After the delivery of your baby, you should be resting and beginning your new journey as a parent. However, a single healthcare provider’s medical negligence can mean months or even years of health concerns for your child. Birth injuries encompass a wide range of conditions, some of which can have life-altering consequences for your child. That’s where our Delray Beach medical malpractice lawyers come in.
Freidin Brown, P.A. is here to take on your case and seek damages on behalf of your baby and your family. Our firm has helped countless families hold hospitals and providers responsible for their actions, and we’d like to see if we can help you. With over 100 years of combined experience and hundreds of millions of dollars recovered, our birth injury lawyers in Delray Beach, FL are ready to fight for your family’s future.
Call now to get started with a free case review.
Birth Injuries That Can Warrant Legal Action
Like any medical malpractice case, there are nuances to birth injury claims. Not every injury is a sign of malpractice—some injuries are unavoidable, even with the best medical care. This reality can make it hard for parents to know if they have a claim, especially if doctors, nurses, and other providers will not admit to errors. However, there are some injuries that could indicate malpractice. These include:
- Preeclampsia: During pregnancy, providers should be carefully monitoring maternal health conditions, especially serious conditions like preeclampsia. If your provider misdiagnosed your condition, failed to diagnose it, or did not treat you for preeclampsia, these actions could indicate malpractice. Preeclampsia is manageable with proper care, but negligence can seriously hurt mothers and their babies in all stages of the birth process.
- Cerebral palsy: Although there are many potential causes of cerebral palsy, certain actions (or inactions) by providers can contribute to the development of this neurological disorder. One common cause is a lack of oxygen to the brain, and providers who fail to recognize fetal distress or do not order a C-section could be liable for harm.
- Retinopathy of prematurity (ROP): Babies can develop ROP when they are born prematurely. While having ROP is not a sign of negligence, a provider’s failure to properly diagnose and manage ROP can lead to partial or complete vision loss.
- Vacuum extraction or forceps injuries: Vacuum extractors and forceps can be helpful tools during birth, but providers can be negligent if they use tools improperly. For example, using the tools when the baby is not in the right position can cause fractures, brain damage, and neurological injuries.
- Hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE): HIE is a brain injury caused by a lack of oxygen and blood to the brain. This condition, often referred to as birth asphyxia, can occur during birth or shortly after delivery. There are many potential causes and risk factors for HIE, and if a provider failed to recognize its signs or address the underlying issues, they may be held liable for the harm to the child.
Whether it’s a failure to monitor maternal or fetal health, a missed or delayed diagnosis, or another form of negligence, our team is here to fight for your birth injury claim.
Birth Injury Due to Medical Negligence? Contact a Delray Beach Lawyer Now for Expert Support!
We Are Dedicated to Representing Victims of Birth Injury and Malpractice Claims
At Freidin Brown, P.A., we’ve been helping Florida families hold negligent medical providers accountable since 1976. We’ve seen firsthand the devastating impact medical negligence can have on babies and their families, and we’re committed to doing everything we can to help.
Our lawyers have extensive experience handling birth injury claims, along with the resources and legal insight needed to deliver results. We also believe in providing personalized, hands-on attention to every case we take on. Our firm carefully selects cases so our attorneys always have the time and attention needed to manage your claim.
If you work with our firm, you can expect our attorneys to:
- Work with various experts to assess your injuries and losses, ensuring we seek a settlement or verdict that addresses the full extent of your damages
- Collect and analyze various forms of evidence, including expert opinions, witness statements, and medical records
- Manage pretrial processes and requirements
- Handle all communications and settlement negotiations with the other parties
- Represent your case at trial if settlement discussions are not successful
Our team will be with you every step of the way during this difficult time. Please call us now for a free and confidential consultation.
Your Family Deserves Compensation for a Birth Injury Caused by Delray Beach Providers
Your child has only just started their life, but medical malpractice can cause many emotional, financial, and physical challenges for years to come. Pursuing legal action against negligent providers and facilities can seem daunting, but your family deserves acknowledgment of your losses and hardships.
