There are few things in life more heart-wrenching than seeing your children in pain, or worse, losing them to accident, injury, or illness. As a parent, you’d do anything to protect your child from harm. Unfortunately, accidents can occur when a mother and child are at their most vulnerable – during childbirth.
While birth injury rates have declined over the last 20 years, the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) reports that as of 2012, roughly 2 of every 1,000 live births resulted in birth injury (not including infant deaths). Considering that an estimated 4 million babies are born in the U.S. each year, this would mean about 8,000 newborns suffer birth injuries annually on average.
If you’re one of the thousands of parents that had the happiest day of your life shattered by an avoidable birth injury, you deserve justice for your family. The Ruth Law Team has the expertise to ensure that the negligent medical professionals or institutions responsible are held accountable.
As trusted birth injury lawyers, we lead the battle against doctors, hospitals, and insurance companies that will do anything to delay or outright deny your claim. Proving medical negligence in birth injury cases requires expertise, and we’re happy to offer over 40 years of experience in winning cases like yours. When you need to focus on the health and wellbeing of your family, including its newest member, we’ll do the fighting for you.
The qualified professionals at The Ruth Law Team are ready to help you secure much-needed compensation to care for your child following a birth injury. Contact us today to schedule a free, no-obligation consultation, so that you can speak to a capable and compassionate birth injury attorney and learn more about what we can do for you.
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At The Ruth Law Team, we understand that this may be your first time seeking legal counsel and how intimidating that decision might be. This is why we have simplified the process to help you make the right decision for your circumstances. This 3-step process includes:
Complete Our Case Evaluation Form
This quick survey will help us better understand what happened and which attorney is the best fit for your situation.
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The best way for you to have a clear idea your options is to speak with an attorney who specializes in your area of need.
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Once you decide that The Ruth Law Team is the right option to represent you, we will begin the process of submitting your claim.
Common Causes of Birth Injury
Birth injuries can occur anywhere because medical negligence is not confined to one hospital, city, or state. When the medical professionals you trust to deliver your baby behave in a negligent manner by failing to provide proper care or acting in a way that directly harms your infant, the consequences for your family can be catastrophic.
Whether your baby suffers minor injuries, long-term medical issues like brain and spinal cord damage, or death, The Ruth Law Team is on your side. We’re dedicated to fighting for fair compensation when your family has been harmed by the negligence of others. We will represent you and your best interest and that’s a promise.
Birth injuries can take many forms. Some of the most common birth injuries resulting from medical negligence include:
- Head trauma (scrapes, bruises, etc.)
- Skull fractures
- Brain damage
- Intracranial or extracranial hemorrhaging (bleeding)
- Caput succedaneum (scalp swelling)
- Cranial nerve injuries
- Facial paralysis
- Subconjunctival hemorrhage (broken blood vessels in the eye)
- Spinal cord injuries
- Skeletal injuries
- Cerebral palsy
- Erb’s palsy (brachial plexus injury)
- Kernicterus
- Newborn jaundice
- Intrauterine fetal demise (stillbirth)
- Birth asphyxia
- Anoxia and hypoxia
- Fetal Macrosomia
- Placenta previa
- and more
While certain birth injuries can be attributed to the stresses of childbirth, others result from the negligence of medical staff. Negligence occurs when a medical professional:
- Delays proper care
- Uses improper medical technique
- Uses a medical device improperly
In some cases, this could mean that a medical professional failed to identify or address fetal distress or properly diagnose and treat a medical condition affecting the mother. It could mean that a doctor used too much force when pulling or twisting the baby during delivery or used tools like forceps or a vacuum incorrectly.
Birth injuries can result if an emergency C-section was not performed in a timely manner or if medical staff failed to prevent or control maternal hemorrhaging. In some cases, both the infant and the mother sustain injuries during childbirth due to negligence.
Injuries that a mother may suffer due to negligence during childbirth include:
- Anemia
- Maternal infections
- Maternal diabetes
- Preeclampsia
- Placental issues such as placenta previa or abruption
- Uterine rupture
- Cholestasis of pregnancy
As a non-medical professional, it may be difficult for you to identify symptoms of a birth injury to your newborn baby. Some of the most common symptoms we see in injured babies are:
- Arched back while crying
- Breathlessness
- Apnea
- Favoring one side
- Difficulties with sucking, eating, and swallowing
- Excessive drooling
- Excessive fussiness
- Grunting
- Hairy patch on back
- Hand curling in a claw-like shape
- High-pitched or shrill crying
- Muscle stiffness or looseness
- Spasms
- Nausea and vomiting
- Light sensitivity
- Seizures
- Wheezing
When your family is suffering, you need the expertise of a qualified birth injury lawyer. The Ruth Law Team can help you to determine whether medical negligence was the cause of birth injury so you can receive the compensation you need to care for your child and move on with your life. We also help mothers who have suffered as a result of medical negligence during childbirth.
Contact Our Birth Injury Attorneys
As a parent, the health and wellbeing of your child is your top priority. When your newborn is injured or dies as a result of medical negligence, The Ruth Law Team is ready to support you and fight for the compensation you deserve.
Don’t get buried under a growing pile of medical bills and the stress that they entail. Let the expert birth injury lawyers at The Ruth Law Team do what we do best — gathering evidence and negotiating a settlement — so you can focus on what’s important: Your family.
