Florida Birth Injury Medical Malpractice Attorney

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In our more than 45 years of legal practice, Searcy Denney considers birth injuries one of the most devastating forms of medical malpractice. We are dedicated to helping families recover in the heartbreaking aftermath of a birth injury. By devoting our substantial knowledge and resources to birth injury negligence claims, we have recovered high settlements and verdicts that empower injured mothers and the families of injured children.

Speak with a Florida birth injury attorney at our firm; we are available to help you recover for your injuries and on behalf of your injured child.

Types of Birth Negligence Cases We Handle

Searcy Denney handles a wide range of birth injury claims involving damages to mother and baby during pregnancy and delivery, including:

• Shoulder dystocia, when the baby’s arm gets trapped in the birth canal during labor
• Erb’s palsy, resulting from brachial plexus injury
• Cerebral palsy, resulting from oxygen asphyxia
• Brachial plexus injury, which can manifest in paralysis, numbness, pain and disfigurement of the newborn’s affected arm
• Lack of oxygen, also called oxygen asphyxia, that can lead to serious brain damage
• Nerve damage and paralysis to the baby or the mother as a result of delivery negligence
• Wrongful birth, associated with the birth of a severely disabled child because of a doctor’s misinformation and negligence

Understanding Your Medical Malpractice Rights

The injury of a child at birth raises many questions. Could the injury have been prevented? What caused the birth injury? Who is responsible? How will you pay for your child’s future care? What do you do now?

Elements of a Birth Injury Claim

Florida statute establishes the elements of a medical malpractice civil claim. In order to recover compensation, you must prove each element of the claim.

Searcy Denney has been assisting Florida patients injured by negligent doctors for over 45 years. Our lawyers have helped countless families recover damages for their injured babies. Our Florida birth defect attorneys recognize the importance of having the financial means to give your injured child every opportunity in life and we do all we can to make that possible.

Your health care providers’ duty of care is based upon the reasonable standard of care expected of a similarly situated professional. For example, your primary care physician is not expected to have the same level of specialized obstetrics knowledge as your obstetrician. Therefore, she or he might not be able to recommend whether a vaginal or C-section delivery is appropriate. However, your primary care doctor should be skilled in what is vital to a healthy pregnancy.

To prove standard of care, our medical malpractice lawyers consult with experts in the appropriate fields. At trial, we may introduce testimony of obstetricians who explain to the jury what steps they would have taken in the same situation and in what ways your doctor’s actions deviated from those steps.

Breach of Duty by Your Physician 

Your doctor breached his or her duty if the doctor acted or failed to act in a manner that deviated from the acceptable standard of care. Such deviations might include:

• Failing to detect fetal distress or oxygen asphyxia
• Failing to diagnose preeclampsia, diabetes or low blood pressure
• Failing to assess the risks of vaginal delivery and to recommend a C-section
• Failing to provide thorough, accurate information about potential birth defects
• Failing to test for birth defects and serious medical conditions
• Failing to perform a correct episiotomy to prevent perineal tears

An action that might constitute a breach of duty might include:

• Excessively tugging on your child’s shoulder during delivery
• Incorrectly inserting an epidural
• Inducing labor when inappropriate
• Prescribing medication that is harmful to the unborn child

Causation refers to the link between the injury and your doctor’s breach of duty. You do not have a valid claim just because your baby was injured during delivery if your doctor did nothing wrong. Likewise, your doctor may have made an error, but you suffered no real harm. To prevail, you must show that the mistake your doctor made caused or contributed to your injuries or those of your child.

Commonly, the defense claims the patient is to blame for his or her child’s injuries or that the injuries were beyond anyone’s control. Our lawyers counter these tactics through extensive research, well-organized arguments, strong evidence and the testimony of experienced expert witnesses.

Damages in Florida Birth Injury Claims

Hopelessness, confusion, anger and fear are common reactions to birth injuries. After anticipating a lifetime of happy memories, you may reasonably feel trepidation about the future. Our legal team will help you pursue the compensation you need to minimize the burden on your family and to provide your child with the best opportunity for effective medical treatments and as normal a quality of life as possible.

Depending upon your baby’s injury and prognosis, we may pursue such damages as:

• Temporary or permanent disability
• Surgeries, medications and other treatments
• Prenatal medical care
• Rehabilitation to improve functionality and independence
• Future medical treatments and care
• Childcare assistance
• Training for parents to care for a child with a disability
• Alterations to home and vehicle to accommodate your child’s disability
• Loss of parents’ wages while helping an injured child
• Your child’s pain and suffering
• Your mental anguish

For a woman injured during pregnancy or delivery, we may pursue damages for medical treatments, lost income, assistance with activities of daily living, childcare assistance, pain, infertility, disability, sexual dysfunction and diminished enjoyment of life.

