What Does a Birth Injury Attorney Do?

A birth injury attorney handles cases that have to do with medical negligence. They may work in other areas of the law, as well, but birth injury cases are generally filed against doctors, nurses or healthcare institutions that have been negligent in one regard or another and have, because of that, directly caused harm to a child that would have otherwise been born healthy and fit.

What these injuries cause.

A birth injury can have many different devastating effects on the infant. In some cases, they may develop cerebral palsy, which stems from a brain injury. This brain injury occurs when the infant's brain is deprived of oxygen for too long and, in the case of this condition, it causes a specific injury to a specific area of the brain. This condition can occur naturally, as well, and oftentimes does. In a case where negligence is alleged:

• The injury wouldn't have occurred otherwise
• The delivery team may have taken wrong actions during the birthing process
• The delivery team may have failed to take the right actions during the birthing process
• The healthcare facility may have had inadequate equipment to prevent the injury

What's important is that this injury can reasonably be suspected to have been the result of medical negligence on the part of the doctors or nurses. In cases where the child received the injury in the womb, long before birth, for instance, there's no reason to suspect that the doctors could have done anything about it, in most cases.

Is the doctor incompetent?

No. Any doctor can be negligent. The most skilled prenatal care teams in the world can be negligent. Negligence simply means that they failed in their duties when it could have been expected of them to succeed. Where medical issues are in question, there are always situations where doctors couldn’t have done anything to prevent an injury or a death. However, there are situations where they could have, and that is where negligence applies.

Finding out more.

You'll have to speak with an attorney to find out if there's a chance that negligence was at play in your baby's injury. Even if they suspect as much, it will be up to a jury to decide. You can talk to an attorney for free, in many cases, during a free consultation where they can determine whether or not they think that there was negligence at issue in your child's injury.