Cleveland Birth Injury Attorney

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A birth injury is a physical or emotional trauma that occurs during the process of giving birth. Most of these injuries happen before, during, and after labor and delivery. A Cleveland Birth Injury Attorney can help you with your case by providing legal advice to address common birth injuries such as cerebral palsy, hearing loss, blindness, or brain damage.

The birth of a child is typically a reason for tremendous joy for most parents and their families, but a birth injury can quickly create a sudden sense of despair and helplessness. The unfortunate truth about many birth injuries is that they result from some kind of negligence by a medical professional who was expected to provide care before or during childbirth.

Parents should never assume that a birth injury was just bad luck or an error that could not be prevented. In many cases, doctors, hospitals, and other professionals could be liable for the damages involved in a child’s birth injury case.

Any person whose child suffered a birth injury should quickly retain legal counsel. An experienced attorney will be able to fight to help you recover the compensation you are entitled to.

Most medical professionals involved in birth injury cases deny responsibility for birth injuries. The insurance companies for these individuals or entities will similarly decline to provide any compensation to the parents of a child with a birth injury. The result is that parents are often forced to try and recover the evidence needed to prove another party’s negligence.

A birth injury case is often a medical malpractice case. Victims will often need the testimony of medical experts who can identify errors and explain how mistakes caused birth injuries. When a family has a birth injury case, the insurer could become more willing to settle to avoid having a case go to trial.

You should know that an insurance company could try to offer you a lump sum settlement that is, in effect, only a fraction of what you are entitled to. It will be vital for you to work with Cleveland birth injury attorneys who can determine the actual value of your case and then negotiate a settlement that covers a multitude of expenses, including your grief.

CONTACT A TEAM OF EXPERIENCED CLEVELAND BIRTH INJURY ATTORNEYS TODAY

Cleveland wrongful death attorneys

A Cleveland Birth Injury Attorney can help you with your case by providing legal counsel to address birth injury defects such as cerebral palsy, hearing loss, blindness, or brain damage. At Ryan LLP, our birth injury attorneys have enough experience to get the compensation you and your baby deserve. Contact us today for a free initial consultation!

WHAT IS A BIRTH INJURY?

A birth injury involves a physical or emotional injury occurring before, during, or right after the labor process. The injury can be the result of medical malpractice or negligence at any level, including:

  • An OB/GYN or other doctors
  • A hospital
  • Staff negligence
  • Health care providers

The term “birth injury” can refer to two different things. These include mechanical injuries sustained during delivery and any damage done during pregnancy, during delivery, and after birth.

The majority of birth injuries result from medical mistakes during pregnancy that harm after delivery. Some examples include failure to diagnose a condition like high blood pressure, which causes damage to the fetus and/or mother; performing an unnecessary cesarean section; or giving drugs to a pregnant woman without proper consent.  

If these actions lead to permanent injuries, Cleveland Birth Defects Attorney can help you seek financial recovery by filing a claim against all negligent parties involved.

COMMON TYPES OF BIRTH INJURY CASES

types of Cleveland birth injuries

Depending on the circumstances of your birth injury, you may be able to recover compensation for various birth injury cases, including but not limited to:

  • Cerebral Palsy: This complication involves a group of disorders that affect the capability of a baby to move and maintain balance. This results from abnormalities during brain development or damage sustained by the baby’s developing brain. This is a permanent disability.
  • Brachial Palsy: This condition results from any injury done to the group of nerves that supplies the arms and hands (brachial plexus). It often happens when there’s trouble delivering the baby’s shoulder, also known as dystocia. In a worst-case scenario, the nerve may tear and break, causing permanent damage to the baby.
  • Cephalohematoma: This condition occurs when there’s bleeding between the skull bone and its fibrous covering. Cephalohematoma appears hours after delivery and is often characterized as a lump on the baby’s head.
  • Fracture: The most common birth fractures involve the clavicle or the collar bone. These fractures happen when there are some complications in delivering the baby. This type of injury qualifies as a birth injury, but you must make a claim as soon as possible since this defect heals quickly.
  • Bruising: The baby may develop bruising when their head or face collides with the mother’s birth canal or pelvic bones. Bruises may also occur when the forceps cause trauma on the baby’s face or head.