Types of Birth Injuries Explained

For over three decades, Searcy Denney has represented the families of babies injured during birth. We hold obstetricians, nurses and hospitals liable for brain damage, brachial plexus injuries, facial paralysis, nerve damage and other serious harm caused by medical negligence.

Our Florida birth injury attorneys recognize the many challenges your child faces and aggressively pursue the means for you to deal effectively with medical treatments, assistance with daily living, lost wages, and other matters related to caring for your child. Our goal is to help you give your child the best medical care and quality of life possible.

Shoulder Dystocia

Shoulder dystocia occurs when a baby’s shoulders get stuck in the birth canal. The delivery complication puts both mother and child at risk of serious injuries. But, with adequate monitoring and safe delivery techniques, shoulder dystocia is preventable.

Risks to the Baby

During a difficult delivery, your otherwise healthy baby may suffer debilitating shoulder dystocia injuries, including:

• Klumpke’s paralysis. The stretching of the brachial plexus nerves in the shoulder can result in paralysis of the forearm, hand, wrist and fingers of the affected arm. This rare condition often causes permanent disabilities.
• Erb’s palsy. Damage to the brachial plexus nerves may also result in Erb’s palsy, in which the child has no control over the arm or the arm remains stiff and deformed. This type of palsy may cause paralysis, weakness, shaking and pain to the affected arm.
• Hypoxia. Lack of oxygen to the baby’s brain during labor can result in brain damage, cerebral palsy or death.

Risks to the Mother

In addition to putting your newborn’s health at risk, your baby’s shoulder dystocia may also injure you. You may face such debilitating, painful complications as:

• Postpartum hemorrhage. Excessive blood loss can result in maternal shock and death if not immediately treated.
• 3^rd and 4^th degree vaginal laceration. Severe perineal tears might damage the vagina, perineal muscles, anal sphincter and anus, requiring surgery and leading to long-term incontinence, infertility, pain and sexual dysfunction.
• Uterine rupture. A uterine rupture is a potentially life threatening event in which the wall of the uterine completely fissures.

Why Shoulder Dystocia Happens

Your doctor should carefully monitor your health during your pregnancy and take special precautions if you have these risk factors for shoulder dystocia:

• Larger than normal fetus
• Multiple babies
• Diabetes
• Obesity
• Late delivery
• Induced labor
• History of dystocia
• Operative vaginal birth

If appropriate, your doctor should recommend a C-section or other actions to reduce the risk associated with a difficult labor.

Oxygen Asphyxia

During pregnancy, the placenta transfers oxygen-rich blood into the uterus and to the fetus. Immediately upon birth, the baby begins to breathe oxygen into his or her lungs. Complications that interrupt oxygen flow at any stage of pregnancy and delivery may result in brain damage. Life-threatening fetal distress occurs if the baby does not get enough oxygen.

Oxygen asphyxia may occur while in-utero because of low oxygen in the mother’s blood if she has anemia, low blood pressure or another medical condition. An interruption in blood flow, because the placenta was pinched or entrapped during a difficult labor, may also deprive the newborn of sufficient oxygen.

The baby suffocates if the placental oxygen supply is cut off before the newborn is able to draw a breath — for example, if the umbilical cord was delivered before the infant or the placenta separated from the uterus too early.

The stress of delivery may cause the baby to defecate (meconium) into the amniotic fluid, which the baby then breathes in, a condition called meconium aspiration syndrome (MAS). Even a very short period of oxygen asphyxia can cause serious, permanent brain damage.

Signs and Risks of Oxygen Asphyxia During Pregnancy

Your doctor is responsible for monitoring your health and the health of your baby during pregnancy. This important medical duty includes recognizing and reacting to risk factors associated with maternal medical conditions, such as low blood pressure, anemia, iron deficiency or infection, that may restrict the flow of oxygen. Signs that a fetus is receiving insufficient oxygen include abnormal heart rate and increased blood acid levels.

Signs and Risks of Oxygen Asphyxia During Delivery

During delivery, doctors can detect fetal distress through the baby’s decreased movement, increased heart rate and meconium in the amniotic fluid.

