Magna Law Firm | Birth Injury Malpractice Law | Minneapolis, MN
Have you or a loved one been impacted by a birth injury? If so, Magna Law Firm can help. Our firm has experienced birth injury lawyers in the Minneapolis, MN area. Many birth injuries result from medical mistakes that cause wrongful death or lead to a lifetime condition for the infant, like cerebral palsy.
The medical professional is entrusted to communicate any potential for injury, especially if it could have been avoided. Birth injuries may result in permanent paralysis or neurological impairment, disfigurement, long-term disability, or even infant wrongful death. The emotional and financial toll of a birth injury cannot be overstated.
If you are the parent of a child affected by a birth injury, you have the right to ask questions about what happened. You have the right to information about what happened — and if the event was preventable. Finally, you have the right to competent legal counsel to help resolve your birth injury claim, and secure the compensation and peace of mind you need.
If your child has been diagnosed with cerebral palsy or other form of serious birth injury, contact the attorneys at Magna Law Firm for a free claim evaluation: (763) 438-3032.
Read More from Magna Law: What To Do If Your Child Was Injured During Birth
Magna Law believes that our clients should never pay for our legal services until they receive financial compensation. We operate on a contingency fee structure, meaning we only get paid when you do. If we collect nothing, you owe nothing.
What is a birth injury?
Birth injuries, a subset of child injuries, describe physical injuries occurring before, during, or after childbirth. Birth injuries can affect the mother or the baby, and can occur during both vaginal childbirth and cesarean sections (“C-sections”). Some 6 in 1,000 births involve some type of birth injury, ranging from mild (bruising) to severe (Cerebral palsy, brain damage, and wrongful death)
Birth injuries can vary widely in presentation and severity. Bruising is among the most common birth injuries, and it can resolve within a few days. More serious personal injuries to the baby include hypoxia, oxygen asphyxia, shoulder dystocia, cerebral palsy, erb’s palsy, and brachial plexus injury. Babies may experience meconium aspiration syndrome, hemorrhages, cephalohematoma, kernicterus, and caput succedaneum. Facial nerve injury, skull fracture, and injuries to the spinal cord can also occur through serious medical negligence.
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A Team You Can Trust.
Minneapolis Birth Injury Attorneys
FREE CASE EVALUATION
Magna Law Firm | Birth Injury Malpractice Law | Minneapolis, MN
Have you or a loved one been impacted by a birth injury? If so, Magna Law Firm can help. Our firm has experienced birth injury lawyers in the Minneapolis, MN area. Many birth injuries result from medical mistakes that cause wrongful death or lead to a lifetime condition for the infant, like cerebral palsy.
The medical professional is entrusted to communicate any potential for injury, especially if it could have been avoided. Birth injuries may result in permanent paralysis or neurological impairment, disfigurement, long-term disability, or even infant wrongful death. The emotional and financial toll of a birth injury cannot be overstated.
If you are the parent of a child affected by a birth injury, you have the right to ask questions about what happened. You have the right to information about what happened — and if the event was preventable. Finally, you have the right to competent legal counsel to help resolve your birth injury claim, and secure the compensation and peace of mind you need.
If your child has been diagnosed with cerebral palsy or other form of serious birth injury, contact the attorneys at Magna Law Firm for a free claim evaluation: (763) 438-3032.
Read More from Magna Law: What To Do If Your Child Was Injured During Birth
Magna Law believes that our clients should never pay for our legal services until they receive financial compensation. We operate on a contingency fee structure, meaning we only get paid when you do. If we collect nothing, you owe nothing.
A Team You Can Trust.
What is a birth injury?
Birth injuries, a subset of child injuries, describe physical injuries occurring before, during, or after childbirth. Birth injuries can affect the mother or the baby, and can occur during both vaginal childbirth and cesarean sections (“C-sections”). Some 6 in 1,000 births involve some type of birth injury, ranging from mild (bruising) to severe (Cerebral palsy, brain damage, and wrongful death)
Birth injuries can vary widely in presentation and severity. Bruising is among the most common birth injuries, and it can resolve within a few days. More serious personal injuries to the baby include hypoxia, oxygen asphyxia, shoulder dystocia, cerebral palsy, erb’s palsy, and brachial plexus injury. Babies may experience meconium aspiration syndrome, hemorrhages, cephalohematoma, kernicterus, and caput succedaneum. Facial nerve injury, skull fracture, and injuries to the spinal cord can also occur through serious medical negligence.
