Every year in the United States alone, about 28,000 children are born with an injury. This number is alarmingly high, especially when you consider up to 10 percent of the injuries are entirely preventable. Even if one child suffers a preventable injury during labor and delivery, that is one child too many.
Birth injuries range in severity. Some injuries can leave a child with lifelong damage to limbs or cognitive ability. Other injuries end in death shortly after birth, leaving parents with unimaginable pain.
Doctors and health care professionals have a duty to exercise reasonable care to prevent injury to the mother and child during birth. When they fail to exercise that duty or act in a negligent manner, they could and should be held accountable for their actions.
A lawsuit might be the last thing on a parent’s mind after they found out their child has suffered an injury, but it could be an important step toward receiving compensation for medical bills and ensuring the injury does not happen again.