Other common birth injuries include, but are not limited to:

  • Eclampsia
  • Caput Succedaneum
  • Hydrocephalus
  • Perinatal Asphyxia
  • Preeclampsia
  • Brachial Plexus Injury
  • Uterine Rupture
  • Hypoxic-Ischemic Encephalopathy (HIE)
  • Erb’s Palsy
  • Acquired Brain Injury (ABI)
  • Spinal Cord Injuries
  • Klumpke’s Palsy
  • Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)
  • Anoxia
  • Shoulder Dystocia
  • Detached Placenta
  • Bell’s Palsy
  • Hypoxia
  • Persistent Pulmonary Hypertension of the Newborn (PPHN)
  • Torticollis (wry neck)

COMMON CAUSES OF BIRTH INJURIES

Birth defect differs from birth injuries because the latter is preventable. If a doctor, nurse, and medical experts failed to provide safety to a baby, you could pursue a birth injury lawsuit. 

You and your birth injury lawyer must consider several factors to determine if your case qualifies as a birth injury case. One of which is the cause of birth injuries. The most common causes of birth injuries include:

  • Failure to order a timely cesarean section (C-section)
  • Failure to properly use labor-inducing drug Pitocin
  • Failure to recognize and prepare for high-risk deliveries
  • Failure to perform specialized tests during pregnancy
  • Incorrect use of delivery instruments (forceps, vacuum extractors)
  • Failure to diagnose or treat infections, placental abruption or previa, umbilical cord entrapment, or premature rupture of the membranes
  • Human error
  • Failure to refer high-risk patients to specialized doctors
  • Failure to properly treat excessive bilirubin
  • Failure to perform sufficient prenatal testing
  • Delays in addressing complications during delivery
  • Monitoring issues
  • Failure to identify umbilical cord issues
  • Infant oxygen deprivation
  • Failure to communicate problems to doctors
  • Failure to follow protocols and procedures
  • Failure to properly monitor and record the baby’s heart rate
  • Delays in or failure to request help
  • Failure to diagnose and treat problems before delivery
  • Medication errors
  • Failure to recognize and respond to fetal distress

SEEKING A COMPENSATION CLAIM AFTER A BIRTH INJURY

seeking Cleveland birth injury compensation

A birth injury case is not the same as other personal injury claims. The damages sustained are often permanent and may require expensive medical treatment for a lifetime. In addition to this, you should also consider that there’s a high chance of losing your child custody if you decide to sue on your own. This is why hiring Cleveland Birth Injury Lawyers who have extensive experience handling these types of cases can help you win compensation.

Families could be entitled to various damages in birth injury cases, depending on the nature of the injuries. Most birth injury cases that go to court result in a jury awarding families compensatory damages.

Compensatory damages are usually some combination of economic damages and non-economic damages. Economic damages refer to awards for tangible costs to a victim that can be calculated and proven while non-economic damages are far more subjective and cannot be quantified.

Economic damages often include:

  • Past and present medical bills
  • Ongoing care
  • Lost income or earning potential
  • Cost of modifications to homes for disabilities

Non-economic damages may be awarded for:

  • Pain and suffering
  • Loss of enjoyment of life
  • Disfigurement
  • Emotional suffering

Punitive damages are also possible in personal injury cases, but they are rare and even less common in birth injury cases. Punitive damages are typically awarded to punish defendants for particularly egregious or reckless misconduct and discourage other people from behaving similarly. Most incidents of medical negligence are not going to rise to this level.

WHY SHOULD I HIRE A BIRTH INJURY ATTORNEY?

It’s essential to act on your birth injury claim as soon as possible. Some injuries heal quickly, like fractures, so you have a limited time frame for compensation claims against negligent medical professionals who caused these damages. 

Many birth injury cases are resolved through settlements because such resolutions end up being far cheaper for insurance companies than having to pay to take a case to trial and risking a possible judgment. Proving a birth injury case in court will require a person to prove by a preponderance of the evidence (which only means a majority of the evidence or the equivalent of a feather on the scale of justice) that a medical professional did not provide the level of care that should be expected.

You will also want legal representation because it may be possible that multiple parties are liable for a birth injury. Physicians, drug companies, hospitals, and medical device manufacturers are among the many different parties that could be held liable in a birth injury case.

