San Antonio Birth Injury Attorney

San Antonio Birth Injury Lawyer Michael Grossman Discusses the Legal Ramifications and Signs of Common Birth Injuries

The medical profession, including doctors, nurses, pharmacists, hospitals, clinics, and anyone else working in a health-related capacity, is subject to the Texas laws of medical malpractice and medical negligence.

In Texas, medical malpractice is a general term describing any type of medical injury a patient sustains. Birth injuries are one type of medical malpractice and cover injuries or negligent behavior toward expectant mothers and their baby. Often, birth injuries are caused by obstetricians, delivery teams, nurses, hospitals, and intake personnel, but may also include midwives and other birthing professionals.

Birth injury cases can affect two people: the mother and the child. Because a single act may cause a birth injury yet may harm two parties, birth injury cases are inherently complex and require a highly experienced birth injury attorney and birth injury legal team to properly sort through medical records and all evidence in order to name the parties responsible for injuries sustained by the mother and child - as well as any subsequent injuries that may have occurred.

Birth injury cases fall into two types:

• A doctor, nurse, or other medical professional fails to properly diagnose or provide adequate treatment to an expecting mother, fetus, or newborn baby, resulting in harm to the mother or child.
• A doctor, nurse, or other medical professional or health institution acts outside accepted professional norms, either negligently or recklessly, resulting in harm to the mother or child.

Within the first type of birth injury case are the harms suffered while a baby is in utero, such a maternal medication interactions or the failure to properly diagnose or treat injuries to the mother or child immediately after birth. Many birth injury cases affecting the mother fall into this category.

Within the second type of birth injury case are injuries at or around the time of birth, including during labor, during delivery, or immediately following the birth of the child. Most birth injuries affecting the newborn child fall into this type of case, including injuries leading to cerebral palsy, brachial plexus nerve injuries, shoulder dystocia, brain injuries, disfigurement, and other neurological, skeletal, or muscular injuries.

Often, birth injuries are suspected or identified by medical professionals at the time of birth, but this information is rarely disclosed to new parents. Medical personnel instead wait to disclose this information, delaying a diagnosis until the child is old enough to indicate something is wrong, until developmental delays are evident, or until the injury heals itself. A delay in diagnosis is like a ticking bomb - the earlier a diagnosis, the sooner a mother or child can undergo treatment and begin therapy leading to a much brighter outlook long-term. Delaying a diagnosis may be a sign of obstetrician (OB) medical malpractice or other birth professional medical malpractice.

Do you suspect a possible birth injury occurred during pregnancy, during labor, during delivery or birth of your child? In many instances, birth injuries are preventable and caused by the negligence of your doctor or delivery team. Contact our San Antonio birth injury attorney and our expert medical review staff for answers - and options. Though these injuries are preventable, when they occur, they can be life-altering, not only for you, but the your child and your family. Our San Antonio birth injury legal team will review your medical records throughout your pregnancy and consult with medical experts to determine whether your doctor, your nurse, your obstetrician, your midwife, or another medical professional was negligent or reckless with your child’s health and well-being. Contact us today at 1-855-393-0000 (toll free) for your personal, private consultation with our birth injury attorneys and birth injury medical legal team.

Grossman Law Offices has seen cases where the affected family did not want to sue or litigate against their doctor. Not wanting to litigate a claim did not mean that the family didn’t seek compensation - they preferred a mediated settlement and apologies with the parties responsible for the birth injuries and cerebral palsy. Our San Antonio birth injury attorneys and medical support team pride themselves on providing a variety of options for you and your family. In many cases, the doctor responsible was a family friend or the family was part of a small community where the family wasn’t comfortable pursuing a lawsuit - but the family still needed and wanted answers and some level of compensation for their child’s injuries and resulting long-term care. Our clients are family at Grossman Law Offices and we empathize with the struggles a family has when trying to make the best decision for their child. Contact us today for your confidential consultation and to speak with our birth injury attorneys at 1-855-393-0000 (toll free).

