The Work of a New Mexico Birth Injury Attorney
Sadly, many medical errors during delivery cause serious birth injuries for newborns. These injuries can cause a lifetime of medical expenses and treatment, which can cause financial hardship for families.
Like all malpractice lawsuits, birth injury cases require proving that the medical professional breached their obligation to provide reasonable medical care. This is a difficult task.
Prepare a Claim
The legal procedure for a birth injury lawsuit begins by analyzing the medical records of your child. These documents could contain valuable information that proves that the doctor was negligent. A competent attorney can determine the most crucial evidence and gather other documents that can be used to back your claim.
The lawyer will work closely with one or more medical experts to prove that the doctor's actions did not meet the standards of care required by a professional in the same field. Experts can help jurors comprehend how the doctor's failure to act or his actions led to the injuries of your child.
If AccidentInjuryLawyers is able to prove that your child's injuries resulted from the doctor's negligence The next step is determining what damages your child could be liable for. This will include future and past medical expenses and loss of earnings over the course of a year, and pain and suffering.
You may be entitled to damages for punitive or exemplary depending on the severity of the injuries sustained by your child. These additional damages are intended to punish the at-fault medical professional for their recklessness or negligence and discourage others from acting similarly.
Medical errors made during the birth of a child are the reason for numerous birth injuries. These mistakes 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 child.
The most frequent birth injuries include shoulder dystocia, brain damage, spinal cord injuries, and Erb's paralysis. Erb's Palsy is one of the forms of nerve damage that results in arm paralysis. It is usually caused by a trauma during birth to the brachial plexus. Often, this condition can be prevented with the right treatment and intervention.
New Mexico law has strict statutes that limit the time you can make a claim for medical negligence. Your lawyer will determine if your case qualifies to be exempt from these deadlines. If the statutes of limitation have been reached, your case will be dismissed, even if have a strong case. To ensure that your lawsuit is filed in time, it is essential to contact an New Mexico attorney for birth injury as early as you can.
Prepare for Trial
The work of preparing for trial begins much before the trial date, as legal teams survey the evidence and develop their theories about the trial. They must then identify all witnesses and prepare their questions. They will also have to compile all the evidence that will be used in the trial. They will also need to prepare jury instructions. All of this preparation is critical to presenting a winning claim and obtaining compensation for victims.
A birth injury that is the result of the negligence of a medical professional could have life-altering consequences for a family. Children who suffer from such injuries require an entire lifetime of medical treatment and assistance. Families may need assistance paying for therapies, treatments, and specialized equipment. A skilled New Mexico birth injuries attorney can assist families in obtaining the compensation needed to cover these costs.
To bring a birth injury lawsuit, a family must prove that their medical provider or doctor failed to provide the care that an experienced medical professional would have provided under similar circumstances. Medical malpractice is exactly what it is. To prove this, the party who was injured must prove four elements that include duty of care, breach of this duty, causation, and damages.
Many of the medical mistakes that cause birth injuries stem from simple errors, such as the wrong diagnosis or inadequate treatment for prenatal complications. Others are complex such as shoulder dystocia, which is a condition that can lead to partial or total paralysis of the arm. Some birth injuries only become apparent later in childhood, when a child starts to miss developmental milestones.
Contacting a birth injury lawyer as soon as you can following the injury is essential, otherwise the statute of limitations (SOL) may expire. However, there are some exceptions to the SOL that can prolong the time required to file lawsuits. A skilled birth injury attorney can provide specific SOLs that apply to your particular case and recommend an appropriate timeline to file a lawsuit.
Medical malpractice claims involving birth injuries typically require expert testimony to establish that the doctor's care fell below the standard of care they provide in their specialization. Miller Weisbrod Olesky is an experienced medical malpractice firm that works with highly regarded experts across the country to establish this fact in a birth injury case.
How to File a Claim
A birth injury can have a permanent and life-altering impact on the child, parents and family. A successful claim could provide compensation for medical expenses, income loss, as well as pain and suffering. It could also be used to pay for specific therapies and equipment. A successful claim will require an expert medical opinion that proves the doctor, the nurse or any other healthcare provider violated their duty to care and caused the child’s injuries.
A New Mexico birth injury lawyer can assist families in obtaining the justice they deserve by filing a lawsuit filed against the accountable healthcare provider or medical facility. However, it is important to know that medical malpractice claims are subject to strict statutes of limitation. Lawyers can examine the specifics of the case to determine when the statute began to run and legal action can be taken before it expires.
In some instances doctors can be held liable for birth injuries, even if the medical error did not occur at the time of birth. This type of negligence could result from the delay in diagnosing an illness in the mother, or not properly using forceps to deliver the baby or even an unsuccessful Caesarean.
Other causes of a birth injury could be an insufficient supply of oxygen to the brain during labor or a prolonged labor. A New Mexico birth-injury lawyer can review a case's facts to determine the possible accountable parties, including nurses, doctors, or hospitals. These lawsuits are typically filed against the hospital in which the negligent healthcare professional worked.
It is not unusual for the defendant or their attorney to claim that there are other causes for the injuries suffered by a baby. These include genetic defects or issues with fetal development. A New Mexico birth injuries attorney can assist the family of the victim to counter this argument by proving the existence of evidence of medical malpractice and the actions of the medical professional and their inaction directly led in the child's injury.
A New Mexico birth injury lawyer at Miller Weisbrod Olesky can investigate the case and hire one or more medical experts to prove that a healthcare provider's decision or failure to act was not up to the standard of care in a similar scenario and caused the child's injuries. A successful claim can recover compensation damages, which can include past and future medical expenses and income loss and pain and suffering and other damages.