Birth defects or injuries are devastating to parents and families, especially when these injuries are caused by operating room negligence or poor judgement on a doctor’s part. Birth injury lawyers are sometimes needed to gain the compensation necessary to pay for the treatment a child will have to receive for life after a birth injury.
Birth Injury Lawyers Warn About Shoulder Dystocia
Shoulder Dystocia causes very a traumatic birthing process for both mother and child. Shoulder Dystocia occurs when the anterior shoulder gets stuck behind the mother’s pelvic bone after the baby’s head enters the birth canal. There are risks for serious birth injuries to the baby when Shoulder Dystocia occurs, but there are prevalent warning signs to help the doctor predict when it could happen. 
There are also strategies to employ once healthcare professionals realize shoulder dystocia is occurring during the birth process.
There are many birth injuries that arise from shoulder dystocia. The major complications happen when the upper brachial plexus nerves of the baby are damaged from excess stress during labor. This excess stress may tear the nerve roots out from the neonatal spinal column, resulting in Klumpke Paralysis or Erb’s Palsy. Klumpke Paralysis (or Klumpke Palsy) is paralysis to the muscles of the forearm and hand and Erb’s palsy is a paralysis of the arm. The baby could also suffer death or brain damage from fetal hypoxia, which is the deprivation of sufficient oxygen supply resulting from compression of the umbilical cord within the birth canal. The injury risks are not limited to the baby alone since the mother may experience maternal post partum hemorrhage, which is internal bleeding from the added stress during delivery.
Birth Injury Lawyers Stress Prevention
Doctors must recognize the warning signs for shoulder dystocia to prevent a difficult labor and the serious birth injuries that it can cause. The warning signs include a large baby, delivery after the baby’s due date, mother’s who have had shoulder dystocia or a very large baby in a past delivery, and mother’s with gestational diabetes. The doctor must be quick to notice signs of shoulder dystocia during labor so excessive force is not used which could lead to birth injury. There are number of methods available to doctor delivering a baby with shoulder dystocia, and those methods should be utilized to prevent potentially fatal birth injuries.
Birth Injury Lawyers in New Jersey and Philadelphia
If you are the parent of a child who suffers from the effects of a birth injury, and you believe that injury may have been caused by delivery room negligence, contact the Mininno Law Office for a free case evaluation. Our birth injury lawyers are skilled in warning the full and fair compensation needed to pay for the expensive medical needs of a child living with the effects of a birth injury. You may also call for a free consultation at (856) 833-0600 in New Jersey, or (215) 567-2380 in Philadelphia.
Let the team at the Mininno Law Office earn you the compensation you need and deserve.
This post is the third in a series of posts dealing with the most common form of nursing home abuse – the development of pressure ulcers and bedsores. In our previous two posts, we discussed the 
The Ginisi’s (Lauren, 59 and Joseph, 63) filed suit three years ago, after Joseph suffered multiple misdiagnoses at St. Vincent’s. In 2004, Joe Ginisi called his wife Laura complaining of feeling lighted headed and dizzy. At the hospital, doctors diagnosed him with vertigo and sent him home with a prescription and an order to follow-up. By February 5, his condition had worsened. He couldn’t speak on his own, and was going blind. 
The medical research is showing that these hip implants need to be removed much sooner than traditional hip implants. In addition, because these recalled hips are shedding chromium and cobalt metals into the bloodstream, research suggests that these patients will have significant inflammation and injuries to surrounding tissues and structures. Who knows what long-term damage this metal will have on these patients. Finally, these chromium and cobalt metals are circulating with the patient’s bloodstream. Again, who knows what damage these metals will have on a patient’s circulatory system, the heart or the brain.
The proposed legislation would deem doctors treating medicare patients “agents of the state,” awarding the same damage capping immunity that all Florida state employees get. But a cap that only affects the recoveries of Medicare insured patients is unconstitutional, as it makes them lesser persons, unworthy of the same compensation as those that can afford healthcare. Medical malpractice attorneys have long been against limiting liability, as it allows doctors to only answer for a portion of their negligence. And if a cap on medicare insured patients is approved, who is to say what kind of an effect that will have on the care they receive throughout the state. It certainly opens up a potential for medicare patients to begin receiving subpar care due to the limited liablity doctors will face.
In the Johnson & Johnson subsidary’s first press release, which was sent out on August 26, 2010, they boasted that they would cover “reasonable and customary costs of monitoring and treatment for services.” This was their first “offer” of compensation. This vague statement really meant nothing. DePuy refused to even acknowledge whether or not they would cover lost wages, medical expenses, or any other of the typical compensatory damages that defective product makers are required to pay to makeup for the harm they cause to their patients. In this case, if you are one of the 93,000 DePuy ASR hip implant patients and your hip implant has failed, or you are concerned about metal poisoning your system, you will likely need a second hip implant surgery. 
Haley Cobb was diagnosed with cerebral palsy shortly after her vaginal birth. Upon further investigation, it was determined that the doctor, Dr. Tara Shipman, should have performed a c-section. Failure to do so caused oxygen deprivation to Haley’s brain, and led to cerebral palsy. A 15 day trial in October won Haley’s parents, Okey and Debra Cobb, $13.9 million dollars. Also enforced was a $6.5 million dollar settlement the Cobb’s reached with other parties pre-suit. All in all, the Cobbs will receive $20.4 million for the lifetime of care and special medical necessities for their daughter, Haley.
As a DePuy recall lawyer, we tell our clients that it means nothing. Why? Because before any claims for compensation are considered, DePuy, who admittedly designed, manufactured, and sold for profit a defective hip implant to 93,000 patients, is requiring those patients to first pay for their medical expenses upfront. That’s right, if your hip implant has failed, and you need treatment or surgery, you first have to send your bills to your own health insurance company and, if you don’t have private insurance, Medicaid or Medicare. DePuy will only then consider a claim for reimbursement for any out of-pocket expenses and deductibles that are not being covered by your health insurance, Medicaid, or Medicare.