For most couples in Texas, one of the happiest moments in their life comes when they give birth to a child. It’s every parent’s dream to have a beautiful child I have the normal process of labor and delivery. Unfortunately, in too many cases, all of their hopes and dreams for a bright future are dashed when their newborn baby suffers some sort of personal injury during the birthing process. Some of these injuries can be quite significant and some are irreversible, leading to lifelong disabilities or serious injuries that require years of therapy and intensive medical treatment.
While some birth injuries can happen naturally, many others happen as a result of medical negligence or error on the part of a medical professional. It is always the doctor’s responsibility to make note of everything in the mother’s medical history, to look closely for any risk factors that may be indicative of a potentially challenging delivery and to monitor conditions during the pregnancy, as well as the labor and delivery process and to take immediate action where necessary to protect the safety of the newborn child.
Among some of the most common birth injuries caused by medical negligence in the state of Texas include the following:
- Bone fractures, including breaks to the calf, femur and clavicle
- Injuries to organs such as the pancreas, liver and kidneys, as well as bowel damage
- Head and face injuries, which can commonly cause facial or mandibular asymmetry or hematoma in a number of locations, especially the head
- Torticollis, which is caused by trauma to the muscles in the neck, which can result in an unnatural tilting of the neck and asymmetrical facial features
- Erb’s Palsy, which occurs when the baby’s shoulders turn out to be too large for the birth canal and cause the baby to become lodged behind the mother’s pelvic bone. Unfortunately, too often doctors failed to follow proper medical procedures in this situation and may exert excessive force on the baby’s head as they try to maneuver it and extract it, which can result in stretched or torn nerves, which can lead to often permanent injury to the infant. Children with Erb’s palsy sometimes suffer from temporary or permanent paralysis of an arm, hand or fingers, and sometimes lose some or all mobility, leading to many years of medical treatment and physical therapy.
- Klumpke’s Palsy, which is another birth injury caused often by a lack of care on the part of medical personnel during the birthing process that can lead to paralysis of the hand and wrist. It often results when an infant has an arm extended above the head and they are pulled from the birth canal from that arm.
- Cerebral Palsy, which is a neurological disorder that is sometimes caused by a lack of oxygen during labor and delivery that leaves children with serious problems, including speech and cognitive problems, seriously impaired motor skills, muscle spasms, seizures, and a need for lifelong intensive medical care. This condition often occurs because doctors fail to monitor the condition of the infant at all times.
In many cases, birth injuries occur because medical personnel do not respond appropriately to certain complications that occur during pregnancy or labor. One common complication, that occurs in approximately one percent of pregnant women is a placental abruption, which increases the chance of dying for newborns to approximately 15 percent. The recommended course of action for medical personnel will depend heavily on where the detachment occurs and whether the detachment is partial or complete. That means doctors are required to make critical decisions that require their skill and expertise to prevent a birth injury from occurring.
If your child experiences symptoms of any sort of birth injury, it is necessary to have an independent medical examination performed by a physician who is in no way connected to the doctor who helped you with your labor and delivery. If you have a child who has suffered a serious birth injury and now needs constant medical care, please contact the experienced and knowledgeable birth injury attorneys at the Gutierrez law firm as soon as possible. We have the knowledge and expertise to determine whether or not your child’s condition came about as a result of medical negligence and to make sure your child’s medical needs are attended to properly and pay for by those responsible.
