Newark Birth Injury Lawyer
If your child suffered an injury during your labor and delivery in Newark, New Jersey, an attorney from the Law Offices of Jeffrey S. Hasson, P.C., can help your family understand and protect its legal rights. Your family may be entitled to receive compensation for your related personal, emotional, and financial losses.
When you’re ready to talk to a local birth injury lawyer about a potential claim at no cost or obligation to hire our law firm, contact us 24/7. You have nothing to lose by speaking to us, and potentially much to gain.
Our Newark medical malpractice attorneys have decades of experience in this practice area. Let our skilled and compassionate birth injury lawyers handle every aspect of your case while you focus on caring for your child and building a brighter future.
What Is Considered a Birth Injury?
A birth injury occurs to an infant before, during, or shortly after labor and delivery. It refers to a traumatic injury, or one caused by external or internal trauma to the infant. Unlike birth defects, birth injuries are not health problems or conditions that are genetically inherited. They are injuries suffered by newborns due to birth-related trauma.
How Medical Negligence Can Cause Birth Injuries
While some birth injuries occur even when every medical professional involved fulfills their duties of care, other fetal and maternal injuries reported in Newark are traced back to medical negligence. Medical negligence means a health care provider has fallen short of the standard of care, resulting in patient injury or death.
Childbirth is complicated by nature, with no two experiences exactly alike. Various medical problems and emergencies can arise unexpectedly during a mother’s labor and delivery. The health care providers involved have a legal responsibility to ensure that they are adequately trained and prepared to handle these situations.
While medical providers in New Jersey are not expected to prevent all birth injuries, they do have an obligation to avoid foreseeable harm to the best of their ability. This duty requires health care practitioners to act according to the medical industry’s high standards of patient care. Anything less constitutes medical malpractice.
Common Birth Injuries Seen in New Jersey Hospitals
Birth injuries, even those that result in devastating and permanent disabilities, may not be immediately apparent upon the birth of a baby. Over time, however, parents may come to the heartbreaking realization that something went wrong, and that the infant has suffered one or more types of birth injuries.
Common examples reported in New Jersey hospitals include:
- Head and brain injuries
- Traumatic brain injuries
- Anoxic or hypoxic brain injuries (lack of oxygen)
- Cerebral palsy
- Hypoxic-Ischemic Encephalopathy (HIE)
- Brachial plexus injuries
- Erb’s and Klumpke’s palsy
- Temporary or permanent facial paralysis
- Nerve damage
- Neck and spinal cord injuries
- Bruises and contusions
- Bone fractures
At the Law Offices of Jeffrey S. Hasson, P.C., our highly experienced Newark injury lawyers have what it takes to thoroughly investigate a reported birth injury, determine its cause and gather evidence of medical malpractice. We can help you seek maximum compensation for your child’s potentially life-changing injury.
Who Can Be Held Liable for a Birth Injury?
Liability, or legal and financial responsibility, for a birth injury in Newark can rest with the person or party that breached the duty of care. In a medical malpractice claim, a breach of duty means that a health care provider engaged in conduct that a reasonable and prudent physician would not have in the same circumstances.
Examples include
- Failing to pay attention to fetal vital signs
- Failing to monitor for fetal distress
- Lapses in judgment or communication among the medical team
- Failing to promptly order a C-section in an emergency
- Slow or inappropriate responses to birth complications
- Using excessive force on the infant in a case of shoulder dystocia
- Misusing birth-assistive tools, such as vacuums or forceps
- Failing to diagnose and treat maternal health conditions
- Making medication, anesthesia or epidural mistakes
- Surgical errors, infections or sepsis
Depending on the cause of the birth injury, the liable party could be an individual physician, surgeon, an obstetrician or gynecologist (OBGYN), a nurse or midwife, a physician’s assistant, or another health care provider. In many cases, hospitals and birthing centers in Newark can be held vicariously liable for the negligence of their employees.
What Compensation May Be Available for Families?
New Jersey’s civil justice system allows for the recovery of economic and non-economic damages from a defendant to make a personal injury plaintiff “whole again.” It’s important to work with an attorney to determine the true value of your birth injury claim before accepting an insurance settlement. Your case could be worth substantially more than the initial offer – especially if your child is facing a lifetime of costs.
Common types of compensation include:
- Current and future costs attached to the child’s medical care
- Ongoing treatments, appointments or medications
- Permanent disability or disfigurement
- The child’s pain, suffering and diminished quality of life
- The loss of the child’s ability to become financially independent
- Parents’ mental anguish and trauma
- Wrongful death damages (in cases involving fetal death)
It is up to the plaintiff or filing party in a Newark birth injury case to prove the existence of the damages being claimed. Your family can build the strongest case possible by collecting evidence of your child’s injuries and your family’s related losses right away, such as hospital bills, receipts, an injury journal and a Life Care Plan.
Speak With Our Newark Birth Injury Lawyers Today
A serious birth injury in Newark can cause immense pain, suffering, and financial stress on the whole family. Birth injuries can alter a child’s day-to-day life as well as impact their future.
While no amount of money is enough to make up for severe infant injuries due to medical negligence, collecting fair and full financial compensation for your family’s losses can make it easier to pick up the pieces and move forward.
At the Law Offices of Jeffrey S. Hasson, P.C., we bring together more than 90 years of practice-area experience to offer exceptional legal representation to individuals, parents and families in New Jersey. Our local birth injury lawyers are dedicated to holding negligent health care providers accountable.
Find out how we can help you and your family get through this difficult time. Contact us online or call (201) 645-4374 anytime for your free case evaluation. Our Newark law office is located at 3 Main Street, Newark, NJ 07105.