When you are ready to have your child one part of the preparation that most expecting parents do not think to do is have a birth injury lawyer on standby in the event something goes wrong during the delivery.  Why?  It sounds negative but this precaution can save your child’s life.

Medical Malpractice during the delivery

Medical malpractice, doctors mistakes and negligence in the medical field, particularly during the delivery process, are more common than one would think.  Such medical malpractice can be devastating to the child and the parents’ life. There are many causes to birth injury malpractice claims.

Causes of Birth Injuries

What are the causes of Birth Injuries?  The causes of birth injuries are numerous and typically the birth injuries occur as a result of medical malpractice during the delivery or birthing process.  The newborn child being injured during the birthing process or delivery is a most common but preventable one by the hospital, doctors and medical professional if they follow the standard of care presently existing.

A second frequent cause of birth injuries is the use of  drugs on the mother or child resulting in serious side effects.  Many times the doctors or the medical personnel display carelessness during the delivery process which results in birthing injuries.  The improper handling of the situation results from minor to serious and permanent disabilities like brain damages, paralysis, bone injuries, asphyxia, hypoxia, cerebral palsy, erbs palsy and many other birthing injuries and complications.

Common Birth Injuries

Some of the Most Common Birth Injuries are: Infant Shoulder Injury During Birth known as shoulder dystocia.  Other serious injuries include fractures,  Spinal cord injuries, Nerve damage or paralysis, Hypoxia (Oxygen deficiency), Erb’s Palsy, and Cerebral Palsy.

Hiring the Right Birth Injury Attorney

Hiring the right birth injury attorney is critical in obtaining the compensation and benefits for you and your injured child.  An experienced birth injury attorney will maximize the various benefits and compensation that your family deserves.  Additionally, filing a birth injury lawsuit makes the doctors and and hospitals careful about their responsibilities for fear of being hauled into court.

Hire a birth injury lawyer to deal with the medical malpractice that occurs and provide your injured child the compensation and money you need for your family’s future.   Additionally, filing a birth injury medical malpractice lawsuit will contribute to the betterment of society by helping reduce medical malpractices.

If you or a loved one has been injured by medical malpractice or a doctor’s mistake resulting in birth injuries such as cerebral palsy, erb’s palsy or any birth injury contact the birth injury attorney at 1(800)WE-FIGHT for a free consultation.  There is no fee unless we win your medical malpractice case and we have numerous convenient locations.  Our birth injury lawyer will come to your home or hospital upon request.

As you are probably aware, Erbs Palsy is a condition that results from injury to the brachial plexus nerves of a child often from medical malpractice at child birth.  Shoulder dystocia is a byproduct of this devastating injury.  A lawyer well versed in this area of law and with these types of cases is invaluable.

If you or anyone you know has a child suffering from birth injuries, birth defects, Erbs Palsy or any type of palsy from medical malpractice that you think may have happen at child birth call the Erbs Palsy Attorney, Pasquale Calcagno, Esq., at 1(800)WE-FIGHT and visit us on the web at www.1800wefight.com.   We have convenient locations all over New York and can even have an attorney come to you for free consultation.

Free Legal Consultation for Erbs Palsy Case – 1(800)WE-FIGHT.

Visit us at www.1800wefight.com.

The symptoms of minor traumatic brain injury (diffuse cerebral dysfunction) that the injured person typically has are as follows:

1) difficulty concentrating; 2) mood swings; 3) headaches; 4) blurred vision; 5) difficulty remembering (short term memory loss).  This list is not exclusive and other similar symptoms may present.

The types of minor traumatic brain injury or diffuse cerebral dysfunction are 1) reversible and 2) irreversible.  If you have been in an accident and you are experiencing any of the above symptoms it is vital that you see a neurologist as soon as possible.  If the problems persist it is important that you press your neurologist and request the neurologist refer you to see a neuropsychologist.  A neuropsychologist is a subset of neurology and this practitioner is critical in determining whether your diffuse cerebral dysfunction and cognitive deficits are traumatically induced (caused by your accident) or not.

You, the injured person, is the only one who truly knows your body and mind and it is important to be aware of the warning signs of this undiagnosed condition of minor traumatic brain injury.  If gone untreated this traumatic injury could have long lasting or permanent effects.  It is important to note that the impact sustained in the accident does not necessarily need to be a major one.  Seemingly minor jerking motions can, and often do, result in minor traumatic brain injury.  A lawyer experienced in these types of cases is a good ally to have.

If you or anyone you know was involved in an accident and believe minor traumatic brain injury is the cause of suffering please call the traumatic brain injury lawyers right away.

The following article describes the complexities lawyers experienced in these cases are required to navigate through to fight and win on behalf of their clients.