Signs of Birth Injuries

We at Grossman Law Offices frequently hear the same questions from concerned parents again and again: how can we tell if there is a birth injury? How can we tell if it’s a normal injury or an abnormal injury to our child? How can we tell if these injuries are the doctor’s fault or a nurse’s fault?

Our answer: it’s very difficult to answer these questions without reviewing all the medical records, transcripts and witness accounts. Each birth is special and very different from other experiences. Babies are born with soft, flexible bones and travel through a tight birth canal. Minor injuries are to be expected in the birthing process, especially for vaginal birth and deliveries.

However, our San Antonio birth injury attorneys and medical legal experts have put together a list of signs and symptoms for both normal and abnormal injuries. This list describes common signs and symptoms of larger injuries, both normal and abnormal, that occur during pregnancy, labor, delivery, birth, and after birth of the child.

Signs of Normal Birth Injuries to a Newborn

• Bruising: the birthing process will often result in minor swelling and bruising along the scalp, forehead, nose and neck. If the baby is delivered in a breech position, bruising may occur on the baby’s hips, buttocks, and legs. Bruises usually clear up in a matter of days after birth; bruises lasting longer than a week is a sign for concern.
  • Abnormal sign: if bruising is wide-spread or causes lumps or depressions in the skull, the newborn should be carefully monitored for several days until bruising recedes or other medical action is taken. Abnormal bruising can suggest birth injuries from instruments used to extract the newborn and may be a cause for medical malpractice.
• Pink marks: these marks are usually referred to as “stork bites,” and are merely small clumps of dilated capillaries that form a small birthmark on the skin. Stork bites are usually present along the forehead, eyelids, and back of the neck. These birthmarks usually fade and clear up on their own as the infant grows older and are not a cause for concern.
• Little white cysts: diagnosed as milia, these little white cysts appear as tiny pimples across the nose, cheeks, and forehead of a newborn child. They are simply clogged sweat gland ducts. This condition clears up on its own in a few weeks.
• Broken bones: newborns with broken collarbones (clavicle bone) are rare, but don’t usually suggest malpractice on the part of the delivery team.
  • Abnormal: Other broken bones, especially arms, legs, and shoulders, are a warning sign for future long-term birth injuries.

Signs of an Abnormal Pregnancy, Delivery or Possible Birth Injury Malpractice

Did You Know?

Our San Antonio birth injury attorneys have won thousands of cases. Call us today to discuss your case. 1-855-393-0000

During pregnancy, your obstetrician (OB), birthing consultant, or other medical professional:

• Did not adequately track, treat, or warn you of developing or existing medical conditions and their effect on your child, including hypertension, preeclampsia, diabetes, prolonged nausea and vomiting leading to malnutrition, or other long-term, treatable maternal conditions.
• Did not adequately track, treat, or warn you of any complications or dangers present in your pregnancy, and take steps to prevent harms to you and your child, including any medicine or drug side effects and their effect on your baby. This is often seen with antidepressant medications, asthma medications, or other conditions requiring medicines, drugs, or general decreased bodily functions such as poor kidney function, weakened hearts and other conditions.

During labor, the medical staff and delivery team at the hospital or birthing center:

• Delayed hooking the mother up to fetal monitors.
• Disregarded data from the fetal monitors that showed fetal distress, usually seen with an abnormally high or low heart rate.
• Inappropriately, negligently, or recklessly misadministered an epidural, resulting in harm to the mother or newborn child; injury to the child is often evident with decreased breathing at the time of birth or failure of the lungs to inflate properly.

At the time of delivery:

• The baby was abnormally positioned. Abnormal positions cause a vaginal delivery to be difficult and dangerous, often leading to birth injury to both the mother and child.
• The baby was abnormally large and/or the birth canal was too small for the baby to pass through normally, yet the doctor performed a vaginal delivery anyway. In cases where the baby is too large to pass through the canal, instrumentation and complicated maneuvers are used, often to the detriment of mother and child.
• The doctor used instrumentation such as forceps, a pressurized vacuum, or other instrumentation which forcibly pull the baby through the birth canal and risk significant injury to both the mother and child, often in the form of head or brain injuries or brachial plexus injury.

