Birth Injury Attorneys in Detroit, Michigan

Advocating for Infants and Their Families

Having a baby should be one of the happiest moments of your and your family’s life. Unfortunately, birth injuries can affect you and your baby for years, leading to major complications as your child grows older. If your baby was injured by a doctor or hospital staff member, you deserve compensation for the experience.

Our birth injury lawyers are here to guide you through a birth injury claim to recover damages and hold negligent parties accountable. We know how overwhelming it can be to deal with medical costs, lost wages, and emotional distress during this trying time. We have successfully helped many other clients recover compensation in Michigan for birth injuries.

Pursuing a personal injury claim gives you and your family a voice and allows you to hold guilty parties liable for their actions. If your child was injured during birth, Ratton Law Group PC can help. Contact our law office by calling (313) 631-0502 for a free consultation.

What is a Birth Injury?

A birth injury, also called birth trauma, is an injury that results from complications during the labor and delivery process. While some birth injuries happen naturally, some happen because of medical negligence. Doctors and other hospital professionals are required to give the same level of care to all their patients. When they don’t, victims can be injured.

Signs your child may have suffered a birth injury include:

  • You had a difficult labor and delivery or C-section
  • Your baby was deprived of oxygen
  • You suffered from placental abruption
  • Your baby suffered head trauma
  • Your doctor used forceps or a vacuum during the delivery
  • Your baby needed to be resuscitated
  • There were problems with your baby’s heart rate
  • Your baby needed head cooling or hypothermia therapy after birth
  • Your baby was in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) for an extended period of time

Birth injuries can be very traumatic and often leave both parents and children scarred. A birth injury lawsuit gives victims a voice to stand up for themselves after experiencing medical negligence.

What Are the Most Common Types of Birth Injuries?

There are many kinds of birth injuries your child could suffer from. Unfortunately, medical malpractice and other errors can cause extreme trauma, leading to long-term conditions. Your child may present symptoms immediately after birth or a few years after they are born.

The most common birth injuries include:

  • Cerebral palsy
  • Erb’s palsy
  • Brachial plexus injuries
  • Bell’s palsy
  • Hypoxic and anoxic brain injury
  • Shoulder dystocia
  • Forceps injuries
  • Hypoxic Ischemic Encephalopathy (HIE)
  • Preeclampsia
  • Neonatal stroke
  • Persistent Pulmonary Hypertension
  • Meningitis
  • Spina Bifida
  • Cystic Fibrosis
  • Stillborn baby deaths

Cerebral palsy is one of the most common types of birth injuries. It causes delays in development, and parents may notice signs and symptoms immediately or when their child is a few years old. Cerebral palsy can be caused by a lack of oxygen during birth. It can impact your child’s speech, language, and muscle coordination.

Erb’s palsy is similar and can cause full or partial paralysis in your child’s arm. This damage to the nerves can be caused by too much force during delivery or the failure to perform a C-section when needed.

What is the Process for Diagnosing a Birth Injury?

If you believe that your baby has a birth injury, it’s essential to seek medical care. Getting medical care not only ensures that your baby is safe and healthy, but it creates a record of their injuries and the treatment you have sought for them.

To diagnose your child’s birth injury, take the following steps:

Seek Medical Attention

Our team can recommend medical professionals to examine your child and diagnose their injuries. A diagnosis could include MRI scans, CT scans, and examinations by pediatric neurologists. Depending on your child’s symptoms, you may then be given a treatment plan to follow.

Conduct a Legal Investigation

Once your child has been diagnosed, our legal team will investigate the circumstances of their birth and how they were injured. We will interview healthcare providers, examine medical records, and consult with third-party medical professionals to determine exactly how your child was hurt.

Prove Liability

In order to prove a birth injury, you must provide evidence of negligence. Negligence involves a duty of care, a breach of that duty, injuries resulting from that breach, and damages suffered as a result of the injury. Our team will gather evidence to assign liability in your birth injury case.

What Kind of Compensation Can You Seek in a Birth Injury Case?

Birth injury cases are meant to provide compensation for you and your family to cover the damages you have suffered. Any economic and non-economic damages that are a direct cause of your child’s injuries can be sought during a birth injury lawsuit. Our attorneys will help you calculate all of your damages to seek the full compensation that you deserve.

