Birth Defects

• Birth Injury
• Birth Defects

What Is the Difference
Between Birth Defect And Birth Injury?

A number of factors separate a birth defect from a birth injury. Although many parents may mistake one for another, it’s critically important to recognize the subtle differences between birth defects and birth injuries in order to provide the correct treatment to your child and understand you and your child’s legal rights.

Birth Defects

Birth defects usually develop during the early stages of the pregnancy, typically in the first trimester. Sometimes the cause of a birth defect may be unknown, while in other cases, genetics, maternal health, advanced maternal age, medications, smoking, alcohol or drug use may be contributing factors. Birth defects are often present at birth, and in many cases they may be detected during the pregnancy with the routine ultrasound exams.

Birth Injuries

Birth injuries, on the other hand, usually occur before, during, or just after labor and delivery. During the birthing process, the baby may be deprived of oxygen due to a variety of factors, which can cause hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE).

HIE may lead to irreversible brain damage for the baby, resulting in cerebral palsy. Medical negligence is involved in many cases of birth injury. With careful fetal monitoring, timely diagnosis and proper treatment, most birth injuries can be prevented.

What are Common Types of Birth Defects?

Some of the common birth defects include:

• Congenital heart defects
• Down Syndrome (genetic disorder where the baby is born with an extra chromosome)
• Cleft palate and cleft lip (malformation of the mouth or lip)
• Eye defects (microphthalmia or anophthalmia)
• Ear defects (microtia or anotia)
• Muscular dystrophy (muscle weakness due to genetic disorders)
• Microcephaly (abnormally small sized head)
• Diaphragmatic hernia (hole in the baby’s diaphragm)
• Hemophilia (defects in blood clotting)
• Esophageal atresia (esophagus defects)
• Spina bifida (malformation of the spine and spinal cord)
• Craniosynostosis (skull defects)
• Gastroschisis (abdominal wall and intestinal defects)

Birth Defects and Medical Negligence

According to the CDC, birth defects usually develop during the first trimester when the baby’s organ formation begins. Unknown causes, genetic factors, environmental factors or a combination of these may cause birth defects. In some cases, the line between birth defects and birth injuries gets blurred if the birth defect was medically preventable or occurred due to medical negligence. Sometimes, a birth injury may appear to be a birth defect that can later be ruled out by comprehensive screening and prenatal testing.

For example, if a doctor is aware their patient is pregnant, but prescribes a medication that is unsafe for expectant mothers, it can lead to a birth defect. In this case, the birth defect may be considered as a birth injury that occurred due to medical negligence and the responsible parties may be held liable for medical malpractice.

Similarly, a medical provider’s failure to diagnose a birth defect in a timely manner, and the resulting delay in treatment, which complicates the baby’s condition further, may constitute medical negligence. Lack of treatment, improper treatment, or a failure to inform the parents about a birth defect promptly (to help them consider termination of pregnancy) may also constitute medical negligence.

Birth Injuries Occurring due to Brain Damage

When a baby’s health condition develops during pregnancy, labor or delivery where genetic factors are not involved, it could be a preventable birth injury caused by medical negligence. Hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE), which may eventually result in cerebral palsy, is a prime example of a birth injury that most commonly occurs due to medical negligence.

Failure to detect fetal hypoxia, for instance, or a delay in performing an emergency cesarean section when it was required may lead to severe HIE and cerebral palsy. Let us look at the primary types of brain damage in babies that can cause serious birth injuries when the medical team fails to apply the prevailing standard of care as they should.

Hypoxic-Ischemic Encephalopathy (HIE)

HIE is classified as damage to the brain tissue caused by prolonged and severe oxygen deprivation to the baby’s brain. HIE results in destruction of the brain cells in the cerebral cortex, leading to cerebral palsy or in extreme cases, the death of the baby.

Periventricular Leukomalacia (PVL)

PVL occurs when the blood flow around the brain ventricles (the communicating network with cerebrospinal fluid) is disrupted, resulting in white matter damage. Maternal infection and placental abruption may cause PVL.

Intracranial Hemorrhage

Commonly known as brain bleeding, this condition usually occurs in premature babies. Undetected or improperly treated maternal high blood pressure, infections such as Group B Strep, and placental complications may cause intracranial hemorrhage.

Cerebral Dysgenesis

Cerebral dysgensis is described as abnormal fetal brain formation. It usually occurs because of maternal infections, but may also result from direct trauma to the baby’s head during the birthing process. It may lead to motor dysfunction and lifelong disability.

Types of Birth Injuries

Cerebral Palsy

Cerebral Palsy is a group of neurological disorders resulting from brain damage caused by hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE). Cerebral palsy is the most commonly occurring movement and motor disability of childhood.

Erb’s Palsy

Erb’s Palsy commonly occurs in babies who suffer from a nerve injury to the shoulder (shoulder dystocia) during delivery. This injury may be caused due to medical negligence when the brachial plexus nerves are severely stretched or torn during the delivery process.

Kernicterus

Kernicterus is a rare form of preventable brain damage that may occur when jaundice in a newborn is improperly treated or left untreated. Excess levels of bilirubin in the blood may cause toxicity in the brain tissue or the central nervous system.

