Philadelphia Birth Injury Attorneys
Fighting for Your Family’s Future
Adding a new member to your family should be a time of joy and celebration. Unfortunately, the birthing process can lead to countless complications. If doctors do not predict these problems or handle them correctly when they come up, you or your child could be harmed or killed. When a birth injury or wrongful death is the result of medical malpractice, you may be entitled to compensation.
If you’ve experienced an injury or loss in the delivery room, please contact Gay Chacker & Ginsburg Trial Lawyers at 215-567-7955 today.
Why Choose Gay Chacker & Ginsburg?
- Proven Success: Our firm secured a $3,105,000 settlement in a cerebral palsy case caused by a high-speed police chase crash. The accident led to a woman going into premature labor, and the child was born with cerebral palsy. Our legal team proved that the police were negligent, leading to this tragic outcome.
- Experienced Attorneys: With over 40 years of experience, our attorneys have successfully handled numerous medical malpractice claims. We work with medical experts to determine the cause of injuries and fight for fair compensation.
- Comprehensive Legal Support: Our award winning legal team helps clients with a range of injury cases including in motor vehicle accidents, city and municipal liability cases, nursing home neglect cases, and more. Our team includes leading personal injury trial attorneys.
What Is a Birth Injury?
A birth injury is any physical injury that a child sustains at birth. Sometimes, these injuries are unavoidable and a natural result of being born. Other times, they are caused by trauma during pregnancy, labor, or delivery. When someone does not receive the correct care during pregnancy or their labor and/or delivery is mishandled, birth injuries can lead to lawsuits against the medical professionals involved. In a legal sense, the term birth injury can also include injuries to the mother.
What Causes Birth Injuries?
Every year, close to 4 million childbirths occur in U.S. hospitals. Delivering a newborn is the most common reason for hospitalization in the United States. Still, more than 22,000 infants are lost in the delivery room and another 157,000 newborns and mothers sustain preventable injuries.
Birth injuries are most common when:
- The baby is premature (or born too early)
- The baby is born during a breech birth (feet first)
- The baby is not head-first in the birth canal (face, brow, or shoulder first)
- The baby is large (more than 10-11 pounds)
- The size or shape of the mother’s pelvis or birth canal complicates vaginal birth
- Dystocia (long or difficult labor) occurs
- Assistive devices (a vacuum or forceps) are used to deliver the baby
- The baby is delivered via an emergency cesarean section (C-section)
Many of the factors above can be predicted and planned for before trauma occurs. If the baby is large or the mother’s weight or pelvis might be a problem, doctors can pre-plan a C-section and avoid trauma during delivery. Breech births and other unpredictable situations in the delivery room are considered to be emergency medical procedures. While success is not guaranteed, doctors must act according to a “standard of care,” which means another doctor would have handled the same situation in a similar way. Any time your doctor fails to take preventative care or meet a “standard of care,” they can be held responsible for the injuries and losses they cause or contribute to.
What Are the Most Common Birth Injuries?
Infants are very fragile and can be harmed in a number of ways during a traumatic birth. Birth injuries typically occur in the baby’s head, face, bones, spinal cord, nervous system, and respiratory system.
The most common birth injuries include:
- Brachial plexus injuries: Damage to the bundle of nerves that controls the arms and hands. This can lead to weakness and paralysis of the arms and hands. Specific conditions include Erb’s palsy and Klumpke’s palsy.
- Bone fractures: Most common at the clavicle or collarbone, these injuries usually heal quickly but can initially cause trouble moving the arm.
- Bleeding in and around the brain: This can occur during complicated births and lead to seizures and permanent brain damage.
- Facial paralysis: Caused by pressure on the face, often from forceps or a vacuum, which may require surgery if the facial nerve was torn.
- Asphyxia (lack of oxygen): This form of suffocation can cause unconsciousness, brain damage, or death.
- Spinal cord injuries: Most common in the neck area, these injuries can lead to permanent paralysis and breathing difficulties.
Many of these injuries, especially asphyxia and bleeding in or around the brain, can lead to conditions like temporary brain damage, mild learning disability, or cerebral palsy.
Birth Injuries: The Result of Medical Error
Those mistakes can include failure to diagnose and treat the mother’s high blood pressure, failure to use a fetal heart monitor, failure to respond quickly to fetal distress, or to perform a necessary emergency C-section.
Birth injuries can include problems such as:
- Cerebral palsy
- Erb’s palsy
- Shoulder dystocia
- Brachial plexus (nerve) injury
- Brain damage
- Delays in brain development
- Fetal acidosis
- Injuries due to vacuum extraction and forceps delivery
- Oxygen deprivation (hypoxia) due to the umbilical cord being wrapped around the baby’s neck
FAQs
What is a birth injury?
A birth injury is any physical injury a child sustains at birth, which can be caused by trauma during pregnancy, labor, or delivery.
What are common causes of birth injuries?
Birth injuries can be caused by factors such as premature birth, breech birth, large baby size, overweight mother, complicated vaginal birth, and use of assistive devices during delivery.
What are the most common birth injuries?
Common birth injuries include brachial plexus injuries, bone fractures, brain bleeding, facial paralysis, asphyxia, and spinal cord injuries.
How can birth injuries be prevented?
Many birth injuries can be prevented with proper medical care and planning, such as pre-planning a C-section for high-risk pregnancies and responding appropriately to emergency situations in the delivery room.
Protecting Your Child and Your Family
If your child has suffered a birth injury, you need a highly skilled medical malpractice attorney working for you immediately. The added stress of the high cost of special care, physical therapy, and special education can be overwhelming.
Based in Philadelphia, Gay Chacker & Ginsburg birth injury attorneys have successfully handled medical malpractice claims for more than 40 years. We will work with medical experts to find out exactly what caused the injury, then fight to get you fair compensation for your financial and emotional losses.
Secure your family’s future today. Contact us at 215-567-7955 for a free consultation with a seasoned attorney. Get a responsible, concerned Philadelphia medical malpractice lawyer working for you now, and win the support and compensation you need to fully care for your child.
