New parents generally don’t expect to leave the hospital with an infant who has major medical issues. Especially when prenatal care showed healthy development for all 40 weeks of gestation, parents expect to go home with a healthy newborn.
Unfortunately, the reality may not align with those expectations. Errors made by medical professionals during labor and delivery can have catastrophic consequences for unborn children and their parents. Delays in medical interventions and other mistakes can lead to cerebral palsy, hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE) and other birth injuries.
Families may have the option of pursuing a medical malpractice lawsuit to request compensation for increased lifetime care costs for their child and the lost wages and earning potential of parents who may have to make career sacrifices to act as caregivers. The prenatal care that an expectant mother has received before the birth of the child could help validate that a birth injury involving brain damage was the result of medical professionals’ errors during labor and delivery.
Imaging records can show healthy development
Prenatal ultrasounds are about more than learning the baby’s sex or validating appropriate placement before active labor begins. They help track the development of the infant and can show that the infant is healthy. If there are ultrasound records from the last trimester of development, they can potentially show that there were no signs of significant brain damage prior to labor.
While ultrasounds are not the ideal method of identifying and quantifying brain injuries, ultrasound images and videos can show that the brain is healthy and developing normally or reveal early warning signs of injuries. Comparing prenatal scans to imaging test results from after birth can help validate the claim that care issues during labor and delivery contributed to the brain injury developing.
The review of an outside medical professional and an attorney may be necessary to validate that what occurred was malpractice. Generally speaking, parents hoping to pursue a birth injury medical malpractice claim also need to establish that the professionals attending to them engaged in negligent behavior or failed to do something necessary for a safe delivery.
Reviewing medical records with a skilled legal team can help parents determine if they are in a position to pursue a medical malpractice lawsuit.