Financial Compensation: Covering Long-Term Care Costs in Birth Injury Cases

Following a birth injury, parents are focused on providing their child with the best care possible. They do not think about how much it costs and where the money will come from. Unfortunately, health care in the United States is grotesquely expensive. Medical bills for a serious birth injury can quickly reach into the tens or hundreds of thousands, leaving the aggrieved family struggling to cover the bills, and that is with health insurance. A birth injury lawsuit allows victims to pursue damages from the party liable for causing the birth injury. 

Economic Damages in a Birth Injury Case

In birth injury lawsuits, damages are typically classified as economic or non-economic. Non-economic damages are intangible, emotional losses with no fixed dollar amount, such as mental anguish or pain and suffering. Economic damages are tangible monetary losses arising from the injury, including: 

• Medical bills 
• Anticipated medical bills
• Lost wages
• Reduced or lost earning capacity

Proving medical expenses can be done by totaling all medical invoices, bills, and receipts associated with treating the birth injury and the child’s medical care. If you had to miss work to care for your child, this can be proven by calculating your hourly wage or salary against all the work you had to miss. Reduced earning capacity (the child’s) and projected medical care are challenging to estimate and even more difficult to prove.

In a birth injury case, calculating your economic damages can be tricky since there are numerous unknowns. Most birth injuries will require some degree of medical care for the foreseeable future and potentially for the remainder of the child’s life. Estimating reduced earning capacity is also hard to do because there is no real way of knowing what the injured child’s profession would have been had they not been injured, how successful they would have been in that career, and how much they would have earned over the course of their lifetime.  

The expense of growing up and living with a birth injury will depend on multiple factors, such as the extent of the child’s injury or disability, the level of medical care they will require in the years to come, and their estimated lifespan. 

Severity of Injury and Extent of Disability  

Some birth injuries result in a temporary physical injury, while others involve severe forms of brain damage. For instance, a broken bone is a birth injury from which almost all children recover. With this type of birth injury, economic damages will likely involve nothing more than related medical bills and maybe some follow-up care. Alternatively, severe birth injuries such as asphyxia or cerebral palsy could result in physical disabilities, mental disabilities, and permanent brain damage that could leave the child needing medical care for the rest of their life. 

What is the Cost of Living With a Birth Injury?

In estimating the total costs of a birth injury or drafting a life care plan, there are many different factors to take into account. Not every birth injury will involve every type of damage, and the expenses will vary based on each victim’s unique situation.  

Medical Expenses

In a birth injury case, medical expenses include both current medical care and estimated future medical care. The cost of a birth injury and the subsequent neonatal care can be astronomical, totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars before the infant is even discharged from the hospital. Other medical expenses can include: 

• Emergency transportation
• Labor
• Pain medications
• C-section surgery
• Neonatal hospitalization
• Hospital room and board
• Prescription drugs
• Blood transfusions
• Diagnostic testing

Long-Term Medical Care

Your child may require long-term medical care that can continue anywhere from a few years after their birth up to the rest of their life. A lot of parents do not plan for any long-term care for their children, choosing instead to care for their babies themselves. However, children eventually grow up, and as their parents grow older, they may be unable to continue tending to their child. Long-term care can include a professional nursing facility or a live-in caregiver. 

Physiotherapy

Physiotherapy uses electrotherapy, movement, education, joint mobilization, exercise, and various other modalities to treat physical impairments and injuries. Physiotherapy may be temporary or continue over the course of years. 

Occupational Therapy

Occupational therapy is a type of therapy that helps people with cognitive, sensory, or physical issues. It can help them gain some form of independence in their lives and help with obstacles that impact someone's physical, social, and emotional needs.

Speech Therapy

Speech therapy is used to treat swallowing disorders, voice disorders, and communication disorders. 

Prescription Medicines

Most prescription medications are extremely expensive, especially when they have to be taken every day for the rest of one's life. For example, a brain injury might require the child to take seizure and epilepsy medications for several years. 

Education

Some birth injuries might result in the child needing special education that isn’t available in a traditional school. They might also benefit from extracurricular activities, educational support, or tutoring that can accommodate their specific birth injury. 

Mobility Aids

Mobility aids, which include crutches, canes, motorized scooters, wheelchairs, and walkers, help birth injury victims get around when they have difficulty or are otherwise unable to do so on their own.

Vehicle and Home Modifications

Modifications allow the family home and vehicle to be adapted in order to provide the patient with a comfortable and safe place to live and a method of transportation after a disability, disease, or injury.

Do You Have a Valid Birth Injury Case?

If your child sustained a medical condition or birth injury that you believe was caused by medical negligence, you may be entitled to financial compensation. To establish whether you have a valid birth injury medical malpractice case, consult with an experienced birth injury lawyer. The Dallas birth injury attorneys at Rasansky Law Firm can evaluate your medical records, find out if negligence was committed, and file a birth injury lawsuit pursuing full compensation on your behalf. Call (214) 651-6100 to schedule your free consultation.