Cerebral palsy is sometimes caused by errors during the birthing process. There are other reasons this condition occurs as well, but instances where doctors and hospitals end up getting sued over cerebral palsy are almost always medical malpractice cases.
Late Delivery
Some of the cerebral palsy lawsuits that have paid out for clients have been based on a delivery being performed long after it should have been. Because of new diagnostic technology, doctors are more likely to see problems in the womb before the child is even close to being born naturally. In these cases, doctors sometimes opt to deliver the child early to avoid any potential problems. When doctors should have done this, failed to do it and the child suffers a cerebral palsy birth injury, filing a lawsuit might be an option.
Infections
There have been cases where parents and children have won jury awards because an infection was found to have been the proximate cause of the child suffering cerebral palsy birth injuries. In these cases, the infection ended up doing brain damage which caused the injuries that lead to cerebral palsy and the attorneys for the parents and the children were able to establish this to a jury.
Asphyxiation
During the birthing process, there are many different ways that a child can end up asphyxiating. When this happens, the child may suffer the same brain injuries that cause cerebral palsy. In fact, this is one of the most-common causes of this injury. If the medical investigation suggests that this type of an injury was the result of your child having cerebral palsy, an attorney may well want you to consider the idea of suing for damages. If the doctor causes these injuries, there’s no reason that your family should have to worry about how your child is going to be taken care of. The money received from a settlement or jury award can help take care of this.
Birth injury awards have paid out over $10 million in the past and, in some cases, gone over $20 million. There’s no way to guarantee that your birth injury claim will win, but an attorney can let you know whether or not they think that you have a good chance of winning given your case.