Over the past couple of decades, there has been a significant increase in the number of births that have been performed via cesarean section. A report recently published by the Centers for Disease Control has revealed that complications during childbirth have increased a great deal over past years, as well. This creates a situation where many families have one of the happiest days of their lives marred by a devastating injury to their child.
The CDC report shows that there has been a whopping 75% increase in the rate of childbirth complications. These complications include some devastating conditions. Over the past decade, there have been more complications involving failure of the kidneys, heart attacks and problems with children being able to breathe.
Physicians are always looking for safer ways to deliver children. Medical technology has advanced considerably, even over the past 10 years. Problems still remain, however, and some of those problems end up in situations where a child suffers injuries that affect them for the rest of their life.
The Consequences of Birth Injuries
There are many devastating injuries that a child can suffer while being born. Some of them are completely natural and completely unavoidable. There are cases, however, were children end up suffering injuries that have dire consequences. For example, a condition called hypoxia, which means that the infant is not receiving enough oxygen, can sometimes lead to brain injuries that result in cerebral palsy. Cerebral palsy is a condition that never really heals and that can have severe symptoms. In most cases, the child may grow up having problems controlling their muscles, perhaps some learning disabilities, and in some cases, problems with hearing and speech. In the worst-case scenarios, the child will require constant care and be in a nearly vegetative state.
Birth injury lawyers advocate for the families who are the victims of medical mistakes that end up causing these injuries. Some of the injuries, of course, will not be the result of medical mistakes and, no matter how much doctors tried to intervene in some births, a child will end up being injured. When there’s no way around that happening, there’s really no one to blame and no one to sue. If an attorney, however, realizes that medical negligence is what caused your child to be injured, they may very well recommend that you file a lawsuit so that your child can get compensated for what they’ve been put through.