If your child suffered a birth injury, you have the right to hold your medical professionals accountable for:
- Not monitoring fetal vital signs properly
- Failure to perform emergency C-section quickly
- Failure to detect umbilical cord wrapped around infant’s neck
- Prolonged or difficult labor
- Failure to diagnose pregnancy-related condition
- Oxygen deprivation during childbirth
- Untreated infections
- Insufficient monitoring of the fetus upon delivery
- Failure to respond appropriately to birth emergencies or complications, including breech birth, blood loss, multiple fetuses, or other complicating factor
- Delay in diagnosing fetal distress
- Administering an excess of labor-inducing drugs (e.g., Pitocin)
- Using excessive force upon the baby’s shoulder (a common cause of Erb’s palsy)
- Infant wrongful death
Common birth injuries include:
- Seizures
- Infection
- Stillbirths
- Spinal cord trauma
- Meconium Aspiration Syndrome
- Stroke
- Cerebral Palsy
- Erb’s Palsy
- Closed head injury
- Fractures
- Hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy (HIE)
- Hemorrhage
- And more
Infant Birth Injury Causes
Possible causes of infant birth injuries include breech delivery, fetal distress, medical negligence, and placental abruption, which you, as the patient, would not be able to know yourself. Your physician should make sure you know if any of these injuries have occurred; if they fail to inform you, that would be considered negligence.
Birth injury resulting from medical errors can affect the quality of life, not just for the infant but for the parents as well. A serious birth injury can change the course of your life, and your child’s life, forever. You will be responsible for the expense of this injury for the rest of your life.
Let our experienced and professional birth injury attorneys help you with infant wrongful death settlements. Call your local Minneapolis, MN birth injury lawyers at Magna Law Firm at 763-438-3032.
Why Choose Magna Law
The Minneapolis Birth Injury Lawyers at Magna Law Firm appreciate the profound toll that a birth injury can take—not just on the child, but on the entire family. These preventable injuries leave grief, anger, and confusion in their wake. From failure to diagnose to botched C-sections and drug interactions, birth injuries force new families into heartbreaking situations.
In these unfortunate circumstances, the Minneapolis birth injury lawyers at Magna Law Firm offer more than just empathy. Armed with years of experience, our legal team knows what it takes to go up against a medical provider in your fight for compensation. We know that birth injuries can be as difficult emotionally as they are financially; our legal team stands ready to support you with compassion and care.
Common Birth Injury Symptoms
Did your baby sustain a birth injury? How can you tell? While some birth injuries are evident immediately, others may not present all at once; they take months, or even years, to reveal.
Immediately after birth, look for the following signs
- Arched back while crying
- Motor control issues while suckling, eating, or swallowing, including excessive drooling
- Claw-like hand shape
- High-pitched crying or grunting
- Low oxygen levels and/or heart rate
- Muscle stiffness or looseness
- Sensitivity to light and/or sound
- Weak, delayed, or absent reflexes, including difficulty making facial expressions
- Seizures and/or paralysis
Within the first 12-24 months, look for the following signs of birth injury:
- Speech delays or difficulty talking
- Coordination issues involved with walking, crawling, balancing, grasping, eating, and/or drinking
- Intellectual disabilities, including poor memory retention
- Discoordination, including muscle spasms (spasticity) and poor bilateral coordination
- Lack of bodily movements or poor muscle control (ataxia)
- Unresponsiveness, especially to loud noises
- Poor or absent moro reflex (the “startle response”)
- Vision and/or hearing issues
After the child is two years old, birth injuries may present in the following ways:
- Full or partial blindness
- Full or partial deafness
- Speech delay, speech impairment, or muteness
- An inability to speak or understand full sentences
- Coordination issues resulting in difficulties dressing, eating, drinking, navigating stairs or running
- Muscle stiffness/looseness
- Developmental disabilities like autism or epilepsy
- Learning disabilities
- Inability to write straight lines or circles
- Tremors, shakiness, or uncoordinated reflexes
IMPORTANT NOTE: This list is not intended to take the place of a medical examination. Talk to a medical professional if you suspect a birth injury in your child.
Read More from Magna Law: Understanding the Causes of Birth Injuries and Infant Wrongful Death
Maternal Birth Trauma
Mothers can also suffer injuries during labor and delivery. Maternal birth trauma can be just as serious as a birth injury; this can include everything from perineal tears, episiotomy complications, and femoral nerve dysfunction, to uterine prolapse and hematomas. If you suffered maternal trauma as the result of medical negligence, call the team at Magna Law for your free consultation: (763) 438-3032.
How We Pursue Your Birth Injury Claim
The Minneapolis birth injury lawyers at Magna Law Firm partner with medical experts in pediatrics, obstetrics, and internal medicine to fully understand the merits of your case. We employ an evidence-based intake process that allows us to zero in on the cases that demonstrate both damages (injuries) and medical negligence (liability with the medical care provider and/or business entity).
