Family Settles Birth Injury Lawsuit for Roughly $11.4 Million
Earlier this month in Ireland, a settlement was reached in the case of a 10-year-old tetraplegic girl who has been confined to a wheelchair and left seriously disabled as a result of medical mistakes that took place in the management of her birth in April 2005. According to a local news source, the medical provider involved admitted liability for the accident over two years ago and paid a partial settlement to the family, but the case has proceeded until now to determine the child’s needs for the parties and court to come to an appropriate settlement amount.
Tragic Mistakes in the Minutes Surrounding the Child’s Birth
The final amount of 10.4 million Euro ($11.4 million) will settle the family’s claim that the hospital is at fault for their daughter’s injuries and resulting disability. The court heard evidence that the girl would not have been injured if she had been born 10-12 minutes earlier. The family claimed that the hospital negligently failed to have properly trained medical staff on duty to deal with the baby’s delivery and failed to ensure there was a competent obstetrician available to effect the delivery, resulting in their daughter’s injuries and permanent disability.
The final settlement amount will help the plaintiffs provide the best medical care available for their daughter and live as normal a life as possible considering the mistakes that were made on the day of her birth.
Birth Injuries in the United States
According to the article, after years of strenuous physical therapy in the U.S., the girl is able to stand and walk a few steps at a time, although she remains mostly confined to a wheelchair. The U.S. has some of the world’s best prenatal and medical care in the world, but birth injuries are startlingly common here as well as in the rest of the world.
U.S. doctors and hospitals have the responsibility to competently treat women in labor, and to exercise due care for the mother and child given the circumstances of the birth. If a medical provider is negligent and a baby is injured during birth or left disabled, malpractice may have occurred. A birth injury lawsuit can help compensate families and their children for the expenses and losses that result from medical negligence.
Birth injuries and resulting disabilities increase the cost of supporting and raising a child, and the related expenses can continue to accrue long into the life of the injured infant. A fair settlement will also account for other damages in addition to the increased medical costs. A skilled malpractice attorney can help birth injury victims and their families seek all of the damages to which they are entitled.
Are You a Birth Injury Victim?
If you or a loved one has had a child born with a birth injury, the dedicated birth injury attorneys at Wais, Vogelstein, Forman, Koch & Norman can help you obtain the compensation you deserve for the expenses and losses caused by the negligence of a medical provider during the birth. We focus our practice on birth injury cases, and we work our hardest to get our clients the compensation they deserve. Let the experienced birth injury lawyers at Wais, Vogelstein, Forman, Koch & Norman try your case. Call us today at 410-998-3600 or contact us online for a free consultation.