Oxygen may be cut off during a long, difficult birth because of:

• Poor maternal oxygen delivery due to low blood pressure or anemia
• Pinched umbilical cord
• Prolapsed umbilical cord that is delivered before the baby
• Early separation of the placenta from the uterus
• Premature baby with poorly formed airway or lungs
• Meconium aspiration syndrome (MAS), if the infant defecates into the amniotic fluid and breathes it in

Once the child is born, doctors have a duty to act emergently if the baby shows signs of oxygen deprivation, such as pale skin color, weak breathing, low heart rate, poor reflexes, acidosis, seizures or meconium-stained amniotic fluid.

Oxygen Deprivation Results in Brain Damage

Brain cells begin to die after only a short period of oxygen deprivation. Therefore, doctors and hospital staff have a duty to act quickly to restore the oxygen. Children who stopped breathing have a high risk for brain damage, which may result in physical disabilities, intellectual disabilities, developmental impairment, cerebral palsy or death.

Erb’s Palsy

One in every 1,000 babies is born with Erb’s palsy, a condition that affects arm movement, strength and sensation. Although some children overcome the condition through physical therapy, passive range of motion exercises and surgery, many children endure a lifetime of challenges.

Doctor’s Delivery Mistakes Can Cause Erb’s Palsy

Erb’s palsy injuries generally occur during birth when the obstetrician:

• Allows the baby’s head and neck to twist to the side in the birth canal
• Stretches or tugs on the newborn’s shoulder as the baby passes through the birth canal headfirst
• Places pressure on the infant’s raised arm in a feet-first breech delivery

Disabilities Associated with Erb’s Palsy

Erb’s palsy can result in health issues and disabilities that may be temporary or permanent, including:

• Paralysis in the child’s upper arm, forearm or hand
• Weakness in the affected arm
• Loss of sensation and numbness in the arm
• No motor reflex, which is the involuntary response system
• Inability to fully grip with the hand and fingers
• Permanently flexed position of the arm

Brachial Plexus Injuries

During delivery, the newborn’s fragile shoulder is vulnerable to injuries. In particular, the brachial plexus network of nerves, which transmits signals from the brain to the fingers, hands, forearm and upper arm.

This sensitive neural network can become damaged if the doctor tugs, pulls or presses on the infant’s shoulder during a vaginal birth. The resulting brachial plexus palsy causes pain, paralysis, numbness, weakness and disability to an otherwise healthy baby’s affected arm. Damage to this intricate nerve system may result in Erb’s palsy or Klumpke’s paralysis, paralysis of the lower brachial plexus nerves.

These conditions manifest as paralysis, weakness, numbness, pain and disfigurement to the affected arm. Rupture of the brachial plexus typically requires substantial medical care and may never fully heal. Avulsion, when the brachial plexus rips off the spinal cord, usually results in a permanent disability.

Types and Causes of Brachial Plexus Injuries

The brachial plexus is the complex group of nerves that come together at the neck and shoulder and control movement and feeling in the arms, hands and fingers. Injury to the brachial plexus typically occurs during delivery and may include:

• Neurapraxia. The doctor overstretches the brachial plexus nerves during delivery. The mildest of the types of brachial plexus injuries, this condition may heal within three months with medical therapy.
• Neuroma. Scar tissue may form on the overstretched brachial plexus nerve fibers and press on healthy nerves. With treatment, the baby may partially recover, but may still have a partial disability.
• Rupture. An overstretched nerve that is torn will not heal without substantial medical care that may include surgery. Even with treatment or surgery, the child may suffer a permanent disability.
• Avulsion. Treatment cannot fully repair an avulsion in which the nerve is ripped from the spinal cord. In some cases, doctors might be able to splice a donor nerve graft removed from another child’s muscle. However, even after this major surgery, the child may only regain some function and feeling in the affected arm, but rarely all.

Symptoms of Brachial Plexus Palsy

Depending upon the level of damage to the nerves, the symptoms of brachial plexus injuries range from uncomfortable and temporarily debilitating to extremely painful and severely, permanently debilitating. Generally, brachial plexus injuries cause these symptoms in the affected arm:

• Severe pain
• Paralysis of arm, hand or fingers
• Inability to grip or close hands
• Numbness or total loss of feeling
• Muscle weakness
• Joint stiffness
• Permanently, inwardly bent arm

Some children also develop Horner’s syndrome, in which the eyelids droop.

Treatments and Prognoses

Medical treatment may partially or totally correct the brachial plexus injury in some cases. Physical therapy and passive mobility exercise can often improve functionality in children with moderate brachial plexus palsy. Until full use has been recovered, however, the child may lose valuable developmental time and may never fully recover.