At the time of birth:

• The baby shows symptoms of asphyxia (no oxygen in the blood) - pale in color, lifeless-looking, weakly breathing or not breathing at all, and a very slow heart rate.
• The baby shows symptoms of hypoxia (too little oxygen in the blood) - blue in color, weak or no breath, slow heart rate.
• The baby has low APGAR scores, or the doctor does not perform APGAR scoring. These scores are often significant evidence of injury to the child. Scoring takes place one minute after birth; score less than 5 at this time indicate the baby needs medical attention. Scores less than 4, at later intervals, suggest long-term neurological damage and a heightened risk for cerebral palsy.

After the birth of the child:

• The baby has no interest or little interest in feeding or exhibits problems with the instinctual feeding mechanics (suckling, grappling).
• The baby is lethargic, sluggish, or exhibits asymmetrical movements in the face, arms, or legs.
• After the birth, the baby shows signs, symptoms or is diagnosed with neurological seizures. Symptoms of newborn seizures include repetitive movements, prolonged or continuous sucking, drooling, or sticking the tongue out, rapid eye movements, long pauses in breathing, and rapid muscle jerks.

These are a few of the major warning signs that an injury may have occurred during pregnancy, during labor, during childbirth, or after birth of the child. This list is not conclusive - a full review of your particular situation is critical to determining whether a birth injury is due to medical malpractice or medical negligence.

Our advice to parents: trust your instincts. If something doesn’t seem right with your child or the way the medical staff is treating you or your child, start asking questions. Request your medical records from your prenatal doctor and all records from the hospital or birthing center where the child was born.

Then call Grossman Law Offices and have our independent medical experts review everything you’ve collected - and allow our staff to start asking questions and getting answers. We have more than twenty years of experience working with parents and families affected by medical malpractice. If nothing else, you and your family deserve answers. Call us now for your private consultation with our San Antonio birth injury attorneys and medical legal staff for a full review of your situation: 1-855-393-0000 (toll free).

Types of Birth Injuries

Birth injuries, a result of medical malpractice, can occur at three different times: during pregnancy, at child birth (including labor and delivery), or after birth.

During pregnancy, the two most typical birth injuries to mothers and fetuses are drug interactions and a failure for the prenatal doctor to monitor or treat existing conditions appropriately.

Teratogenic medicines are drugs that have side effects on a developing baby. Often these medicines are administered to the mother with no regard for their effects on the fetus, and can lead to significant detrimental effects on the baby, including improper organ development and altered blood and brain chemistry. Some medications have no known effects on developing babies, but many drugs are listed as teratogenic and it is the doctor’s responsibility to not prescribe, discontinue prescriptions, or warn the mother of potential birth defects due to these medications. If the doctor or pharmacist fails in this responsibility, the medical professional may be liable for resulting birth defects, birth injuries, and medical negligence.

Common drugs which should not be prescribed during pregnancy include: Albuterol, Singulair, Celexa, Lexapro, Effexor, Paxil, Prozac, Wellbutrin, Zoloft, Accutane, and Thalidomide.

Common maternal medical conditions which require significant warnings or different treatment during pregnancy include: asthma, diabetes, depression, stress and anxiety, cancer, skin conditions, hypertension, heart disease, bacterial infections requiring antibiotics, inflammatory bowel disease, and nausea and vomiting during pregnancy.

If a pregnant mother has a pre-existing condition or was diagnosed with a particular condition during pregnancy, such as hypertension, preeclampsia, or diabetes, it is a doctor’s responsibility to ensure that resulting treatment will minimally affect the developing child. Failure to monitor either maternal condition or developing child’s condition may lead to medical negligence for any resulting injuries, harms or aggravated conditions.