01/31 – National Legal News

A mother and father from Honolulu filed a medical malpractice lawsuit against Tripler Army Medical Center earlier this month for actions that they claim resulted in their daughter’s bilateral cerebral palsy.

Bilateral cerebral palsy is a heartbreaking and very debilitation result to a doctors mistake.  It typically involves countless years of struggle for both the family and the child victimized both physically, emotionally and economically.

David and Celia McCraw allege that while Celia was in labor with their daughter, Kayla, a fetal heart monitor revealed that the child began to experience severe heart rate decelerations. The parents claim in their lawsuit that these symptoms indicated that Kayla was suffering from a severe lack of oxygen, and that a Caesarian section birth should have been performed.

It always blows my mind how a doctor, in this day and age, would not simply perform a Caesarian section birth at the first sign of heart rate abnormalities.

Celia McCraw stayed in labor a total of 10 hours before giving birth, at which point it was discovered that Kayla’s umbilical cord was wrapped tightly around her neck, the McCraws allege. In an effort to resuscitate Kayla, a breathing tube was placed down her throat; however, the lawsuit alleges that the tube was placed into Kayla’s esophagus instead of her trachea. It was roughly 30 minutes before the mistake was discovered.

Complacency is the plague of our society.  There should never be a time when a doctor should put his or her guard down during a delivery or during a woman’s pregnancy for that matter.

The McCraws are suing for unspecified damages. Kayla suffers from bilateral cerebral palsy and requires physical, occupational, and speech therapy.

My heart goes out to the McCraws.  There is nothing that we can do to reverse the heartache they have undergone.  But what lawyers can do is make our clients lives easier by vigorously litigating birthing injury cases like this.  The monetary compensation they receive will pay for the exorbitant life time expenses they will incur in medical costs and care for their child who has been victimized by this horrific medical malpractice.

Tripler Army Medical Center has not commented on the lawsuit.

If you or anyone you know has a child suffering from cerebral palsy, bilateral cerebral palsy, erbs palsy or any type of palsy please contact the aggressive, caring lawyers at 1(800)WE-FIGHT for a free consultation or email us for a free confidential consultation right away.  Do not delay, the law limits the amount of time you have to file a claim.  Please feel free to visit the resources of our website if you have questions on what cerebral palsy, erbs palsy or any type of palsy is or what causes cerebral or erbs palsy.

It is important to realized that diffuse cerebral dysfunction comes in two type, reversible and irreversible.  Whether it is traumatically induced or not is for a doctor to determine.  But it is critical that a person injured in an accident know the warning signgs which are, including but not limited to: difficulty concentrating, mood swings, short term memory loss (becoming suddenly forgetful about things), headaches and difficulty sleeping.

A shocking fact about minor traumatic brain injury is that the accident does not require a violent impact.  A simple jerk of the neck or bump on the head can cause it and result in a lifetime of struggle and permanent damage.  Once an injured accident victim understands the risks and realizes they need to see a doctor immediate examination by a doctor and treatment (if needed)  is critical.  A doctor known as a neurologist and then a neuropsychologist is the appropriate medical professional to see.  I would advise to first see your primary care doctor with your symptoms or complaints and have him or her determine whether a referral to a neurologist is the correct medical strategy.

If you or a loved one is experience the above symptoms and believe you might have minor traumatic brain injury from an accident your were involved in call an experienced brain injury lawyer right away.  The longer you wait the more difficult it will be to make you whole again.

The headline in the Sun reads: N.Y. Doctors Could See $50,000 Fee: ‘Surcharge’ Would Rescue Malpractice Insurers.

The scary headline comes from an interview with Superintendent Eric Dinallo, who is running a task force to address the insurance “crisis” that hit when New York jumped its medical malpractice premiums 14% this year. The reasons for the jump are an issue I addressed earlier, and are a function of state mis-management during the George Pataki years (see: Why New York Medical Malpractice Insurance Jumped 14%.) Among the many reasons were artificially low rates (set by the state) and Governor Pataki taking (with legislative approval) about $700 million from a malpractice rainy day fund to help balance the state budget.

The screaming headline in the paper (front page, above the fold) it should be noted, had nothing whatsoever to do with rising malpractice claims or payouts. Those have remained stable for many years. No, the reason for the headline is the state-created shortfall, and the ways they are trying to fix the system they broke.

One method of trying to “fix” the system, of course, is to break it further by trying to blame lawsuits for the problem. We see these types of complaints all the time. If only the health care workers would be given some form of immunity for negligence, it is argued, all would be well with our health care system. Because, as everyone knows, nothing forces a person to act responsibly better than grants of various forms of immunity or protection.

