Pregnancies are safer than ever these days. However, our Atlanta birth asphyxia attorneys know all too well that the birthing process can still be fraught with complications.
Sometimes, these complications are simply unavoidable. In other cases, they can be brought about by the negligence of the medical providers overseeing the birth. Our Atlanta medical malpractice attorneys at Malone Law can help you determine what caused your child’s birth asphyxia.
Birth Asphyxia can cause long-term health problems for your child that may require extensive medical care. You and your child shouldn’t have to pay the price for someone else’s negligence. Contact Malone Law at (770) 390-7550 today in Atlanta, GA, to get a free assessment and learn more information on your legal rights and how to assert them.
How Malone Law Can Help You With Your Atlanta, GA, Birth Asphyxia Claim
While medical advances and high-quality prenatal care have vastly improved healthy birth rates, human error can still contribute to pregnancies that go wrong. Our Atlanta birth injury lawyers believe that when medical errors are the result of negligence, the at-fault parties should be held to account for the damage they’ve caused.
Malone Law has been helping negligence victims fight for their legal rights in the Atlanta, Georgia, area for decades. We have a proud tradition of helping families and their infants who have been needlessly victimized by birth injuries, including cases that involve:
- Lack of oxygen to the baby
- Broken bones during the birth process
- Cerebral palsy
- Nerve and brain damage
- Death during childbirth
We get results for our clients that enable them to get the proper medical care they need when they’ve been harmed by medical malpractice. With hundreds of millions of dollars in settlements and verdicts delivered to our clients, we give them a fighting chance to put their lives back together after a catastrophic event.
What Causes Birth Asphyxia?
Birth asphyxia is a serious medical event in which a baby is deprived of adequate oxygen before, during, or right after birth. As a leading cause of a newborn’s injury or death, birth asphyxia occurs when blood flow to the placenta is interrupted. When a newborn’s brain is deprived of life-giving oxygen, the results can be devastating.
Birth asphyxia can happen naturally—for example, when the mother has low blood pressure or when the umbilical cord wraps around the infant’s neck. However, it can also occur due to human error.
Common errors by medical care providers that can result in birth asphyxia include failure to recognize fetal distress or allowing the mother’s labor to go on for too long. The effects that birth asphyxia can have on the newborn child are serious and include:
- Brain injury
- Cerebral palsy
- Developmental delays
- Autism
- Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder
- Wrongful death
The burden of proving that the medical team in charge of overseeing your child’s birth negligently caused the birth asphyxia is a difficult one. The at-fault parties and their insurance companies have vast resources to thwart you at every turn. You need a law firm like Malone Law in your corner. We’ll stand up to them and fight for what is rightfully yours.
What Damages Are Available in Atlanta, Georgia Birth Asphyxia Cases?
The injuries that a birth asphyxia incident can cause are serious. Conditions like cerebral palsy may require a lifetime of specialized equipment to help your child with mobility problems. The cost of ongoing physical therapy, surgeries, and other recurring medical expenses adds up quickly.
These are expenses you simply didn’t expect to incur. Birth asphyxia complications that result from medical malpractice are all the more heartbreaking because they are preventable. In such a case, you shouldn’t have to bear the financial fallout of the medical provider’s mistake.
Georgia law provides different forms of compensation for victims of medical malpractice. The goal of awarding damages is to make victims whole again.
Economic damages provide you monetary compensation for your out-of-pocket expenses related to negligent birth asphyxia. They include:
- Past and future medical bills
- Impaired earning capacity
- Long-term disability care
- Mobility equipment and supplies
- Any other expenses that are reasonably related to the negligent birth asphyxia
You may also be entitled to recover non-economic damages. This class of damages compensates negligence victims for their physical and emotional pain, mental anguish, physical impairment, loss of enjoyment of life, and other non-pecuniary losses. The law generally caps non-economic damages against healthcare providers at $350,000.
Properly calculating your child’s overall damages is critically important. Some of these expenses will be recurring, so you’ll want to work with an attorney who has experience in capturing every component of damages and being able to forecast all future costs with a relatively high degree of accuracy.
Get Answers About Your Birth Asphyxia Case From an Experienced Atlanta Birth Injury Attorney
The effects of birth asphyxia from an Atlanta birth error can be long-lasting. The child may require medical and supportive care for the rest of their life. This extensive care will come at a high price.
If your newborn is showing symptoms of child asphyxia, it’s important that you get them the medical care they need. It’s also important to consult with an attorney who has a verifiable history of getting justice for birth injury victims.
Contact our Malone Law attorneys so we can start investigating whether your child’s birth asphyxia was caused by medical malpractice. If so, we’ll work tirelessly to get you the compensation you deserve so you can get medical treatment for your child. Call today at (770) 390-7550.