Lawyers for Birth Injury in Indianapolis: Hire a Birth Injury Attorney at WKW

Request a Free Consultation

The day your child is born should be joyful. However, for many parents, their child’s birth results in life-long injuries that could have been prevented. These tragic results may occur due to the incompetence or negligence of the medical doctors you trust to have your and your child’s best interests in mind.

Birth injuries are more common than we may think, but many are preventable. Suppose you suspect that your child suffered a birth injury due to medical malpractice. In that case, a childbirth injury lawyer can help you file a claim. If your child is suffering, it’s important to contact a lawyer right away to recover damages to help you through this time.

When Do You Need a Lawyer for a Birth Injury?

When you bring your baby home from the hospital, calling a lawyer might not be top of mind. After all, even with the easiest of infants, new parents find themselves sleep-deprived and overwhelmed by the demands of their new family member. The mother may also be healing from her own complicated vaginal or cesarean delivery.

This stress is multiplied when the newborn is recovering from a birth injury. Your baby may have:

Special medical needs
Require an extended hospital stay
Have prolonged symptoms that are expected to last into childhood or even adulthood

Unfortunately, ongoing medical needs, numerous doctor’s appointments, and extended hospital stays are not just inconvenient and stressful; they are also expensive. Medical care for your baby can cost thousands of dollars per year. And depending on your child’s condition, they may require expensive, continuous care for years to come.

To make matters worse, one or both parents may need to cut back on work or unexpectedly give up a career to care for their child.

These ongoing medical costs, combined with a possible loss of income, can financially put a family at risk. If your child’s birth injury was the result of medical malpractice, it is reasonable and just to request compensation for these unforeseen expenses.

If your family is suffering as the result of a birth injury, you may already know that you need a birth injury attorney and want to know what to expect as you take your next steps.

What Can a Birth Injury Lawyer Do for You?

Birth injury law firms, such as WKW, help parents through this difficult time by listening to their story, collecting documentation about their experience, and building their strongest case so that they can receive financial damages from a negligent provider that will ease their burden.

Birth injury lawyers help parents gain the immediate financial resources they will need to care for their injured child. When parents come forward with birth injury lawsuits, they clearly state to their providers and others that medical malpractice will not be tolerated.

The amount of money you can receive for your claim can vary widely depending on the facts of your case. Every case is different, so it’s important to contact a lawyer to determine how much you are eligible to receive.

How Do I Choose a Birth Injury Lawyer?

Birth injury cases are complex. If you are considering pursuing a birth injury case, it’s important to find a medical malpractice attorney with birth injury experience to evaluate your claim.

The birth injury lawyers at Wilson Kehoe Winingham are well-equipped to properly evaluate and pursue your birth injury case. In addition to being named one of Indiana’s Super Lawyers for ten consecutive years, partner Bruce Kehoe was also one of only three attorneys in the United States to be featured in Parenting magazine’s 2013 Top Birth Injury Advocates special section nationwide.

WKW has successfully tried many birth injury cases. View our case results to see how we’ve helped other Indiana residents with their birth injury malpractice cases.

How to File a Birth Injury Malpractice Lawsuit

If you or your baby has suffered from a birth injury of any sort, you may have a strong case against your provider. Birth injury lawyers file cases and work with families to get appropriate compensation to cover expenses. Doctors, physicians, or medical staff make mistakes, but they should be held to their expected medical standard of treatment to the patient. Birth-related injury medical malpractice suits can be challenging to prove. It is necessary to collect and review documentation to pursue a claim.

When we litigate birth injury compensation claims, we will need documentation such as:

Medical records
Medical bills related to the injury or illness
All correspondence with medical staff and insurance

Once we determine that your baby’s birth injury resulted from medical malpractice or negligence, we can assist you in filing a claim. Working with an experienced birth injury lawyer increases your chances of being successful. At Wilson Kehoe Winingham, our lawyers are highly experienced in properly evaluating and pursuing your birth injury case. If successful, you will receive the compensation you need to care for your baby’s needs and repair the emotional damage that was done.

Birth Injury Negligence and Medical Malpractice

Birth-related medical malpractice occurs when a physician, hospital, or medical staff acts negligently, causing an injury to the infant or mother during pregnancy or delivery.

These injuries may have occurred because the provider failed to provide appropriate care, such as immediate hemorrhage management or a necessary cesarean. They may also happen because the provider needs to use better judgment in recommending a course of action that is outside the standard of care.

Using the correct treatment or proper skill is crucial for doctors, physicians, or medical staff members to prevent injury to their patients. When they fail to do so, they should be held accountable for their actions and compensate their patients accordingly for their injuries.

You must prove medical negligence to have a case for birth injury medical malpractice.

Birth-related medical malpractice can most commonly be identified by one or more cases.