Spinal Cord Injury

A spinal cord injury may occur at the time of birth when the baby suffers trauma due to improper use of vacuum extractors or forceps by the medical provider. Improper use of these tools can strain the baby’s neck while removing the baby from the birth canal, causing spinal cord injury.

Assisted Delivery Device Injury

About five percent of all births involve the use of vacuum extractors or other assisted delivery devices. If the medical provider fails to use the device safely, the baby may suffer from skull fracture, scalp wounds, Erb’s palsy, intracranial hemorrhage, or cerebral palsy.

Can Medical Malpractice Cause A Birth Injury?

Birth injuries may occur because of a number of conditions and risk factors during childbirth. Medical advancements, such as medications, surgery, hypothermia therapy, ultrasound exams, continuous fetal heart rate monitoring, and assessment of physical signs and symptoms and maternal medical history have made it possible to prevent or reduce birth injuries in many cases.

But when obstetricians, nurses or mid-wives delay in diagnosing or misdiagnose a birth injury causing condition a medical malpractice suit is often the only means of justice for the child and their family.

Other common examples of medical negligence that can cause birth injuries include medication errors, wrong treatment, lack of treatment, surgical negligence, or a failure to perform an emergency c-section when necessary.

When the expectant mother develops an infection, high blood pressure or gestational diabetes the risks of birth injury increases. When doctors fail to properly treat these conditions or take into account how they can affect the baby, medical malpractice is often the cause.

Is Your Child’s Birth Injury the Result of Medical Malpractice?

Parents whose children suffer from birth injuries or birth complications want and deserve answers as to cause of their child’s injury and whether mistakes by the doctors and nurses contributed to the injury.

• Were there signs of a birth injury during the pregnancy, labor, and delivery process, or presence of risk factors, which were either not recognized or properly treated?
• Did the medical team fail to order a series of tests to diagnose a suspected birth complication in a timely manner?
• Was the decision to perform a cesarean delivery delayed?
• During the labor and delivery, were there clear indications that their baby was suffering from fetal distress, but appropriate actions were not taken by the obstetrician or nurses?
• Did the neonatal resuscitation team delay in providing important breathing support after birth?
• Were serious neonatal conditions like hypoglycemia or jaundice missed or treated incorrectly?
• Should brain cooling (also called “hypothermia therapy”) have been offered to your baby, but the doctors and nurses failed to perform the appropriate tests or ignored the results of the tests?

The experienced birth injury lawyers at Miller Weisbrod Olesky, who have been through the legal battlefields before, will help you determine if mistakes of the medical providers caused a birth injury to your child, including Hypoxic-Ischemic Encephalopathy (HIE) or cerebral palsy. Our profound and proven birth injury attorneys have represented families all over the United States in their time of need after a birth injury. We use our experience and expertise to obtain you and your child a medical malpractice settlement that will help provide specialized medical therapy in order to maximize the quality of life and independence of your child throughout their life.

Sometimes families are reluctant to contact a medical malpractice lawyer. It’s also not uncommon for parents to feel overwhelmed by the responsibilities they encounter in caring for their injured child and worried that they will not be able to help out in a lawsuit involving their child’s birth injury. Our birth injury attorneys and nursing staff will address these hesitations and concerns, so you can focus on your child and maximizing their care.

Registered Nurses and Nurse-Attorneys Are a Vital Part of Our Birth Injury Team…and Yours

Most birth injury law firms will employ one or two nurses to assist the review of cases and medical research. But Miller Weisbrod Olesky offers an unmatched number of nurses and nurse-attorney employees support to both the birth injury attorneys and our clients.

Our team of registered nursing staff and nurse-attorneys bring a deep level of medical and personal insight to every client’s case. Our nursing team includes both an experienced labor and delivery nurse as well as an ICU nurse. Working closely with the rest of the team, they investigate the reasons behind a birth injury and how medical professionals breached their standard of care.

Why Should You Talk with the Knowledgeable Attorneys at Miller Weisbrod Olesky?

The only way to find out if you have a birth injury case is to talk to a lawyer experienced in birth injury lawsuits. It’s not uncommon that a birth related complication results in a preventable birth injury, including cerebral palsy, but it takes a detailed expert review by a birth injury attorney of the medical records from your child’s birth to determine if the birth injury was the result of medical malpractice.

At Miller Weisbrod Olesky, a team of committed lawyers, nurses and paralegals uses our detailed medical negligence case review process to assess your child’s potential birth injury case. We start by learning more about you and your child and the status of meeting/missing developmental milestones. Then we gather medical records to determine what happened before, during, and after your delivery. We call in skilled medical experts who review your records and let us know if they think medical errors could have caused your child’s injuries.

If we feel medical negligence caused or contributed to your child’s injuries, we meet with you to discuss how you can receive compensation from the medical professionals who made the errors. Our birth injury attorneys have recovered millions of dollars in settlements for families of children that have suffered a birth injury.

At no point in our legal intake process will we ask you to pay anything. The medical review of your case and the consultation are free. We only receive payment when you do.

Contact Our Birth Injury Lawyers