Although the birth injury rate has leveled off in recent years, roughly three babies per hour are born with serious, and usually lifelong, injuries. As outlined below, a birth injury could occur due to a medical mistake before, during, or after the birth itself. Maryland law holds doctors to a very high standard of care. So, legally speaking, almost any medical mistake is negligence, or a lack of care.

Because of the high standard of care, a personal injury lawyer in Waldorf, MD, from the Law Office of Robert R. Castro can usually obtain substantial compensation in these matters. This compensation usually includes money for economic losses, such as medical bills, and noneconomic losses, such as pain and suffering. Additional punitive damages are usually available as well, if a lawyer proves, by clear and convincing evidence, that the tortfeasor (negligent actor) intentionally disregarded a known risk.

Prenatal Visit Injuries

The chain of events that leads to a birth injury often begins during prenatal visits. Frequently, doctors either ignore warning signs or fail to properly account for them.

Everyone wants a confident doctor. But overconfident doctors, who rely too much on their own experiences and instincts, are dangerous. When a doctor approaches a problem with an “I’ve got this” mentality, people, usually the mother and/or baby, get hurt.

LGA (Large for Gestational Age) fetal development is a good example. Usually, a fetus is LGA if the fetus is above the 90th weight percentile at a certain stage of development. Weight often fluctuates. A fetus could be LGA one month and below the threshold the next month. Many doctors dismiss such development as “borderline” LGA, and they fail to take proper precautions.

Granted, doctors who handle walk-in deliveries are in a bad position. Eight or ten months of prenatal visits are compressed into a pre-delivery file review. Nevertheless, highly-trained doctors can still spot red flags in these cases. They have a legal duty to follow up on such danger signs.

Delivery Room Injuries

Let’s stay with the LGA example. If a baby is too large to drift down the mother’s birth canal and becomes lodged in the mother, the umbilical cord wraps around the baby’s neck, causing hypoxia (severe lack of oxygen to the brain) in about five minutes.

Like many of us, when the chips are down and the clock is ticking, many doctors make poor choices. These poor choices often include dangerous birth assistance measures, such as:

• Episiotemy: In the old days, doctors routinely cut the mother’s perineum to widen her birth canal, whether she needed such assistance or not. But leading doctor’s groups now strongly advise against such procedures. They do more harm than good, mostly because the blood loss weakens the mother at a time when she needs all her strength.
• Forceps: As early as the 1700s, doctors used surgical forceps, which resemble large salad tongs, to pry babies out of mothers when delivery stalled. For hundreds of years, forceps have caused serious and permanent head injuries on the skulls of tiny newborns. Although doctors know they shouldn’t use forceps, they often reach for them anyway.
• Vacuum Extractor: The “latest” mechanical birth aid may be the most dangerous one yet. The doctor attaches a cap to the baby’s head. That cap is connected to a surgical vacuum. Then, the doctor flips the “on” switch and tries to suck the baby out of the mother. This process often causes head injuries and neck injuries. This process often causes permanent maternal injuries as well.

Sometimes, doctors throw nurses and other professionals under the bus in these situations. That strategy often works in private disciplinary proceedings. But in court, a Charles County, MD, personal injury lawyer holds doctors responsible for all delivery room injuries.

Recovery Area Injuries

A few final words about recovery area injuries. These places are often breeding grounds for dangerous bacteria. Oftentimes, an infection pops up out of nowhere and quickly snowballs out of control.

Many surgical teams let down their guard slightly when mothers go to recovery areas. This slight letdown often has serious consequences for mothers and babies.

Contact a Dedicated Calvert County Lawyer

Injury victims need and deserve substantial compensation. For a confidential consultation with an experienced personal injury lawyer in St. Mary’s County, Maryland, contact the Law Office of Robert R. Castro, 2670 Crain Highway #411, Waldorf, MD 20601. Call us at (301) 870-1200 or go online now.

This article has been provided by the Law Office of Robert R. Castro. For more information or questions contact our office to speak to an experienced lawyer at (301) 870-1200.