Types of birth-related medical malpractice

Wrongful Birth

Claims for wrongful birth can be based on negligence in completing genetic testing or failure to detect impairments during early pregnancy. In these cases, the parents of a child sue because their provider failed to properly diagnose or inform the parents of severe anomalies in the baby that would be present at birth. They may also have failed to inform parents that they were at high risk of conceiving a baby with life-threatening or severe genetic defects.

Parents are not usually compensated for the life-long expenses that the child may require. They may be compensated for costs associated with the pregnancy, birth, and the child’s medical needs.

Mother or Infant Birth Injury

Injury to the mother or infant is the most common type of birth injury case. This includes any injury to the infant, injury to the mother, and emotional injury to the parents.

Injuries to the mother may include any of the following:

Broken bones
Nerve injuries
Vaginal tearing
Uterine rupture
Uterine inversion

In addition to proving sustained injuries during birth, the mother must demonstrate that the injuries resulted from medical malpractice or negligence. Suppose the provider acted outside the usual scope of care or failed to provide appropriate medical care. In that case, the mother may be able to file a claim.

Call us at (317) 689-0654 for your free consultation.

Types of Infant Birth Injuries

A birth injury may result from any number of scenarios stemming from conditions or events during pregnancy, labor, and/or delivery. Common examples of doctor errors leading to birth injuries include the following:

Vacuum extraction of a large baby of a first-time mom
Failure to recognize that a fetus is in distress during labor
Failure to detect or mitigate umbilical cord complications, such as when the cord is wrapped around the baby’s neck in the birth canal
Failure to properly manage vaginal birth after C-section (VBAC)

Causes of Birth Injury

Birth injuries are any type of harm done to an infant near or during the time of birth, most often, completely preventable. Babies can end up with permanent damage from birth injuries, both mild to life-altering. Causes of birth injury can vary. Some are unforeseen, and others present a definite cause with an evident person to blame. Examples of birth injury causes include:

Fetal oxygen deprivation
Delayed birth
Trauma from impact during delivery
Premature birth
Nerve injury or damage
Head and brain injuries, including skull fracture
Cerebral palsy

Birth Defect vs. Birth Injury

Birth defects are common. According to the CDC, nearly 120,000 babies are affected by birth defects every year. A birth defect is a health condition that affects an infant based on the child’s DNA. Conditions such as Down syndrome, a heart murmur or heart condition, spina bifida, or cleft palate are some examples of birth defects.

In some cases, birth defects are directly caused by outside factors such as a pregnant woman taking a medication known to cause birth defects. If there is proof that a birth defect was caused by medical negligence, the parents may be able to pursue a birth injury case. For example, if a pregnant woman was prescribed harmful medications by a physician, and that medication caused a birth defect, that could be considered a birth injury.

Learn more about the difference between birth defects and birth injury here. If you believe your child’s birth defect was caused by medical malpractice, contact an attorney immediately to review your case.

Conditions Caused by Birth Injuries

A mismanaged delivery by a negligent doctor can pose serious complications to an infant. Birth injuries can cause several conditions. Some may be temporary or less serious, and some can be extremely debilitating. Several conditions can be caused by birth injuries – some may be temporary or less serious, and some can be extremely debilitating.

Some of the most common injuries at birth are head injuries. Head injuries can include:

Head molding
Swelling of the scalp or brain
Bleeding outside of the skull
Hemorrhaging
Fracture

Aside from head injuries, nerve and bone injuries can also be present. Nerve injuries can occur before or during delivery. Typically, nerve injuries affect the muscle near the injured nerve. Nerve injuries include:

Facial nerve injury – creates a lopsided effect due to pressure
Brachial plexus – can cause paralysis in arms or hands
Spinal cord – Injuries to the spinal cord may result from the fetus being overstretched during delivery.

Bone injuries may also occur. Fractures during delivery are not uncommon. Bone injuries include:

Fracture of the collarbone
Fracture of upper arm bones
Fractures of multiple bones

Call us at (317) 689-0654 for your free consultation.

Birth Injury Rates

Birth injury is any damage or injury to a child before, during, or just after the birthing process. These birth injuries can have lifelong consequences and even result in infant mortality.

According to the CDC, of every 1,000 infants born in the United States, 6 to 8 are born with a birth injury. Approximately 1 in every 9,714 people in the United States is born with a birth injury. Based on this information, 28,000 children per year are born with a birth injury, which is 2,333 per month, 538 per week, 76 per day, and 3 per hour.

A qualified birth injury medical malpractice attorney can help you determine if your birth injury is one of the many eligible for compensation.

Contact a Birth Injury Attorney Today

Mothers who have suffered an injury during birth and parents of babies who have suffered a brain injury, spinal cord injury, or any other birth injury due to a birth trauma should contact the Indianapolis Birth Injury Attorneys of Wilson Kehoe Winingham as soon as possible. The Indianapolis birth injury lawyers at WKW can help you get the appropriate compensation that will help your family thrive in these difficult circumstances.

Call 317.920.6400 or fill out an online contact form for a free, no-obligation case evaluation.