Some of the losses we could seek compensation for include:
- Current medical bills and future medical expenses your child may need to treat their condition
- Emotional anguish, pain and suffering, and other intangible losses that affect your family’s emotional well-being
- Current and future out-of-pocket costs such as mobility aids, in-home healthcare, travel expenses, and future educational needs related to your child’s injuries.
Our team will carefully review all the economic and non-economic losses your family has suffered.
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How Much Is My Child’s Birth Injury Claim Worth?
Many factors can affect a malpractice settlement or verdict, including the severity of your baby’s injury, the strength of evidence, and the types of damages your family has suffered. Our firm has been able to recover millions for our clients, some notable examples include:
- A $38 million verdict for two infants who became blind after a doctor failed to screen and diagnose the twins with retinopathy of prematurity.
- A $7.75 million settlement for a child who suffered serious brain injuries after birth. A lack of communication about the child’s abnormal heart rate and a subsequent delay in delivery means the child now has permanent brain damage.
While we cannot make any guarantees about the value of your child’s claim or the results of your case, our team is ready to fight for full compensation on your family’s behalf.
Work With Us Following a Delray Beach Birth Injury
A child’s pain and struggles are always difficult for parents to deal with, but it can feel especially painful when these injuries are entirely preventable. Let Freidin Brown, P.A. help you and your family hold providers, hospitals, and insurance companies accountable for your family’s losses.
Please call our birth injury team 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. We look forward to speaking with you and exploring your legal options.
Questions for Our Birth Injury Team
Following the discovery of a birth injury, you probably have a lot of questions. While we have some answers to common questions below, do not hesitate to reach out to our team with further concerns.
How Do I Know if My Child’s Injury Was Due to Medical Malpractice?
Figuring out if a birth injury was caused by medical malpractice can be quite complex. Florida laws establish a high standard for determining whether an action is medically negligent. The nuances of malpractice law and the complex nature of medical care require the attention of lawyers who know how to handle these claims.
When taking on birth injury cases, our lawyers must determine whether all four elements of medical malpractice are present.
- Standard of Care: While every provider has different approaches and methods to patient care, there are still baseline standards expected of providers. Our team must determine what a reasonably competent provider with similar training would have done under the same circumstances.
- Breach of the Standard of Care: Once we establish what was expected of the provider, we must then show that their care fell below the standard of care.
- Causation: Another crucial aspect of proving medical negligence is showing a direct link between the provider’s actions (or inactions) and your child’s birth injury.
- Damages: We must also be able to link these actions to your baby’s injuries and subsequent losses. Bills, invoices, medical records, and testimonies can all provide proof of losses.
Providers and insurance companies do not want to admit fault, and they may try to say that your baby’s injuries were unavoidable or that you somehow contributed to the injury. Our attorneys know how to push back against these and other arguments to help establish liability.
How Long Do I Have to File My Delray Beach Birth Injury Claim?
Like other medical malpractice claims, you must file your child’s lawsuit before the statute of limitations ends. However, birth injury claims are unique, as cases involving children can change how long you have to file. There are also other legal requirements before filing suit, like serving presuit notice on all prospective defendants.
These deadlines can be complex, and it’s often difficult to know exactly how much time you have to act. We urge you to reach out to our firm as soon as possible so we can review your situation and determine the applicable deadline for your child’s birth injury claim.
How Much Does It Cost to Hire a Lawyer from Freidin Brown, P.A.?
Caring for your baby after a birth injury can be emotionally and financially overwhelming, and you may be struggling to pay bills and earn income. Thinking about the potential costs of a claim can make legal action seem out of reach. We understand your concerns, and we are here to offer our services on a contingency fee basis.
If you work with our team, you do not have to worry about upfront fees or the costs of filing a medical malpractice claim. Instead, you only pay us a portion of your settlement or verdict. Otherwise, you do not owe us anything.