With the help of our medical experts, our team investigates your claim from every angle: medical records, company training standards, previous complaints, and so forth. If our investigation indicates that your medical providers failed to meet the standard of care, we then file a lawsuit on behalf of your child. We ask for damages that fully compensate you for your medical bills (both past and future), lost wages, and emotional turmoil (“pain and suffering”).
Read More from Magna Law: How Do You Prove A Birth Injury?
How long do I have to file my birth injury case?
The state of Minnesota allows parents to sue for compensation before the injured child turns 18. Parents may pursue compensation on behalf of the injured child for pain and suffering, lost future wages, as well as future medical expenses. For parent claims, a case must be brought within four (4) years of the date of injury. In cases where a physician concealed their negligence or continued to treat the patient after the injury, the clock starts from the date of the last treatment.
However, the four-year statute is suspended for minors. Minors who were injured through medical malpractice have either seven (7) years from their last date of treatment, or one year after their 18th birthday, to file their case (whichever comes first). After this period, the four-year statute of limitation resumes.
If you believe you have a birth injury case, call Magna Law today: (763) 438-3032.
Do I have a birth injury case?
To establish a valid, legal birth injury claim, we must establish two things: liability and damages.
If the birth injury would have happened under any circumstance, there is no liability (or “cause of action”); the doctor is not at fault, so you could not sue them for compensation. Similarly, if you suffered no harm from a medical error as a result of a medical error—no medical expense, no emotional turmoil—then there is no causation to underpin the damages in a lawsuit. Upon initial consultation, your personal injury attorney should be able to determine quickly if you have a case.
A successful birth injury case will be resolved in a settlement or verdict that covers:
- Medical bills resulting from additional obstetric care, including surgeries
- Medical devices, including stints, wheelchairs, lifting devices and walking aids
- Rehabilitation, including physical therapy and occupational therapy
- Medications
- Expenses related to long-term care
- Disability-related modifications to one’s home, vehicle
- Pain and suffering (also called “emotional turmoil”)
- Loss of anticipated income, both for the injured child and their family and/or
- Diminished or strained relationship between child(ren) and/or parent(s) (also called “loss of consortium”)
Read More from Magna Law: Birth Injuries: Was There Medical Negligence?
Cerebral Palsy Information
What is Cerebral Palsy?
Cerebral palsy is a disorder that affects a person’s ability to move, balance, and stand upright. It can accompany developmental conditions, including cognitive impairments, learning disabilities, and seizures. Cerebral palsy may also cause problems with vision, hearing, and/or speech. While there is no cure for cerebral palsy, the condition can be managed through physical and occupational therapy, medication, surgery, and the use of assistive devices.
What Causes Cerebral Palsy?
Cerebral palsy is caused by a brain injury that occurs during fetal development, or during labor and delivery. It can result from low blood pressure from the mother, umbilical cord strangulation or compression, a separation of the placenta, or some other cause. While emergency room and hospital mistakes during labor and delivery are an all-too-common cause of hypoxia and brain damage in infants, cerebral palsy is among the most overlooked types of medical malpractice cases.
Cerebral palsy can be caused by a failure to:
- perform a timely delivery
- respond to signs of fetal distress in time immediately
- use delivery tools appropriately, including forceps and vacuum extractors
- properly monitor the infant’s heart rate
- diagnose and correct a prolapsed umbilical cord, or an umbilical cord that is around the baby’s neck
- diagnoses and treat bacterial infections
- prevent meconium aspiration
- administer labor-inducing medications appropriately
- perform emergency resuscitation if the baby’s airway becomes obstructed
- detect and treat uterine prolapse or rupture
- provide prenatal care
- adequately prepare for geriatric or other high-risk pregnancies
Medical staff are trained to monitor blood pressure and other vital signs that could indicate that the mother or baby could be in distress; even a few minutes of low oxygen could cause a catastrophic brain injury. At the first warning sign of inadequate oxygenation during labor, the medical team should intervene quickly. This may require a medical intervention, up to and including an emergency C-section.
Diagnosis Delays in Children with Cerebral Palsy
Many parents may not realize that their child has cerebral palsy until months, or even years after their baby is born. Some developmental delays will only present as the child grows, and fails to reach standard physical and cognitive benchmarks. A delay in diagnosis can make it harder for parents to know what to do to help their child—and hospitals and doctors rarely inform their patients about instances of medical malpractice. Parents should be aware of common causes of birth injuries and act promptly when they suspect medical malpractice
Helpful Resources for Cerebral Palsy
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Cerebral Palsy
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Infant Mortality
Birth Injuries Blog & News
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