Our Cleveland Birth Injury Attorneys can help you file your claim. We represent parents who want to seek compensation for injuries sustained by their babies during birth. We aim to make negligent doctors accountable for the birth injury that happened.

WHY CHOOSE RYAN LLP FOR YOUR BIRTH INJURY CLAIM

choose 
Ryan LLP for Cleveland birth injury

Ryan LLP is a Cleveland Birth Injury Law firm specializing in representing parents who want to seek compensation for injuries sustained by their babies during birth.

We have extensive experience handling these types of cases with the ability to represent clients from across the country. We will help you file your claim and get full compensation for:

  • Medical Bills – including doctors’ fees, hospital bills, surgery, or therapies;
  • Losses associated with the accident – include loss of income due to time off work taken to care for the child or emotional distress suffered because of pain and suffering resulting from negligence during the birth process.

We have a team that can deal with these cases quickly, so you don’t need to worry about not getting enough financial recovery in time. Our Cleveland Birth Injury Lawyers understand how stressful it is when an error made by healthcare providers takes away your baby. 

We will make sure that you get the compensation to cover medical bills, pain, and suffering, loss of income or earning capacity, future medical costs; emotional distress due to injury sustained by your child during the birth process, including loss of companionship when parents lose contact with their infant children after separation in different care centers. 

CLEVELAND BIRTH INJURY FAQs

Here are some of the most asked questions about a child’s birth injury in Cleveland.

How Does Birth Injury Differ From Natural Defects?

A birth injury occurs during childbirth or the delivery process. It is evident when either a mother or child suffers a birth injury. On the other hand, a natural birth defect happens while the baby is still in the womb. Thus, birth injuries happen either because of the negligence of medical professionals or through an unavoidable complication. Also, birth injuries can occur if doctors use the wrong method or if there’s an obvious error on the side of the medical professionals.

WHAT ARE THE COMMON SYMPTOMS OF BIRTH INJURIES?

The most common symptoms are nerve damage, brain hemorrhage or bleeding on the head, broken bones, fractured skull, excessive crying, poor feeding habits, high fever, seizures or spasms, difficulty breathing, and even blindness. Each type of birth injury results in different symptoms. Thus, it’s best that you contact a Birth Injury Lawyer who will help determine the extent and gravity of your child’s injuries.

WHAT CONSEQUENCES IS BIRTH INJURY GOING TO INCUR TO THE FAMILY, MOTHERS, AND CHILD?

For instance, you may have to deal with increased medical costs for the rest of your baby’s life because they have sustained permanent damage uncurable by medication or surgery alone. Some injuries can also affect a particular organ in the body and decrease one’s quality of living.

IS FILING A BIRTH INJURY LAWSUIT GOING TO HELP?

Yes, filing a lawsuit can help you seek compensation for medical bills and future expenses. It will also help provide your child with the care they need to have a good quality of living despite injuries sustained during birth.  

HOW DO YOU PROVE A BIRTH INJURY?

To prove your case, you need to show that medical negligence took place. In other words, it must be proven in court that doctors were negligent when they failed to offer adequate care and attention during childbirth or delivery.

HOW LONG CAN YOU WAIT TO FILE A BIRTH INJURY LAWSUIT?

The statute of limitations in Ohio is within two years after the date you learned about your child’s injuries. It might be best if you hire an attorney immediately so they can start collecting evidence and build a strong case on your behalf.

FINDING A BIRTH INJURY LAWYER NEAR ME | CONTACT A CLEVELAND BIRTH INJURY  LAWYER TODAY

birth injury lawyer near me

Did your child sustain a birth injury because of some medical negligence? You will want to be sure that you contact an experienced birth injury lawyer before you talk to any insurance company.

Make sure that you get yourself an attorney who has a proven track record with birth injury cases.

Ryan LLP has a top Cleveland Birth Injury Attorney that is much experienced in representing parents who want to seek compensation for injuries sustained by their babies during birth. We will help you file your claim, get full compensation, and seek justice. We offer a free consultation for all clients.

Call us toll-free today at 833-RYAN-LLP (833-792-6557) for a free initial consultation to learn more about what we can do for you. We are here 24/365 ready to take on any case that you need help with. You can also contact us through our online form.

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