Our award-winning team has successfully litigated hundreds of cases involving birth injuries and medical negligence and has successfully prevailed in complex claims against a variety of medical professionals and healthcare institutions. Our record of success includes numerous recoveries in excess of $1 million, over 50 jury trials, and more than 150 settlements.
If you have questions about our team and how we can help you, we’re available 24/7 to take your call.
When Can You Sue for a Birth Injury?
As a major medical event, childbirth has inherent risks for both infants and mothers. This includes the risk of birth injury, which is any injury sustained by an infant during childbirth.
Whether you can pursue legal action after your child suffered a birth injury depends on various factors specific to your case, including the quality of care you received before, during, and after birth, and your ability to prove the claims upon which your legal action is based. In birth injury cases, claims are nearly always based on medical negligence, which occurs when a healthcare professional fails to meet the standard of care.
It’s not easy for laymen (or even many attorneys who don’t practice in this field) to understand when a birth injury can give rise to a lawsuit. Here are some key considerations to help explain.
- Not all birth injuries are preventable. Birth injuries are an unfortunate but not uncommon complication of labor and delivery. Some birth injuries, in terms of current medical standards, are simply unavoidable, which means that not all victims who suffer birth injuries have grounds for legal action. Birth injuries are also distinctly different from birth defects, which result from genetic and environmental factors. Although there are some instances in which families may have grounds to pursue legal action after their child is born with a birth defect (such as claims against a company or entity responsible for toxic exposure or, in some jurisdictions, claims against providers that failed to adequately perform or discuss genetic testing), birth defects are typically not grounds for medical malpractice claims.
- Breach of Duty: There needs to be proof of medical negligence. To have a viable birth injury claim, you’ll need to establish proof of medical negligence. What is medical negligence? Put simply, it’s a deviation from the “standard of care,” which Texas law defines as the level of care a reasonably skilled medical professional in the same field would provide under the same or similar circumstances. Determining when a provider’s poor-quality care rises to the level of negligence is one of the most challenging and important tasks in birth injury cases and is something that requires careful examination and the insight of medical experts.
- Causation: Negligence must have caused the birth injury. A provider being negligent in and of itself is not enough to have a winning claim. To prevail in your birth injury lawsuit, you must be able to demonstrate that medical negligence caused the birth injury. Like proving substandard care, proving causation can be a very challenging endeavor and nearly always requires testimony from experts who can link a provider’s actions or inactions to the resulting birth injury. This means showing how a birth injury could have been avoided had a provider acted within accepted standards.
- Damages: One of the last essential elements of a birth injury claim is provide that there were actual damages. Birth injury lawsuits are intended to give families an opportunity to recover compensation for their losses. As such, there must be proof that damages were suffered. In birth injury cases, these damages can be quite profound and encompass various types of physical, financial, and emotional losses.
Birth injury cases are notorious for being very complex, fact-specific, and high-stakes claims. As such, they need to be thoroughly evaluated by attorneys who have experience in medical malpractice law and connections to medical experts and specialists.
At James Wood Law, we encourage anyone who suspects that their child’s injuries were preventable to reach out to our team for a consultation. We can review the circumstances surrounding your care and delivery, explain whether there might be cause for action, and discuss what we can do to help.
Examples of Negligence That Can Cause Preventable Birth Injuries
Birth injury cases can vary widely, and involve a range of injuries, disabilities, and life-long limitations caused by substandard medical care. Though negligence takes many forms, some of the most common causes of preventable birth injuries include:
- Failures to monitor fetal heart rate or identify signs of fetal distress, leading to complications such as oxygen deprivation and lasting impairments.
- Improper use of medical devices such as forceps or vacuum extractors during delivery, resulting in traumatic injuries.
- Failures to diagnose or adequately treat risk factors that can lead to complications, including maternal high blood pressure (preeclampsia) and infections.
- Failure to timely intervene or administer appropriate treatment, such as delaying a necessary C-section or therapeutic head cooling.
- Failures to follow protocols for obstetrical emergencies and complications during childbirth.
- Failure to administer intra-partum or immediate post-partum antibiotics, resulting in GBS infections and lasting impairments.
What Damages Can I Recover in an Amarillo, TX Birth Injury Lawsuit?
Birth injury lawsuits are powerful mechanisms meant to provide victims of negligence with compensation for their losses. While damages vary from case to case, some examples of recoverable damages in Texas birth injury claims include:
- Economic Damages:
- Medical expenses related to the injury, both past and future
- Costs for rehabilitation and therapy
- Expenses for necessary modifications to the home or vehicles for accessibility
- Lost earnings and loss of future earning potential
- Non-Economic Damages:
- Pain and suffering endured by the child and parents
- Mental anguish and emotional distress
- Loss of enjoyment of life
- Disfigurement and physical impairment
In Texas, state law limits the amount of non-economic damages that can be awarded in medical malpractice and birth injury cases. The cap is placed at $250,000 per defendant, with a total limit of $750,000 applied across all defendants. This means that no matter how many healthcare providers are found liable in a lawsuit, the maximum total amount that can be awarded for non-economic damages is $750,000. However, there are no caps on economic damages, allowing for full recovery of all calculable financial losses related to the injury.
At James Wood Law, we know that parents depend on full and fair financial recoveries to provide the care and support their children need. It’s why we devote considerable attention to calculating damages, including those that have already been incurred and losses that are likely expected in the future. Often, we’ll work with experts who help us illustrate how a birth injury will impact children and families beyond the conclusion of their cases and seek recoveries that reflect these needs.
Call For a FREE Consultation: (505) 906-6774
Our Amarillo birth injury lawyers are dedicated to helping families in the fight for justice and full compensation. As one of the region’s leading medical malpractice and birth injury firms, we offer our services to clients and colleagues across Potter County, the state of Texas, and surrounding states, and handle cases on contingency, which means there’s no cost to hire and no fee collected unless a recovery is made.
Learn more about your legal options and how we can help by calling (505) 906-6774 or contacting us online.
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