It is imperative to be proactive in these situations. Unsure whether your doctor is or has been negligent in your medical treatment or disregarded your child’s future health? Contact our San Antonio birth injury attorneys at Grossman Law Offices - call 1-855-393-0000 (toll free) for your complimentary consultation to determine whether your experience is due to San Antonio birth injury malpractice. Our medical experts and staff will determine whether your doctor was potentially negligent, will get you the answers your family deserves, and help provide you compensations for any medical professional mistakes or lapse in judgment - and protect other children from the same fate.

At the time of birth, there are several possible serious physical injuries that may result from medical negligence or medical malpractice. Birth injuries to the mother are often recognizable and usually caused by ripping, tearing, and disfigurement as a result of the baby passing through the birth canal. On their own, these injuries are rarely a result of medical negligence; however, improper diagnosis or treatment of these injuries can have life-long effects and these effects are legally actionable.

Birth injuries to a newborn child are much less recognizable by new parents. These physical injuries can include nerve damage, broken bones, severe bruising, blood clots and hemorrhages, head and brain injuries, and significant neuroskeletal damage. These serious injuries can lead to a later diagnosis of cerebral palsy, Erb’s palsy, brain damage, retardation, developmental delays, and disfigurement - all of which may have been preventable.

Birth Injury: Cerebral Palsy

Cerebral palsy is an umbrella condition used to describe a group of conditions affecting the coordination of muscles and bodily movement and posture. Cerebral palsy is often caused by brain injury that occurs anytime from the second trimester through two years of age. Injuries leading to cerebral palsy are to a very specific area of the brain.

Signs of cerebral palsy generally occur in the first year of the child’s life, though there may be early signs from the time of birth, including low APGAR scores, presence of seizures, and uneven or asymmetrical movements. All forms of cerebral palsy are treatable with continuous therapy; however, cerebral palsy is not curable.

There are four major types of cerebral palsy:

• Spastic cerebral palsy, characterized by stiff, spasm-like movement
• Ataxic cerebral palsy, characterized by a lack of depth perception and lack of balance
• Dyskinetic cerebral palsy, characterized by a lack of control of bodily movements
• Mixed cerebral palsy, characterized by stiff, involuntary movements

These types of cerebral palsy are correlated with the specific location of the brain injury during development of the brain. A brain injury may have been caused by a number of factors; in about a third of cases, this specific injury is sustained during the birth and delivery of the child. In many instances, the mistake or negligence of a doctor, obstetrician, nurse, or other medical professional may have caused the brain injuries resulting in cerebral palsy.

A diagnosis of cerebral palsy requires a lifetime of therapy, treatments and accommodations for your child and your family. These costs can spiral into the hundreds of thousands of dollars, even for mild forms of cerebral palsy. Few families can handle the costs associated with cerebral palsy treatments, even with great health insurance. And many parents wonder whether cerebral palsy could have been prevented.

The answer can be complex. A total review of your pregnancy, labor, delivery, and birth is essential to determine whether cerebral palsy could have been preventable and whether cerebral palsy was due to medical malpractice. At the very minimum, your family deserves answers and options after a cerebral palsy diagnosis. Contact Grossman Law Offices in San Antonio to speak with our birth injury attorneys and our medical legal support team to learn more about your family’s options after a cerebral palsy diagnosis. Call 1-855-393-0000 (toll free) for more information and a confidential review of your situation.

Birth Injury: Shoulder Dystocia, Shoulder Dystocia & Brachial Plexus Injuries

Shoulder dystocia is a childbirth condition where one shoulder of the baby gets caught and stuck in the birth canal. This condition occurs in about 20% of vaginal deliveries and results in serious, dangerous, and risky maneuvers and techniques in order to free the shoulder and birth the baby completely.

Should dystocia may be preventable in some instances with the use of an ultrasound to determine whether the baby is at risk for dystocia because of his or her size or position or because of a narrow maternal birth canal. If an ultrasound shows any of these conditions, a cesarean section (c-section) delivery should be used instead of a vaginal delivery. If a doctor does not utilize an ultrasound or proceeds with a vaginal delivery, shoulder dystocia may be enough to show medical malpractice. In many situations however, a separate birth injury to the child following shoulder dystocia is necessary to show medical malpractice.