Many birth injury victims request the following:

  • Medical expenses: Birth injuries inherently come with many medical bills. You can request compensation for all past and future medical costs, including surgeries, medications, hospital stays, and ongoing medical treatments
  • Long-term care costs: Physical therapy, speech therapy, and occupational therapy are all long-term care programs your child may need
  • Living adjustments: You may need to modify your home to accommodate your child. Adding accessibility enhancements and access to specialized transportation are damages that can be requested
  • Pain and suffering: Your child may endure physical pain as a result of their injury. You can request compensation for their general suffering
  • Lost wages: Parents may need to miss work or even give up a career to care for their child. You can request compensation for all the money you would have made had your child not been injured
  • Loss of enjoyment of life: Your child may face limitations and lost opportunities because of their injury
  • Emotional distress: Injuries that cause long-term symptoms can be devastating. Your family can request compensation for this mental anguish
  • Punitive damages: In cases where medical malpractice is particularly egregious or negligent, you can request additional damages as a punishment for the defendant

What Should You Do if You Suspect a Birth Injury?

Finding out that your child may have a birth injury can be overwhelming. If you’re unsure if your child is injured or you don’t know how the injury happened, it’s essential to take the right steps and ensure your child gets the help they need.

If you suspect that your child has a birth injury, be sure to do the following:

Get a Second Opinion

You can get multiple opinions from different healthcare professionals. A second opinion may offer new insights into your child’s health and can also uncover additional or underlying issues.

Document All Treatments

Once you know that your child has a birth injury, keep a record of their treatments, your interactions with healthcare providers, and any changes in your child’s health. This documentation will help you file a birth injury claim.

Consult a Michigan Birth Injury Lawyer

Seeking compensation for a birth injury can be a complex process. Our team of attorneys can help you gather evidence, file paperwork, stay on top of deadlines, and more. We can also answer any of your questions about your case and the legal process.

How is Fault Determined in Birth Injury Claims?

Determining fault is a key component of birth injury lawsuits. However, assigning fault isn’t always straightforward. Negligence occurs when a hospital provider fails to provide the standard level of care that all patients are entitled to. Negligent actions can lead to lawsuits, forcing the liable party or parties to compensate the victims.

To prove liability, you must provide evidence of negligence in some manner. Negligence means not giving the same level of care that another medical provider would have given under the same or similar circumstances. Proving liability can be difficult, as it’s more complex than simply making a mistake or making a different decision than another provider would have made. With help from our team, you can prove that your baby’s injuries are due to negligence.

Possible negligence could include:

  • Failing to diagnose the mother with maternal diabetes or preeclampsia, which can cause injuries to both the baby and the mother
  • Allowing labor to progress too slowly
  • Allowing labor to go on for too long
  • Improperly using vacuums or forceps
  • Improperly administering labor-inducing drugs
  • Failing to respond correctly to the infant becoming stuck in the birth canal
  • Failure to note a baby’s poor positioning in the uterus
  • Failure to take proper action when the baby’s umbilical cord is wrapped around the neck
  • Misreading fetal monitoring strips before birth
  • Misdiagnosis or failure to treat an infection of the mother before birth
  • Medical errors that cause the death of your baby

An independent medical professional can review the facts of your case to determine whether negligence occurred and how you can prove it. Your baby’s medical records are a vital piece of evidence in your birth injury case.

What Does a Birth Injury Lawyer Do?

When your baby’s injuries result in long-term conditions, it changes your entire life. Working with a Michigan birth injury lawyer allows you to seek compensation for your experience and get the money you need to pay for medical bills, lost wages, pain and suffering, and more. If your child’s life has been impacted by an injury at birth, our lawyers are here to help you through your entire case.

When you work with our legal team, we will take the following steps:

Examine Your Child’s Medical Records

Your child’s medical records tell a story that can be used in your birth injury claim. Once you reach out to us, we will examine your child’s medical records and look for examples of medical malpractice. We can also have third-party medical professionals examine their records to explain complex medical treatments or jargon.

Gather Evidence

To win a birth injury case, you must provide evidence of negligence or medical malpractice. Your child’s medical records are a significant piece of evidence, but we will also look for witness testimonies and other documentation of your doctor’s failure to act.

Calculate Your Damages

Your damages make up the total amount of compensation you can request through a lawsuit. There may be some damages, like emotional distress or lost wages, that are hard to calculate. Our team will walk you through all your damages to get a full and total accounting of your losses.

Pursue Compensation

The ultimate goal of our team is to hold negligent parties accountable and get you the compensation you deserve. We will first attempt to do so with negotiations. If that is not an option, we can take your case to court. We will not stop fighting for you and your family until the liable parties pay you for what they have done.

Do You Need a Birth Injury Attorney?

Birth injuries can impact you and your child for years to come. If your child was injured during their birth, you deserve experienced birth injury lawyers who will fight for your right to compensation.

Ratton Law Group PC is here to help you through your birth injury case. Our team of attorneys has been serving clients in Michigan for years, and we know how to navigate the legal process with your best interests in mind. If you are looking for compassionate legal services, look no further than our law firm. For more information and a free consultation, call us today at (313) 631-0502.

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