Negligence During Pregnancy, Labor, or Delivery
When a doctor commits malpractice during your pregnancy, labor, or delivery, it can transform a joyful experience into unimaginable heartbreak. A single negligent act can leave a newborn with brain damage, nerve damage, physical disabilities, or other devastating birth injuries.
A negligent practitioner can also harm a mother during this vulnerable time. As parents, a birth injury can mean meeting the challenges of lifelong treatment, costly care, and emotional trauma.
At Baber Law, we’ve seen how a birth injury can change a family’s lives forever. We offer compassionate representation dedicated to recovering the compensation you deserve. When you schedule a consultation, our birth injury lawyer assesses the liability issues and determines your right to recover damages.
Types of Birth Injuries
Childbirth can be painful and stressful under normal circumstances. That’s why you look for qualified medical professionals who can manage medical issues, monitor labor, and act professionally during an emergency. If your healthcare professionals commit an error, omission, or negligent act, it can cause unacceptable harm.
- Brain damage: Hemorrhage, cerebral palsy, and ischemia can occur when the mother or baby has an insufficient oxygen supply during labor or delivery. Medical records may indicate conditions such as anoxia, hypoxia, birth asphyxia, or birth-related oxygen deprivation.
- Dystocia: This rare yet severe complication can occur during a vaginal delivery. It can happen when a baby’s shoulders get stuck behind the mother’s pelvis, which can cause physical harm to both. A baby may suffer collarbone fractures or brachial plexus injuries. Mothers may experience ruptures, hemorrhaging, and other issues.
- Kernicterus: This can develop when a medical professional fails to treat jaundice in newborns. Jaundice is a common condition caused by excessive bilirubin in the blood. The Cleveland Clinic reports that kernicterus can lead to hearing loss, brain damage, cognitive issues, and a type of cerebral palsy.
- Muscle and Tissue Injuries: Negligent actions during C-sections or vaginal deliveries can cause muscle and tissue damage, such as lacerations and bruises. While some of these injuries may be minor, others can result in lifelong medical complications and impairments for your baby.
- Infections: If a physician fails to diagnose and treat a mother’s infection during a checkup, her baby can contract it during delivery. Undiagnosed or untreated hepatitis, sexually transmitted diseases, and HIV can cause serious medical problems for a newborn. These may include eye infections, pneumonia, blood infections, blindness, and brain damage.
Responsibility for Birth Injuries
Birth injuries often result from an obstetrician’s, midwife’s, nurse’s, or other healthcare provider’s negligence. Their actions may involve a failure to prevent problems during checkups, labor, or delivery. While challenging, medical professionals must remain vigilant to protect mothers and babies.
Doctors must intervene to prevent harm during adverse events. If their professional behavior falls below the standard of care, they are responsible for the outcome, which may include obstetric-related medical negligence, such as:
- Missed conditions during prenatal checkups
- Anesthesia: complications and improper monitoring
- Negligent assisted deliveries: forceps, vacuum extraction
- Failure to monitor a baby’s oxygen levels
- Delayed vaginal deliveries
- Delayed or improperly executed C-sections
- Negligent fetal heartbeat and maternal monitoring
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Recoverable Compensation
Birth injury claims allow your family to seek compensation for three types of damages:
- Economic Damages: These may include current and future expenses for you and your child: medical costs, child care, physical therapy, and your lost wages if you must take time off work.
- Economic Damages: You and/or your child’s pain and suffering, emotional distress, permanent conditions, scarring, and disfigurement.
- Punitive Damages: In rare circumstances, a Connecticut jury may award punitive damages as punishment for a defendant’s reckless, intentional, and malicious acts.
The Baber legal team works aggressively while providing you with compassion, empathy, and understanding. We handle birth injury cases on a contingency basis. We don’t bill you for legal fees until we resolve your case.
Medical Malpractice Filing Deadlines
Birth injury is a type of medical malpractice claim. Connecticut’s malpractice statute of limitations gives the mother two years from the date of a birth injury to settle a claim or file a lawsuit. If you miss this deadline, you may lose your right to recover damages, although there are a few exceptions:
- Minors: When a healthcare professional injures a baby, their statute of limitations begins running at age 18. After a child reaches their age of majority, they have two years to file a suit or settle their claim.
- Discovery: The statute of limitations begins running after you discovered or should have discovered your injury through the exercise of “reasonable care.”
- Statute of Repose: This provision limits your statute of limitations to a maximum of three years after an act of malpractice. This deadline is based on when you discovered the injury or condition.
To learn more about these complex statute of limitations issues, contact Baber Law Firm as soon as possible. We can discuss your circumstances and determine your specific timeframe for resolving your claim. When we represent you, our lawyer will track your case to ensure compliance with filing requirements and other critical deadlines.
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Certificate of Good Faith
Connecticut statutes require a certificate of good faith when filing a medical malpractice lawsuit. This document certifies our law firm’s good faith belief that a medical professional committed a negligent act that harmed our client.
For a birth injury, the certificate must include an opinion from a similar board-certified healthcare professional. The “similar professional” must confirm that your healthcare provider committed a negligent act.
Connecticut Birth Injury Lawyer
If you believe a medical professional injured you or your child, contact Baber Law as soon as possible. We’ll schedule a free consultation to discuss your case and explain your legal options. Attorney Nate Baber and our legal team can evaluate your situation, protect your rights, and take the appropriate steps to resolve your claim.