Several birth injuries may result from shoulder dystocia, often affecting the stuck shoulder and surrounding bones, muscles, and nerves. Erb’s palsy, also referred to as brachial palsy, is a specific type of injury to a nerve bundle known as the brachial plexus. If this nerve bundle is injured during birth, the resulting injury is characterized by a loss of movement in the arm and shoulder with the affected nerves. In cases of Erb’s palsy, the nerve damage is caused by pulling the head away from the neck, a clear mistake on the part of the delivering doctor. Erb’s palsy is severe and has long-term effects. The child will never operate that shoulder and arm normally, nor will muscles fully develop in that shoulder and arm, creating life-long consequences for the child. Significant therapy, accommodations, and treatment may help the condition, but in many cases, these injuries and resulting conditions may have been prevented and are caused by a doctor’s mistake or negligence.

Other injuries resulting from shoulder dystocia can include head and brain injuries. When the baby is stuck in the birth canal, the child rarely receives adequate oxygen to the brain. The longer the child goes without adequate oxygen, the more likely a serious brain injury will occur, affecting the child for his or her entire life. Fetal monitors will often show a abnormally high heart rate when the baby is distressed, or not receiving enough oxygen, and with enough time, the heart rate will quickly plummet, risking the life of the baby. A situation where shoulder dystocia occurs and results in low APGAR scores as well as a white or blue appearance and lack of or minimal breathing at birth suggests serious brain and neurological injuries.

You need answers and options following shoulder dystocia at the birth of your child. An experienced San Antonio birth injury attorney can provide you the answers and options your family needs after a devastating diagnosis or risky delivery situation. Get the help you need with our birth injury legal experts - and get compensated for medical bills, adaptive technology and accommodations needed for your child, and physical therapy bills your child will incur as a result of a preventable Erb’s palsy, shoulder dystocia or brachial plexus injury. Call Grossman Law Offices in San Antonio at 1-855-393-0000 (toll free) for your free, confidential appointment with our birth injury attorneys and medical legal experts.

Our San Antonio birth injury attorneys and medical support team pride themselves on providing a variety of options for you and your family. In many cases, the doctor responsible was a family friend or the family was part of a small community where the family wasn’t comfortable pursuing a lawsuit - but the family still needed and wanted answers and some level of compensation for their child’s injuries and resulting long-term care. Our clients are family at Grossman Law Offices and we empathize with the struggles a family has when trying to make the best decision for their child. Contact us today for your confidential consultation and to speak with our birth injury attorneys at 1-855-393-0000 (toll free).

Birth Injury: Brain Injuries

Head injuries are a typical occurrence in the birth and delivery process. Swelling and bruising of the scalp and forehead are common minor injuries, the direct result of traveling through a tight birth canal. Newborns may also exhibit a pointed head due to the soft cranial skull bone surrounding the brain. However, because the skull is soft and flexible, brain injuries are quite possible - sometimes with traumatic results.

Overzealous use of forceps, improper canal pressure, and getting stuck in the birth canal can lead to blood clots and hemorrhages in the brain, hypoxia (lack of oxygen) leading to brain damage, skull fractures, and other serious brain-related injuries. Though many of these injuries are not preventable, improper diagnosis or treatment of these injuries will have serious effects on the life and abilities of the child. Because of this, these injuries may be a form of birth injury medical malpractice.

One of the most common signs of brain injury: asymmetrical body movement in the newborn child. Mothers will notice that one side of the face or the body does not respond or match the movements of the other side. This is described as a droopy smile or reflex movements (uncontrolled) rather than reactive movements (such as reaching for something). The affected side may be more sluggish to respond or does not respond at all in many forms of brain injuries. Correct and timely diagnoses are important while the child is developing so that treatments and therapies can begin at an early age, minimizing any effects from the brain injury as much as possible.