Serious brachial plexus injuries often require surgery. Doctors may splice fibers from the child’s healthy muscle into the affected arm muscles to improve strength and movement. They may also splice nerve fibers from another child to repair nerves that were completely severed from the spinal cord. Even after these complicated surgeries, the child will likely have a serious, lifetime disability.

Facial Paralysis

Damage to the seventh cranial nerve may occur if undue pressure is placed on the infant’s face during passage through the birth canal. Causes of facial nerve palsy include:

• Improper use of instruments, such as forceps, during the delivery
• Very large baby, increasing risk of vaginal birth
• Long, difficult delivery
• Improper use of epidural anesthesia during C-section or vaginal delivery
• Negligent use of certain drugs that induce labor and intensify contractions

Facial nerve palsy usually affects one side or part of the face. A baby’s paralyzed or weakened facial muscles often appear most obvious while crying — the eyelid may not fully close, the lower face may look uneven and his or her mouth may not move normally. In severe cases, the entire side of the face is paralyzed.

Cerebral Palsy

Cerebral palsy occurs in 1.5 to four children out of every 1,000 live births. Symptoms of the neurological condition manifest in early childhood and the condition never improves. However, with the right care and tools, the condition can often be managed so children with cerebral palsy can live as normal of a life as possible.

Signs of Cerebral Palsy

This permanent condition affects every aspect of a child’s life, including movement, eating, language, and sometimes learning and behavior, depending upon the severity of the condition.

Cerebral palsy is divided into three main types, but generally these symptoms overlap:

• Spastic cerebral palsy results in increased muscle tone, which manifests in joint and muscle stiffness and restricted, jerky movements.
• Athetoid cerebral palsy results in decreased muscle tone and, hence, floppy, involuntary, uncontrolled movements.
• Ataxic cerebral palsy causes lack of balance, stability and depth perception.

Usually, doctors diagnose cerebral palsy by the child’s 18^th month based partly upon signs of delayed cognitive, physical, social and emotional development, as well as the telltale rigidity and/or floppiness of muscle tone.

Causes of Cerebral Palsy

Brain damage is the root cause of cerebral palsy. A number of prenatal and delivery errors may injure the brain, including:

• Premature birth and low birth weight associated with negligent prenatal advice and failure to diagnose risk factors
• Undiagnosed thrombophilia, which is a blood clot that restricts flow of oxygen to the baby’s brain
• Undetected and untreated bacterial or viral infections that attack the fetus’s nervous system
• Prolonged oxygen asphyxia during a long, difficult delivery
• Multiple births, particularly if doctors fail to take necessary precautions

Caring for a Child with Cerebral Palsy

Generally, a child with cerebral palsy requires constant lifetime care.  Since there is no cure, medical providers primarily focus on management, including:

• Physical therapy to promote muscle tone, improve overall physical health and increase mobility
• Speech therapy that also assists the child in breathing, eating and swallowing by maintaining the health of the mouth, throat and jaw
• Occupational therapy to help children adapt to the world around them and gain some level of independence and autonomy
• Orthotics that can correct or prevent bone and joint deformities
• Surgeries might include cutting nerves to prevent spasms or straightening twisted bones
• Medications, such as pain relievers, muscle relaxants and digestive aids

Our medical malpractice attorneys calculate the long-term costs of caring for a child with cerebral palsy and seek compensation that covers these extraordinary expenses over the full course of your child’s life.

Injuries to Mothers

Pregnancy and childbirth are traumatic for a woman’s body. But, with modern medicine, permanent injuries are rare. Unfortunately, a doctor’s negligence during delivery may cause the mother severe nerve damage with devastating results. There are also times when an obstetric mistake during labor may also cause irreversible harm to the mother.

Instead of enjoying your child’s first few days of life, you may experience excruciating pain and disability. Your injuries may keep you from caring for your newborn and may force you to undergo surgery. At its worst, you may never recover your full health.

Searcy Denney understands the heartbreak of birth-related injuries to the mother, child and entire family. Our Florida medical malpractice attorneys work aggressively to hold health care providers responsible for nerve injuries and other birth-related injuries. We have the resources and knowledge to fight corporate hospitals that failed to facilitate a safe childbirth and work diligently to help injured mothers obtain just compensation.

Femoral Nerve Dysfunction

Debilitating nerve damage may result from prolonged pressure or entrapment on the femoral nerve during vaginal delivery. The femoral nerve signals the leg muscles to move the hips and legs. Injury to the nerve can hinder the ability to walk and cause numbness in the leg and foot. Some women may require a wheelchair or walker for weeks or months after labor.

