Personal Injury Lawyer Blog
Pregnancy is a very sensitive stage of womanhood. It is important that mothers should be taken due care from their pregnancy to the delivery of the infant. It cannot be denied that the delivery can pose so much risk both to the mother and to the baby. However, there are instances that these risk and dangers are not being considered by many negligent healthcare professionals and thus birth injury happens. It is quite frustrating and irritating that after nine months of almost exaggerated security and care, your baby will be handled like a puppy in a hospital which you have entrusted your baby and your life.
You might be hesitant pointing fingers to the hospital or the people who participated in your delivery but there are ways to determine if you have a fighting chance in filing a case of birth injury. A medical malpractice causing birth injury will be evaluated whether negligence or lack of competence had manifested in the performance of their profession. If there has or had been any form of harm to a patient due to incompetent practice of the healthcare profession, we can say that there is a medical malpractice. However, it should be emphasize that proving “incompetence”, “negligence”, and “malpractice” is not a walk in the park.
There are many ways to establish these birth injury case requirements. For a start, you should be certain that there was a doctor-patient relationship between the two of you. This means that there had been mutual understanding that he is responsible to you. This can be established by hospital records, receipts of your check-ups to office, and other documents that will provide the information that you had hired them. This can be the first stage of establishing birth injury case.
Establishing Negligence
You should establish a clear commission of negligence for a birth injury case to develop in a court. The claim that there has been a human error in the practice of health profession is not usually enough. You should show that more than the error committed, under similar circumstances, other healthcare professionals would have not done the same thing he did to your baby. There are many instances that you can say that this had happen in your case, example are the following:
Lack of monitoring to your baby
You were not warned about the risk of your pregnancy
Improper use of medical instruments
Failure to recognize fetal distress
If these instances had been initially proven or had been obvious in your delivery, you can say that you have a strong birth injury case. If you think you are not aware of these topics, you can ask specialist about it. The medical report, photos of your baby, and other evidences will help you to find out if these instances had been committed on your delivery. The current health status of your baby can also uncover hints that will help other doctors to decipher what happened in your delivery and if there had been obvious birth injury. It would be better if you would start your own investigation.
Incompetent Act not Natural Cause
Birth injury relies in the process of qualification of evidences that would show there had been obvious incompetence, negligence, and malpractice in the delivery of your baby. If the birth injury of your baby is due to natural circumstances like unusual size (bigger than usual) of your baby, delicate position, prolonged delivery which had caused to fetal distress, and other circumstances which are beyond the capacity of your doctor to prevent, the birth injury case can be trashed.
It is also essential that you hire a lawyer who can fully assist you in the complexities of your claim. Hire someone who can simplify the technicalities of laws and medical field. There are reliable lawyers who charges fairly and can see where you are coming from.
Reference:
Silvers, Langsam & Weitzman, P.C. (1910) What Has to Be Met for a Medical Malpractice Lawsuit? | Silvers, Langsam & Weitzman. [online] Available at: http://www.birthinjuryinfo.org/Should-I-Take-Legal-Action/What-Has-to-Be-Met-for-a-Medical-Malpractice-Lawsuit.shtml [Accessed: 12 Dec 2012].