Parents of children with cerebral palsy (CP) deserve answers. One of their most common questions is, "How and why did this happen?" One of the possible answers to this question is medical malpractice, also known as med mal.
Medical malpractice occurs when medical providers, including but not limited to doctors, do not live up to the duty of care they owe their clients.
If your child has been diagnosed with cerebral palsy, a medical malpractice attorney can provide the answers you deserve. An effective lawyer may even secure compensation that holds liable parties accountable and covers medical expenses, caregiver costs, pain and suffering, and other damages.
Call the Cerebral Palsy Lawyer Alliance today at 888-894-9067 for your free consultation about how a cerebral palsy med mal lawyer will fight for you and your child.
What Is Medical Malpractice, and How Can It Cause Cerebral Palsy?
Medical malpractice is negligence in the field of medicine. Because the stakes of medicine are so high-life, death, and the ramifications of birth injuries among them-negligence in the medical field warrants its own terms. It's called medical malpractice.
Many types of medical malpractice can contribute to or directly cause cerebral palsy and other birth injuries. Examples of such negligence include:
Practicing Medicine When Unfit to Do So
Patients assume their medical providers are physically and intellectually fit to provide top-tier care. They also assume that their providers are properly educated, well-trained, and not impaired.
However, tragic outcomes like birth injuries do result from:
- Medical providers (including doctors, nurses, and anesthesiologists) who lack necessary education or training
- Medical providers impaired by drugs, alcohol, health problems, or other hazards
- Hospitals and other facilities failing to monitor providers to ensure they are fit to care for pregnant women and deliver children
Both medical professionals and their employers must admit when a doctor, nurse, or other provider is unfit. Otherwise, those unfit providers can cause tragic outcomes.
Practicing Medicine in Unsafe Conditions
Hospital-acquired infections are a multi-billion-dollar problem, indicating that countless medical facilities fail to ensure cleanliness. If your child's cerebral palsy resulted from an infection, you can sue over unsterile conditions.
Failing to Properly Diagnose and Treat Prenatal Conditions
Approximately 795,000 Americans die or become permanently disabled because of diagnostic errors every year, and children are not immune from the consequences of a medical provider's failure to diagnose accurately.
Those who provide prenatal care have a duty to:
- See the mother regularly.
- Conduct a thorough examination, including all necessary imaging of the baby.
- Actively look for issues, like umbilical cord-related problems and infections, that can lead to cerebral palsy.
- Alert the parent(s) of any possible problems concerning the mother, the child, or both.
- Urgently and properly recommend treatment for any problems, including those that can result in CP.
When protecting a newborn, prenatal care is just as important as delivery. If any mistake or oversight during the prenatal stage may have contributed to your child's cerebral palsy, your attorney will document that failure as they build your case.
Making Errors with Forceps, Vacuum Devices, or the Doctor's Own Hands
Direct trauma can cause brain damage that results in cerebral palsy. Such trauma can happen when a doctor uses forceps or a vacuum device without proper care. This is a clear instance of medical malpractice that can make the doctor and their employer financially liable.
Not Ordering an Emergency C-Section
If a child's life or health is in danger, performing an emergency Cesarean section (C-section), delivery is often the conservative, safety-conscious approach. If the doctor who delivered your child did not order this course of action, they may have committed malpractice.
These are only a few examples of how medical malpractice can cause cerebral palsy. Your cerebral palsy medical malpractice attorney will investigate your case's unique details and identify all malpractice instances.
Who Can I Hold Financially Responsible for My Child's Cerebral Palsy (and Related Damages)?
Your lawyer will identify all parties with financial liability for the immense harm you and your child experience because of their cerebral palsy. Some common defendants in medical malpractice cases include:
- Medical facilities: Medical facilities, including hospitals, have general liability for events that happen in their confines. This includes instances of malpractice. These facilities often employ doctors and others who commit malpractice, which is another reason they are often liable for preventable outcomes like a child's cerebral palsy.
- Doctors: Doctors who care for pregnant women and deliver children are often directly accountable for medical malpractice. The lawyers in our network may sue a doctor and their employer if the doctor is responsible for your child's CP.
- Medical device manufacturers: You can hold the manufacturer liable if a defective or dangerous medical device (such as forceps) contributed to your child's injury.
Other parties, like nurses and imaging specialists, can also contribute to birth injuries, including cerebral palsy. Your cerebral palsy med mal attorney will consider all relevant information and evidence to determine who to sue in your medical malpractice case.
A Cerebral Palsy Med Mal Lawyer Can Hold Medical Professionals Accountable for Their Failures
We Have Seen the Toll of Cerebral Palsy. The Alliance's Lawyers Can Demand Fair Compensation for You and Your Child
The Cerebral Palsy Lawyer Alliance focuses on helping parents of children with cerebral palsy. This mission has brought us into contact with many distinct cases of cerebral palsy, so the lawyers in our network understand the wide range of challenges the condition often causes children and their parents.