If your child exhibits any or all of these types of injuries, or you suspect your child may have several characteristics of these conditions, contact our San Antonio birth injury attorneys and medical legal team immediately. Grossman Law Offices retains medical experts to determine whether a doctor, nurse, or medical professional was a fault for these injuries and resulting conditions. If so, your family and your child are entitled to legal compensation for these injuries. Call us today at 1-855-393-0000 (toll free) to discuss your situation or birth injury case with our birth injury attorneys.

Birth Injury Cases

Because a San Antonio birth injury case is legally complex, a highly experienced birth injury attorney, a medical malpractice lawyer, birth injury medical experts, and a full support team are essential to your case. This team comes together with one goal in mind: to provide your family with answers and options for the injuries you, your child, and your family have sustained and endure every day.

Birth injury cases are a form of medical malpractice and medical negligence. This means that birth injury legal cases are particularly complex as many procedural nuances must be met - or you risk the court dismissing your case forever. In a birth injury case, a birth injury attorney must show that a doctor was negligent in the diagnosis, treatments, or actions and this negligence resulted in an injury to you or your child. However, determining whether a doctor was negligent requires expert doctors and medical professionals to say that the doctor was negligent. As you can imagine, this can be very tough to prove. The medical community is very reluctant to point fingers and declare anyone liable for their actions. Further, the medical community will hide behind science, declaring there is no definitive answer to prove a doctor caused an injury or harm and not enough scientific research to support any shred of liability against the doctor, nurse, or medical institution.

It’s also difficult to prove what happened during the pregnancy, labor, and birth of the child. Medical experts are necessary to review and interpret medical records of the mother and child as well as any notes, admissions, or statements made by medical staff or delivery team. The longer a doctor or medical professional waits to diagnose an injury or determine the extent of injury and resulting harms, the less likely evidence of wrong-doing will exist, whether it is lost, destroyed or purposely made unavailable. Parents need to act quickly to retain as much evidence as possible; proactive measures such as pregnancy journals are a great way to refresh your memory about the nine months prior to the birth of the child.

Here’s why: as soon as questions are asked about your pregnancy, the labor stage, the delivery and birth of your child, medical professionals overreact and alert their insurance companies to a possible future lawsuit, even if nothing was inappropriate or wrong. Then the medical malpractice insurance company launches its own investigation, gathering all evidence, from the tiniest details to the largest actions - all with a single goal: to show that any injuries or resulting harms sustained by you or your child were NOT the result of medical malpractice or medical negligence by any medical professional involved at any point through your pregnancy, labor, or delivery.

Why the medical insurance companies act like this: medical malpractice insurance companies take in millions of dollars each year to protect doctors from mistakes, negligence, and recklessness. A single error on the part of the doctor may cause a doctor to lose his medical license - and cause the insurance company to lose the money that doctor paid for his or her premiums. So the insurance company twists everything around and uses the money doctors pay in premiums to build a case against you with one goal: to not pay you a single dime for any medical bills, adaptive equipment, physical therapy, and the basic needs for your child.

In what is clearly a double whammy against injured moms and children, Texas has enacted tort reform measures designed to make medical malpractice cases harder to prove - then, if you and your birth injury attorney do prove your case, Texas has capped your monetary recovery to a static amount, no matter whether a jury of your peers believe the amount should be much higher based on the facts of your case. No matter what a jury believe you and your family deserve for pain and suffering, disfigurement of you or your child, or emotional turmoil brought on in your family as a result of these injuries, the state decides how much you will receive - not the jury.

What this ultimately means for you: you must have an attorney who can prove your case in front of a jury, in front of a court, in front of a judge, and against a powerful insurance company - which requires a high level of legal proof and argument - in order to ensure you and your family receive every bit of compensation you deserve following a preventable birth injury brought on my medical malpractice.

Contact Grossman Law Offices and speak with our San Antonio birth injury attorneys and expert medical legal staff to learn more about your legal options and receive a free consultation with regard to the specifics of your particular case. Call us today at 1-855-393-0000 (toll free).