San Antonio Birth Injury Lawyers
Did the delivering physician or a nurse cause your child’s birth injury? Contact our experienced San Antonio birth injury lawyers for a free confidential consultation.
Childbirth is an intense experience and commonly involves complications, but that is why it is overseen in a hospital by specially trained medical professionals. If your joy at the birth of your child was short-lived because of the baby’s serious disability or life-threatening injury, you may have a cause of action against those medical providers.
The law firm of Rush & Gransee, L.C., handles medical malpractice litigation. Our experienced San Antonio birth injury lawyers, in conjunction with our experts, can determine if your baby’s injury or death resulted from medical negligence.
Do you have a case for malpractice against the doctor or hospital? Call us today at (210) 239-0771.
Medical Malpractice in Labor, Delivery or Neonatal Care
Our medical negligence team has helped devastated families hold physicians and medical facilities accountable for preventable injuries to newborns and infants. We seek compensation for the projected costs of caring for a child with special needs, as well as compensation for the child’s diminished quality of life.
We can evaluate the medical records and other evidence relating to any type of birth injury, including:
- Cerebral palsy or another hypoxic brain injury (oxygen deprivation) during the birthing process
- Nerve damage (Erb’s palsy or Klumpke’s palsy) from injury to the brachial plexus nerves during delivery, resulting in paralysis in the hand or whole arm
- Postpartum ailments such as respiratory distress, jaundice, bleeding in the brain or bone fractures that are not diagnosed or treated by the neonatal staff
There has been a trend in South Texas to use agency nurses as a cost-saving measure in understaffed hospitals. These temporary nurses in the delivery room, in the nursery or in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) may contribute to birth injuries, even when they have a background in obstetrics or neonatal care. They simply may not be familiar with the equipment, the facility, co-workers or hospital protocol, causing critical errors or delays in urgent situations.
The main fault may lie with the delivering obstetrician (OB-GYN physician). Failure to anticipate a difficult birth or to perform a timely C-section can result in brain damage if the umbilical cord becomes pinched during childbirth. Excessive force or improper technique to free a baby who is stuck in the birth canal can break bones or permanently damage the delicate nerves in the infant’s shoulder.
Frequently Asked Birth Injury Questions
What are birth injuries?
One of the more devastating things I deal with as a Texas medical malpractice lawyer are birth injury claims. It’s supposed to be the most joyous day. Then before you know it, lights are going off. People are rushing in. Your baby’s taken away from you. You find out there’s some lifelong complication that can affect you and your baby from that day forward.
Who’s responsible? Sometimes nobody. Sometimes events happen that are out of everybody’s control. However, if a doctor or a nurse didn’t follow the rules they’re supposed to follow, didn’t do the things we expect of our healthcare professionals, and your baby and you are devastated, contact an experienced medical malpractice lawyer who understands birth injury cases.
How do I know if I have a birth related medical malpractice claim?
Birth injuries happen. In Texas, medical malpractice laws apply. How do you know if you have a case? It involves a very thorough review of all of the records, your prenatal records, your OB/GYN record, the hospital records, your baby’s medical chart.
Your baby gets a medical chart and you get a medical chart when you go to the hospital. All of those things have to be examined. If your baby suffered injuries, and there’s any number of them that can happen, the only way to know if you have a case is to examine what happened, and why it happened. Hiring an experienced medical malpractice lawyer, someone who’s done birth injury cases for a long time, is the only way for you to know for sure.
Who’s to blame for my child’s birth injury?
If you and your new baby have suffered devastating injuries during delivery, you are probably wanting to know who’s responsible. Under Texas medical malpractice laws, that’s the law that covers birth injuries, it might be the nurses. It might be the doctor.
Maybe an anesthesiologist was involved. The point is, you won’t know until an experienced medical malpractice lawyer looks at everything that happened while you were under the care of that healthcare team.
Who’s lawsuit is a birth injury in Texas?
When clients call us to help them with a birth injury malpractice case here in Texas, one of the things they need to understand is it’s almost like two cases in one because mom has a case, dad has a case, and baby has a case. The way the law works on that is if you have a meritorious case and you proceed forward. There are some elements of damages that mom and dad recover: medical bills for the first 18 years of life. Your baby’s case are: medical bills, therapy, all of the future problems from 18 on.
Ultimately, when a case like that is resolved, some portion of the money goes to mom and dad to take care of those things until 18. Some portion of the money, usually a large portion, goes into a trust fund or some other type of protected fund that stays until the baby is 18. Once the baby is 18, they can start paying for all those injuries, all those damages, and everything that the baby faces as an adult.
How long do we have to file a birth injury claim in Texas?
If you’re dealing with a birth injury, you’re dealing with Texas medical malpractice law and limitations. The time limits to bring a case is tricky. Technically, your baby, because they’re not an adult, doesn’t have to bring a case right away. You as the parents of the child only have two years. Because some of the recovery is mom and dad’s recovery and some is the baby’s recovery, if you don’t act within two years, your baby may still have a case, but yours is gone.
Just like any other area of malpractice law, birth injury cases need to be acted on quickly; don’t sit and wait. Hire an experienced medical malpractice lawyer; someone who understands Texas law as it applies to birth injuries. Someone who can tell you what your rights are.
How much compensation can you receive in a birth injury lawsuit?
One of the elements of damages that really comes to play in birth injury cases is lifelong injury. In Texas, the way the medical malpractice laws work for birth injuries, is you have to have a law firm that understands and has the resources to hire lifecare planners, rehabilitation experts, and physicians who can make an entire care plan that’s going to cover your baby’s entire life.
Then you need to hire economists to calculate inflation. If your baby has suffered a birth injury in Texas, only an experienced malpractice lawyer will have, not only the ability, but the resources to make sure that the lifelong harm is compensated.
How long will it take for our birth injury case to settle?
If you have a birth injury case and you’ve hired an experienced medical malpractice lawyer, it’s going to take a while for you to see justice. Texas law is on the side of doctors, nurses, and hospitals. I’m not saying they don’t deserve some protection, but they don’t deserve more protection than you and your baby. Unfortunately, because of the way the law here in Texas is, these birth injury cases take a long time. They take a long time because first of all, it takes a long time for you to know exactly what you’re facing.
What’s the future for your baby? These are not quick fix cases. These are long and arduous. You need an experienced birth injury lawyer at your side. Someone who will explain every step of the process and answer every question you have. You’re going to be teamed up for a while.
Your Case is Reviewed and Advanced by Experienced Professionals
Robert Rush is a board-certified trial lawyer* who has successfully sued doctors and hospitals in San Antonio and throughout South Texas. If we take your case, there are no attorney fees unless we recover compensation through a negotiated settlement or a jury award. Medical malpractice cases often go all the way to trial, and we are prepared for that commitment and investment of resources.
If you believe that your baby’s birth trauma traces to medical negligence, arrange a free consultation today with our accomplished San Antonio birth injury lawyers.
* Certified by the National Board of Trial Advocacy as a Civil Trial Lawyer