Your cerebral palsy medical malpractice attorney will seek compensation that reflects the full extent of your and your child's suffering. The challenges that result from cerebral palsy often include:
Pain and Suffering Affecting the Child
The term debilitating fits the symptoms often caused by cerebral palsy. Children with CP often face severe physical symptoms, including muscle spasms, tension, and acute pain. The physical symptoms of cerebral palsy can also cause:
- Emotional anguish
- Psychological distress
- Lost quality of life
- Lost sleep
- Depression (as they get older)
- Anxiety
Your child may also have developmental delays, stunted growth, and other conditions that qualify as pain and suffering. Trust your attorney to learn about your child's hardships and fight for justice on their behalf.
Pain and Suffering Affecting the Parents
From the moment you learn that your child has cerebral palsy, your pain and suffering as a parent becomes immediate and severe. For most parents, the pain and suffering is long-lasting, even as you become used to life caring for a child with CP.
Some types of pain and suffering parents of disabled children face include:
- Depression and despair
- Feelings of intense anguish when they see their child suffering
- Lost quality of life
- Substance use issues
- Post-traumatic stress disorder (which can come from traumatic childbirth, learning the news that their child will be disabled, or other circumstances)
The traumatizing effects of cerebral palsy are not limited to the child. The birth injury forever changes parents' lives, and pain and suffering can be acute and long-lasting.
Healthcare Expenses
Those with cerebral palsy need care, both as children and adults. While your child's treatment needs may evolve and change over the years, they will almost certainly need consistent treatment for their condition.
Treatment for cerebral palsy can include:
- Physical examinations
- Surgeries
- Medications
- Muscle and nerve injections
You may also face the cost of diagnostic procedures to diagnose cerebral palsy. Your attorneys will calculate the cost of all medical services your child has received. The Alliance's lawyers will also consult medical experts to determine their future medical needs and associated costs.
Rehabilitation and Therapy Costs
Much of caring for someone with cerebral palsy involves symptom management. Therapy and rehabilitation, therefore, may be a significant feature of your child's future.
Our team will determine the therapy and treatment your child needs, the cost of such services, and related costs like transportation. Again, medical professionals will explain the nature and cost of your child's rehab- and therapy-specific needs.
Caregiver Costs (Which May Include Changes to Your Career)
Those with CP often struggle to care for themselves, even as young people and adults. This may mean:
- You need to hire a part- or full-time caregiver to assist in caring for your child.
- You may need to leave your career, reduce your hours, or change roles to dedicate time to caring for your child (even once they are an adult).
- You must hire a caregiver and take a step back from your career.
Each of these possibilities comes at a cost. Our team will determine that cost and seek fair compensation from liable parties.
The Cost of Caring for Your Child When They Are an Adult
Parents are expected to pay the cost of housing, clothing, food, and other necessities for a child. However, most parents do not anticipate having to pay for these essentials when their child is an adult.
Many parents of children with cerebral palsy must care for their child as an adult. The Alliance's lawyers will consider the severity of your child's condition. If their case is serious enough that they may need to live with you as an adult, the lawyers in our network will reflect that fact in settlement demands.
A Med Mal Lawyer Will Handle Your Case While You Care for Your Child
Parents of children with cerebral palsy don't have much time to spare. In almost every case, the thought of handling a lawsuit on their own is out of the question. If you want justice, you should hire an attorney to fight for it.
Our team will oversee every aspect of your case, including:
Documenting How Medical Malpractice Caused Your Child's CP
Your attorneys will trace the link between the liable parties' medical malpractice, your child's cerebral palsy, and the damages your family is suffering. The lawyers in our network will:
- Secure any relevant records from the negligent medical provider (filing a letter of spoliation if necessary, which requires liable parties to preserve evidence).
- Hire medical experts to testify to the liable parties' negligence.
- Take all other available measures to prove that medical malpractice caused cerebral palsy.
The lawyers in our network have led many cerebral palsy medical malpractice cases, so they understand the types of evidence that may be useful to your case.
Detailing Your and Your Child's Damages
Your cerebral palsy med mal attorney will secure all available proof of your and your child's damages, which may include:
- Medical bills and records related to your child's cerebral palsy
- Mental health professionals' diagnoses of the pain and suffering your family is enduring
- Invoices related to caregiver costs and other CP-related expenses
- Bills related to the negligent medical care that contributed to the cerebral palsy (you may deserve compensation for such expenses)
Your attorney will make clear how medical malpractice has harmed you and your child.
Demanding a Fair Settlement from Insurers or Negligent Medical Providers
Our team will strive to secure a settlement so you can move forward with your life as soon as possible. However, this will require liable parties to take accountability and agree to our settlement terms.
The lawyers in our network are prepared to:
- Show our evidence that medical malpractice caused your child's birth injury
- Present all documentation of your economic and non-economic damages
- Present irrefutable calculations of your damages
- Stand pat behind our settlement demands
Financial security is directly tied to well-being. By securing a fair settlement, the Alliance's lawyers can ensure that your child and family have the necessary care, services, and financial support.
If liable parties do not offer a fair settlement, your cerebral palsy medical malpractice lawyer will take your case to court.
Call the Cerebral Palsy Lawyer Alliance Today for a Free, No-Risk Consultation
Medical malpractice cases take time to construct, and your lawyers may face a deadline for filing a lawsuit against liable parties. Call the Cerebral Palsy Lawyer Alliance today at 888-894-9067 for your free consultation about hiring a cerebral palsy med mal lawyer. Contact us today!