Public Citizen recently put out a report on the faux crisis. It is a devastating indictment of the state’s mismanagement and puts to bed the phony claims that problems are related to lawyers and lawsuits. It also points the finger where it belongs and makes its own suggestions on how to remedy the problems.

Some more facts from the Public Citizen report:

• There have been fewer medical malpractice payments in the past five years than in any five-year period on record;
• Amounts paid out, when adjusted for inflation and population, have either risen slightly in the past five years or declined slightly, depending on the measure used;
• Only about 1 percent of New York’s doctors are enrolled in the state’s program for physicians deemed too risky by commercial insurance providers. Yet these doctors’ payments have been so massive that they and other losses have drowned the program in more than $500 million in red ink this decade;
• A sliver of doctors are responsible for nearly half of the dollars paid out for medical
  malpractice in New York. Physicians who made three or more malpractice payments
  between 1990 and 2006 — accounting for no more than 4 percent of New York’s
  doctors — were responsible for nearly half (49.6 percent) of medical malpractice
  dollars paid out on behalf of doctors in the time period.
• Costs for cases involving brain damage, blamed by some for rising insurance rates,
  are in fact modest in comparison with other types of cases. The category for injuries
  including brain damage ranks 5th of 10 in total amounts paid out. This fact exposes
  the lunacy of the radical proposal to deprive newborn babies of their legal rights and
  cede their care to a state-run fund.
• Researchers have found that premiums consistently make up only a small percentage
  of doctors’ total expenses and that rising premiums have not, historically, depressed
  physicians’ incomes.

The state’s Department of Health’s Office of Professional Medical Conduct has been notoriously lax when it comes to doctor discipline. Just last month it was revealed that it waited three years to alert the public that a doctor was using dirty siringes of multi dose vials thereby contaminating the vials and exposing hundreds of people to infections. According to the Public Citizen study, New York’s comptroller found that the Office of Professional Medical Conduct failed to investigate about 175 doctors for whom investigations should have been triggered based on the agency’s existing criteria.

Frankly, if we have an insurance crisis because the state took $700 million to balance the budget in tough years, and we have a small percentage of doctors responsible for so much of the damage, then it is a no-brainer on how to equitably fix the problem. It isn’t by a $50K surcharge on doctors, a scare tactic if ever I saw one. And it isn’t be restricting access to the courts for those that have been injured by negligence.

It’s by doing two basic things: Taking the money back from the general fund where it had disappeared to and investigating the few bad doctors that do so much of the damage and putting them out of business. It means a responsible government engaging in good health policy by policing the medical force and using sound budgetary policy instead of shell games.

Fault here lies not with the vast majority of doctors, nor with the patients that were injured or their representatives. It lies with former governor and the legislature. The problems have been identified and the proper solutions offered. The state should do the right thing and fix the problem appropriately, without injuring those that are most involved.

If you have been injured by medical malpractice contact the aggressive, caring lawyers at 1(800)WE-FIGHT today.

Ataxic cerebral palsy is a type of cerebral palsy that affects 5% to 10% of the persons suffering from cerebral palsy.  Ataxic cerebral palsy is the least common form.  Typically, it is caused by damage to the base of the brain known as the cerebellum.  Ataxic cerebral palsy usually affects all four limbs and the individual suffering from the condition appears unsteady and shaky.

If anyone you know is suffering from ataxic cerebral palsy please call a ataxic cerebral palsy attorney today for a free consultation.  It is our mission  to answer any questions you may have and determine whether ataxic cerebral palsy was the resulf of medical malpractice.

It is important to know the warning signs or symptoms and go the a neurologist who will be thourough in his examination and take a full history.  Moreover, choosing the right lawyer who is experienced in these types of injuries and cases is critical.

If you or a loved one has been in a car accident or any type of accident and you suspect minor traumatic brain injury please call the New York Brain Injury Lawyers for a free consultation at 1(800)WE-FIGHT.  Do not delay as the law limits the amount of time you have to file a claim.

This test is critical but one of many tests that are used to determine the cognitive deficits, if any, that exist in a person complaining of traumatic injuries to the head or neck.

Obtaining the right medical treatment is vital.  The first step is to see a neurologist and, if he sees fit, he or she will refer you to a neuropsychologist for further testing of your cognitive status.

Hiriing the right New York lawyer experienced in traumatic brain injury cases is almost equally important as the doctor you choose.  If you do not the lawyer may not place the right value or seriousness of your case.  That can have disastrous effects on the settlement or verdict value of your case.

If you or a loved one has suffered traumatic brain injury as a result of a car accident or any type of accident please call the New York Traumatic Brain Lawyers at 1(800)WE-FIGHT.  A lawyer is standing by to speak to you right now absolutely free.