If you're a first-time parent, you might already have realized that there's only 1 thing about babies that's predictable…and that's that babies are unpredictable. If you're a seasoned pro at the parenting gig, you've probably learned that no 2 babies are alike, and that each baby has their own set of unique needs.
Most parents of newborns find themselves sleep-deprived a lot of the time, but that phase passes eventually. But some newborns have a set of medical concerns that are different from the average, and if your baby suffers from health issues, you might be wondering if they've had a preventable birth injury.
There are conditions that are birth defects and those that are birth injuries.
A birth defect is caused by your child's DNA. Downs syndrome, cleft palates, heart problems, club foot, or other issues can be present at birth and are because of genetics. These conditions can't be prevented, and they are not the fault of the mother or the doctor. A doctor might fail to detect a condition in utero, but the condition was not caused by the doctor and isn't the result of medical malpractice.
A birth injury is preventable and is the result of something that happened during the baby's delivery. Some birth injuries are medical malpractice, and it's important to know if that's the case for your baby. Often, a mother isn't entirely aware of what's happening during delivery — she might be in pain, exhausted, afraid, or even unconscious.
The most common causes of birth injuries include:
Although birth injuries are very specific, they are included within the area of personal injury law known as medical malpractice.
In order to make a claim for medical malpractice, the plaintiff must prove that the doctor or health professional was negligent. In other words, everyone makes a mistake sometimes — even doctors. But negligence is breaching the duty of care in a way that it was foreseeable that injury would occur.
A parent may sue a medical provider on their child's behalf.
North Carolina is 1 of 6 states that prohibits a certified professional midwife from assisting in childbirth unless the midwife is both certified in midwifery and has a nursing degree. The midwife must also have written consent from a supervising physician. There are very few nurse-midwives in North Carolina who attend home births because it's illegal for a certified professional midwife without a nursing degree to attend a home birth unless accompanied by a physician.
That doesn't mean you can't pursue damages if a midwife is negligent. If a midwife's negligence causes a birth injury, you might need to file a lawsuit against the supervising physician for vicarious liability.
North Carolina is a pure contributory negligence state. That means if you're injured but you shared any fault, you can't recover any damages in a lawsuit.
An example might be if you chose to have an illegal midwife-assisted home birth and then went to the hospital when something started to go wrong. Even if an attending physician makes a mistake during the delivery, they might argue that you already had contributed to the problem by not being in the hospital quickly enough or because of any treatment or procedures that had already occurred.
Your personal medical insurance might cover a portion of your expenses related to a birth injury, but it's not going to cover all of them…or even close to all of them. It's estimated that expenses for a child with cerebral palsy can be up to $1 million over the course of their childhood.
As a parent, your costs will be more than just medical bills, and insurance won't cover most of the additional expenses associated with a child who has a disability.
A birth injury lawsuit can recover damages that include these expenses:
In general, a North Carolina birth injury or medical malpractice victim has 3 years from the date of the injury to file a lawsuit.
However, if the plaintiff is a minor, they have 10 years in which to file a lawsuit. The parent may file a claim for the minor's injury for 3 years from the date of injury.
If the birth injury results in a wrongful death claim, the statute of limitations is 2 years.
Cerebral palsy (CP) can result in severe and lifelong complications, and it's one of the most severe injuries related to birth trauma. Some individuals with CP will experience light, involuntary movements. Others will have a complete loss of movement. CP is caused by a brain injury that's usually caused when a baby doesn't get enough blood, oxygen, or other nutrients before or during birth.
Brain damage that causes CP can happen before or during birth, or during the first few years of a child's life while the brain is still developing.
Most CP is congenital, or before or during birth. This is caused by:
A brain injury can range from mild to severe, and there are a variety of ways this can happen. These are the most common:
This is damage to the peripheral nerve, which can inhibit normal hand and arm movement. This often improves over time, but if the nerve is actually torn during the birth process, it could result in ongoing medical issues.
There are also head injuries that are serious but don't necessarily affect brain function. These conditions include:
Even mild oxygen deprivation can cause life-long physical and intellectual disabilities. This can happen because the doctor doesn't monitor the baby carefully enough during labor, or if the baby remains in the birth canal too long.
This condition can be caused if a baby was improperly rotated, pulled, or stretched during delivery. It can result in facial paralysis or other spinal cord injuries that lead to paralysis of other parts of the body.
Bone fractures sometimes occur during a breech birth or when the baby is large. Babies' bones are soft and the bones in their heads haven't yet set at the time of birth, so they break easily. A baby's clavicle (collarbone) can also break or fracture during birth.
This blunt abdominal injury can damage a baby's liver and other organs. Though serious, it's thankfully not common.
These factors have been identified as the most common liability issues regarding pregnancy and labor and delivery care:
Generally, a birth injury liability claim will fall into 1 of these categories:
Source: Coverys, A Dose of Insight
If your baby was injured during pregnancy or birth, you should take these steps to protect your legal rights and seek medical treatment:
Depending on the severity of your child's injury, the settlement being offered might not even come close to being what you're entitled to in damages. An experienced attorney will communicate with the insurance company and negotiate a fair deal if that's how the claim can be settled.
If you anticipate that your child will require continuing treatment related to the birth injury, it's crucial that you seek the advice of an attorney. Most birth injury lawyers will consult with medical and actuarial experts to determine what you can anticipate with respect to a range of expenses — and it might be far higher than what the insurance company estimates.
That's why you need a North Carolina birth injury lawyer. Your lawyer will make sure that you have the funds you need to keep your child's needs met today, tomorrow, and over the course of their lifetime.
How do you know you've found the right attorney to take on your case? Where do you even begin your search? Enjuris spoke with personal injury attorneys in our directory to find out their recommendations for hiring the best lawyer. Read more