The Work of a New Mexico Birth Injury Attorney
Sadly, many medical errors in the delivery room cause serious birth injuries for infants. These injuries can lead to an ongoing medical bill and treatment, which can cause financial hardship for families.
Like all malpractice lawsuits, birth injury cases need to prove that the medical professional violated their obligation to provide reasonable medical care. This is a complex undertaking.
Create a Claim
The legal process in a birth injury lawsuit begins with a review of the medical records of your child. These records could contain important evidence that proves that the doctor was negligent. A competent attorney can find the most important evidence, and also collect documents that can be used to support your claim.
The attorney will also collaborate with one or more medical experts to establish that the doctor fell below the standard of care that would be expected from medical professionals working in the same specialty. A medical expert can help jurors to understand how the doctor's failure to act or conduct resulted in the injuries of your child.
If a medical expert can prove that the doctor's negligence caused your child's injuries, the next step will be to determine the damages your child is entitled to. This includes future and past medical costs as well as lost earnings throughout life, as well as pain and suffering.
You could be entitled to damages for punitive or exemplary dependent on the severity of the injuries sustained by your child. These additional damages are intended to penalize the medical professional who was at fault for their extreme carelessness or negligence, and deter other people from acting in the same way.
Many birth injuries result from medical mistakes during the birth of an infant. These errors can occur at any time during pregnancy, but are more likely to occur during labor and birth. If a medical professional commits negligence, it could cause severe and permanent injuries to both the mother and baby.
The most frequent birth injuries include shoulder dystocia, brain damage spinal cord injuries, and Erb's Palsy. Erb's palsy is a type of nerve damage that causes partial or complete arm paralysis, and is typically caused by injury to the brachial nerve plexus during birth. In most cases the condition can be prevented by appropriate treatment and intervention.
New Mexico law has strict statutes that limit the time you must bring a lawsuit relating to medical malpractice. The attorney can determine whether your case is eligible for exemptions to these deadlines. Even even if your case is a strong one the case will be dismissed in the event that the statute of limitations has run out. It is crucial to speak with a New Mexico birth injury attorney immediately to ensure the timely filing of your lawsuit.
Prepare for Trial
The preparation for a trial starts much earlier than the trial date itself when the legal teams analyze the evidence and form their theories. Then, they must determine the witnesses and prepare questions for them. They will also have to compile all exhibits to be used during the trial. They also need to prepare jury instructions. All of this preparation is critical to presenting a successful claim and obtaining a fair amount of compensation for the victims.
A birth injury that is caused by a medical error could be life-altering for families. Children who suffer from these injuries require an entire lifetime of medical treatment and assistance. Families may need assistance paying for therapies, treatments, and specialized equipment. An experienced New Mexico birth injury attorney can assist families in obtaining financial compensation that will help pay for these expenses.
In order to start a lawsuit for birth injuries the family must show that their doctor or medical provider failed to provide the treatment that reasonable medical professionals would have offered under similar circumstances. This is referred to as medical malpractice. To prove medical malpractice, the victim must prove four elements that include breach of duty, causation and damages.
Many medical mistakes that result in birth injuries are simple errors like misdiagnosis and inadequate treatment of prenatal issues. Other complications are more complicated such as shoulder dystocia. This is a condition that can lead to total or partial arm paralysis. Some birth injuries are only apparent later in childhood, when a child starts to fail to meet developmental milestones.
Contacting a birth injury lawyer as early as you can after the injury is essential, otherwise the statute of limitations (SOL) could expire. However, there are a few exceptions to the SOL which can extend the time for filing lawsuits. A skilled birth injury lawyer can explain the SOLs that are applicable to your situation and suggest a timeline for filing a suit.
Medical malpractice claims involving birth injuries usually require expert testimony to establish that the medical professional's treatment was below the standards of care for their specialty. Miller Weisbrod Olesky is a medical malpractice firm that is certified that works with highly regarded experts from across the country to prove this in a birth injury case.
Filing a Claim
If a birth injury occurs it can cause lasting and life-altering injuries to the child, parents, and family. A successful claim could pay for future and current medical expenses, loss of income as well as suffering and pain. It may also be used to pay for special equipment and therapies. However an effective claim requires expert medical testimony to establish that the nurse, doctor or other healthcare provider violated their duty of care and caused the child's injuries.
A New Mexico birth injury lawyer can assist families to receive the justice they deserve through a lawsuit filed against the accountable medical professional or healthcare facility. However, birth injury attorneys redlands is important to know that medical malpractice lawsuits are subject to strict statutes of limitation. A lawyer can review the details of the case and determine when the statute of limitations began to run so that legal action can be initiated before it expires.
In some cases, doctors can be held responsible for birth injuries, even if medical negligence wasn't present at the time of delivery. This kind of negligence could be caused by an inability to diagnose a maternal condition or not properly using forceps to deliver the baby or even an unsuccessful Caesarean.
Other causes of a birth injury are an insufficient supply of oxygen to the brain during labor or a prolonged labor. A New Mexico birth injury lawyer can examine the facts of a case to identify possible responsible parties, which could include nurses, doctors and hospitals. These lawsuits are typically brought against the hospital in which the negligent healthcare professional worked.
It is not uncommon for a defendant to claim that there are other reasons for the baby's injuries, such as the genetic defect or fetal development issues. A New Mexico birth injury attorney can assist the family and the victim argue against this claim by proving that there was evidence of malpractice and that the medical professional's actions or inability to act in a direct manner caused the child's injuries.
Miller Weisbrod Olesky, a New Mexico birth injury attorney, can examine the case. They can also engage one or more medical experts to establish that the healthcare provider's actions or inactions were short of the standard of care for similar situations. This is what caused the child's injuries. A successful claim may result in compensation for past and future medical costs as well as lost income, discomfort and pain, as well as other damages.