Baltimore Brachial Plexus Injury Lawyer
Brachial plexus injuries are a common type of birth injury, but that fact doesn’t excuse medical negligence that causes a brachial plexus injury that could have been prevented. The Baltimore birth injury attorneys at Wais, Vogelstein, Forman, Koch & Norman are dedicated to holding doctors and hospitals accountable for avoidable or inexcusable medical mistakes and making sure that medical malpractice victims receive the care and compensation they need to deal with the extensive medical bills, pain and suffering, and other challenges a medical error like brachial plexus injury can bring.
If your baby was born with an injury and you think something went wrong in the delivery room, call the team at WVFK&N for a free consultation. We’ll look into the matter, engage medical experts as necessary, and let you know if we think medical malpractice is responsible for your child’s injury. Learn more from our Baltimore brachial plexus injuries lawyers below, and call Wais, Vogelstein, Forman, Koch & Norman for help with any birth injury or other case of medical malpractice in Baltimore.
What Are Brachial Plexus Injuries?
The brachial plexus is the name for a bundle of nerves linking the spinal cord to the shoulders, and from there to the arms and hands. During birth, if the baby spends too much time in the birth canal, the nerves in the neck can get pinched, causing a brachial plexus injury. Other ways brachial plexus injuries happen are when the infant’s head and neck are pulled away from the shoulders during delivery, stretching or tearing the brachial plexus.
A brachial plexus injury can cause a burning or stinging sensation in the affected arm, loss of motor function or feeling in the arm, or it may result in Erb’s Palsy. A child afflicted with Erb’s Palsy can experience an atrophying loss of muscle in the affected arm and a permanently weakened ability to move the arm. If the nerve bundle gets torn or severed during delivery, the injury victim could suffer complete paralysis of one or both arms. Milder injuries can be painful yet heal on their own, while others could require surgery to repair and/or rehabilitation to enable the infant to regain full use of the arm.
How Does Medical Malpractice Cause a Brachial Plexus Injury?
Medical providers are trained on how to avoid brachial plexus injuries. They are taught not to use excessive force when they encounter a shoulder dystocia, which is when the baby’s shoulder gets stuck on the mother’s pubic bone. Excessive force is when the doctor applies too much traction to the fetal head and tries to yank out the baby before utilizing the standard maneuvers. The standard maneuvers are subrapubic pressure, gentle traction, or the woodscrew maneuver. If done properly, these maneuvers will avoid a brachial plexus injury.
Oftentimes a brachial plexus injury occurs in the setting of fetal macrosomia, which is when the baby is excessively large to fit down the birth canal. If a baby is projected to weight over 5000 grams, the mother should be offered a cesarean section. Doctors who fail to offer a cesearean section when the baby is too big can cause severe brachial plexus injuries. Obstetricians who perform according to the accepted standard of care will monitor the fetus during prenatal care and note the position of the baby during labor. Reasonable doctors will either try to reposition the fetus prior to birth or else plan for labor involving the predictable complications of a breech birth. Appropriate responses to avoid a brachial plexus injury might include a c-section birth if necessary, or taking care to avoid using too much force if utilizing forceps or vacuum extraction.
How Our Baltimore Birth Injury Attorneys Can Help
Our team at WVFK&N has extensive experience helping families who go through the devastating experience of having their child undergo an injury at birth. Our lawyers are skilled and experienced at determining whether malpractice occurred (with the help of medical experts) and in building a case that proves the medical negligence and the appropriate amount of compensation that is due. Our verdicts and settlements have set records in Maryland and nationwide so you know our firm is ready and able to go the distance and do what it takes to get you the help you need. The doctors, hospitals, insurance companies and lawyers on the other side know it too; our reputation lets them know we mean business. We are ready to fight for you like we do every day for birth injury and medical malpractice victims throughout Baltimore.
If your baby suffered a brachial plexus injury during birth at a Baltimore hospital, call Wais, Vogelstein, Forman, Koch & Norman for a free consultation so we can discuss what happened and talk about how we may be able to help you obtain justice and compensation for your child and your family.
