Do I Have a Medical Malpractice Case for My Baby’s Cerebral Palsy?
All parents want is to receive news that their baby is happy and healthy after delivery. For some parents, they may not get the update they were hoping for. Cerebral palsy is a neurological disorder that can result from damage to the brain, causing issues with coordination, posture, and/or movement. The symptoms of this condition tend to show shortly after birth or within the 18 months afterwards.
Parents who are concerned that their doctor made an error which led to their baby’s cerebral palsy, may want to get a consultation from a birth injury attorney as soon as possible. When doctors and other medical professionals are negligent or commit an error before, during, or after delivery, they may be held liable for damages.
Did my doctor make a mistake during the pregnancy?
Early on in the stages of pregnancy, most women have prenatal tests done to assess the health of their unborn baby. It is possible that the doctor had forgotten to run a crucial test, interpreted the data incorrectly, or failed to inform parents of potential risks in the fetus. Parents who didn’t know about a genetic or congenital defects in the baby may have grounds for a medical malpractice lawsuit, if they would have considered the option of terminating the pregnancy upon becoming aware.
What if the cerebral palsy occurred due to a birth injury during delivery?
Doctors who failed to meet the standard of care for medical professionals in their field when taking care of a mother during delivery, could have caused the baby to develop cerebral palsy. The baby may have been deprived of oxygen for too long because the doctor didn’t notice or hadn’t responded with a sense of urgency. Other ways birth injuries can happen during delivery include:
- Broken bones and fractured skull
- Misshapen head from vacuum birthing tool
- Wounds from aggressive use of forceps
- Failing to provide treatment in a prompt manner
- Delaying a needed cesarean section
- Not properly monitoring fetus and mother
- Asphyxia of the fetus due to umbilical cord problems
- Administering incorrect type and/or dosage of medications
- Failure to diagnose and treat preeclampsia/eclampsia
In what other instances could injury to the fetus have been prevented?
Maternal infections can develop and impact the fetus, so prompt diagnosis and treatment is required of doctors, to prevent harm to both the mother and unborn baby. By acting quickly, it can help reduce the damage to the baby’s brain tissue and organs. Maternal infections can be parasitic, fungal, bacterial, or viral. Medical malpractice may be an element of your birth injury lawsuit if the following situations happened to you:
- Your doctor didn’t test you for common illnesses, particularly when you had exhibited a fever during pregnancy
- You did not receive prompt and correct treatment for an infection while pregnant
- Your doctor administered medications or vaccines while you were pregnant, and didn’t consider the risks or notify you of them beforehand
- Medical personnel didn’t test or treat your baby after delivery, when the risk of infection was suspected