Burbank Birth Injury Attorney
The birth of a child is supposed to be a magical time, but sometimes things can go wrong. Birth injuries are injuries that occur during the birthing process. A baby suffers injuries as a result of being improperly handled during or shortly after birth. This also means that such injuries are almost always preventable, except in rare cases when such injuries must be inflicted in order to save the life of the baby or the mother.
Birth Injury Symptoms / Varieties
Birth injuries can deviate significantly from birth defects and other issues that might affect a newborn infant. One of the most common is oxygen deprivation, which can occur during the birthing process due to incorrect handling on the part of the doctor or nurse. For instance, the umbilical cord may wrap around the infant’s neck and not be removed in time before brain damage sets in.
Other typical symptoms of birth injuries include:
shoulder dystocia. This is a condition when a child’s shoulder becomes stuck against the mother's pubic bone after the head is already exited the birth canal
facial paralysis because of nerve damage
cephalohematoma or caput succedaneum, which are leading in or on the baby’s skull or scalp. These injuries are often accompanied by broken skulls from incorrect handling during birth
broken collar bones or other broken bones
What Can Cause Birth Injuries?
Birth injuries (preventable ones) are almost always caused by either negligent professionals or negligence on the part of the hospital due to improper equipment or faulty tools.
For the first example, a medical professional may improperly handle the baby during the birthing process, causing one or more of the possible injuries described above. In other circumstances, a baby’s birth injuries might be caused due to bad equipment supplied by the hospital. A doctor may attempt a medical procedure but cause injury to the baby because the tools used during the procedure broke unexpectedly.
Can You Pursue Compensation for Birth Injuries?
Birth injuries can be traumatic both for the infant and for the family. Compensation can be pursued on both counts, although determining exactly what damages you might be awarded is difficult without knowing the specifics of the case.
The right birth injury attorney team can help you collect medical records, and obtain evidence about the baby’s conditions and injuries in order to obtain the best possible monetary outcome.
Birth Injury Attorneys in Burbank, CA
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