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Birth Injury Due to Medical Malpractice in Florida: What are Your Legal Options?
Childbirth is the most anticipated time for expectant parents, especially the mother. She carries the child in her womb for nine months and goes through pain all this time so that one day she can give birth to her little angel. Will the baby look like her dad or her mom? What will their personality be like? What will we name them? These are the questions that are normally going through the parents minds. But, no one thinks about what’ll happen if their baby is injured during birth. Accidents and injuries during childbirth are a very real thing and they can lead to serious consequences for the child.
Types of Childbirth Injuries
Brain and head injuries are the most common types of birth injuries. Some head injuries that may occur around or during birth include:
Swelling, scratches and bruising to the scalp
Subgaleal hemorrhage
Skull fractures
Bleeding in the brain
In addition to these injuries, nerve injuries and bone injuries are also common during birth.
Medical Malpractice
While many childbirth injuries are unavoidable, some occur due to medical malpractice. Medical malpractice refers to the negligence on the part of a healthcare provider and nearly 5,000 people die in Florida every year due to medical malpractice. When a medical provider isn’t able to uphold the standard of treatment and care that a reasonably prudent medical expert would under similar conditions/circumstances, it is considered medical malpractice.
Injured individual may file a medical malpractice lawsuit against surgeons, doctors, nurses, or other medical staff, as well as the medical facility. The person who suffered the injury usually files the lawsuit. In case a minor child gets injured or if the injury is severe, family members can sue on their behalf.
If you want to file a medical malpractice lawsuit, you are generally required to do so within four years from the date of the injury. Birth injuries are an exception to this rule as you can file a claim up to the eighth birthday of your child.
An important thing to keep in mind is that like other personal injury lawsuits, medical practice cases are also subject to Florida’s comparative negligence standard. This means that if you were partially responsible for your injury, you may still sue the negligent provider, but any financial compensation will be reduced by the percentage of blame that you bear for the injury.
Contact an Experienced West Palm Beach Personal Injury Attorney
If you believe that medical malpractice is the cause behind your child’s birth injury, contact the experienced personal injury attorneys of the Shiner Law Group. They specialize in personal injury cases including medical malpractice lawsuits and can help you file a claim against the negligent healthcare provider or medical facility to receive compensation from them.
