.
Types of errors that are typically identified in these cases include:
- Failing to anticipate birth complications with a larger baby, or anticipate maternal health complications;
- Failure to respond appropriately to bleeding;
- Failing to observe or respond to umbilical cord entrapment;
- Failure to respond to fetal distress (including irregularities in the fetal heartbeat);
- Delay in ordering cesarean section (c-section) when deemed medically necessary;
- Misuse of forceps or a vacuum extractor during delivery resulting in an injury;
- Inappropriate administration of Pitocin, a synthesized hormone used to induce or speed up labor; and
Additionally, injuries can result to a baby as a result of poor care on behalf of the medical staff after the birth, including mistakes made during a circumcision, or failure to properly attend to an infection.
In evaluating a possible malpractice claim, an attorney will ordinarily want to review all of the baby’s medical records, including those associated with the child’s birth and neonatal care, and may wish to also have them reviewed by a nurse or physician. There are many people involved in a birth injury case, and you may want to list all those involved if you are thinking about filing a medical malpractice or medical negligence lawsuit. If this information is unavailable to you, your attorney can assist you by performing an investigation of your case.