Lumbosacral Plexus Injury

An improperly placed epidural during a C-section or vaginal birth can cause injury to the lumbosacral plexus, which is the network of nerves that control movement and sensation in the legs. Damage to these nerves can cause weakness, numbness, tingling and burning as well as shooting or stabbing pain.

Pelvic Floor Damage

If the mother is particularly small or the baby too big, excessive pressure can overstretch the genital tract and the pelvic floor muscles. As a result, women may suffer urinary incontinence and genital prolapse, a condition in which the vaginal canal protrudes from the vaginal opening.

Perineal Tear

A negligently performed episiotomy may fail to protect the mother from serious perineal injury. Superficial tearing of the vagina is common during delivery and may cause only minor, temporary problems. Third and fourth-degree perineal tears, however, can result in devastating nerve and muscle damage. In the most severe cases, the tears penetrate the anal sphincter, causing incontinence, sexual dysfunction, numbness and pain.

Wrongful Birth

The happy experience of having a baby can soon turn to heartbreak if you learn your baby is severely disabled. Your first question is likely whether medical care can improve your baby’s condition. If you find that nothing can be done, the next question is whether the tragic situation could have been prevented.

Searcy Denney holds doctors to their duty of providing accurate, thorough information to patients. Your doctor had the duty to advise you of potential birth defect risks associated with your age, health and medical history. In addition, your doctor had the duty to recommend appropriate tests for congenital birth defects. Finally, you have the right to make an informed decision about whether to terminate a pregnancy that is consistent with your own spiritual, family, medical and financial circumstances.

Risks in Pregnancy

Fetal abnormalities can be detected using standard medical diagnostics. These tests should be made available to every pregnant woman, especially if she has risk factors that might increase her chances of having a baby with a birth defect. Ultrasound, blood tests, chorionic villus sampling, amniocentesis and DNA sampling can expose severe chromosomal, physical and genetic medical conditions, such as:

• Anencephaly
• Brain damage
• Cystic fibrosis
• Down syndrome
• Malformed limbs and organs
• Muscular dystrophy
• Neural tube defects
• Spina bifida
• Zika-related microcephaly

These conditions have no treatments available and may leave the child permanently dependent upon his or her parents to survive. The child may not be able to walk, talk, bathe, use the toilet or eat, and so caregivers must constantly perform these tasks. In some cases, the child will die within days or years of birth.

Damages for Wrongful Birth

Caring for a child who has a severe disability requires a lifelong, constant commitment. Often, one parent has to quit his or her job to remain with the child 24-7. The caregiver may feel isolated by the grueling, lonely task of caring for a child who will never get better. The financial, emotional and physical losses can be extensive.

To alleviate some of the stress on your family, our attorneys pursue damages that may include:

• Lost wages as a result of childcare duties
• Costs of medical treatments and palliative care
• Costs of special medical and assisted living equipment
• Costs of hired nurses and nursing aids
• Costs of adapting home and vehicle for special needs
• Daily costs of raising a child, such as food, clothing and shelter
• Mental anguish, depression and anxiety of the caregivers
• Pain and suffering of the child

Our lawyers and staff recognize the challenges and heartache that parents of severely disabled children face, and we treat your family with respect, compassion and confidentiality.

Birth Injury Glossary

The law firm of Searcy Denney has advocated for Florida patients’ rights for 45 years. We regularly handle complex birth injury claims for mothers and children.

For your reference, we have defined common terms related to birth injuries below. Read our glossary and call Searcy Denney to schedule a free case evaluation. Our Florida birth injury lawyers handle claims on a contingency basis so you do not pay lawyers’ fees unless we recover damages for you.

• Brachial plexus is the network of nerves in the shoulder and neck that transmit signals from the brain to the shoulder, upper arm, forearm, hands and fingers.

• Brachial plexus avulsion occurs when the nerves of the brachial plexus are torn from the spinal cord, resulting in paralysis, weakness, numbness, pain, disfigurement and permanent disabilities.

• Brachial plexus neuroma occurs when scar tissue forms on the overstretched nerves and presses on healthy nerves.

• Brachial plexus neuropraxia refers to the overstretching of a newborn’s nerves during delivery, which may require medical intervention to treat.

• Brachial plexus rupture occurs when the nerves are torn, usually requiring surgery or other medical intervention to treat, but may result in permanent disabilities.

• Cerebral palsy is an incurable condition caused by oxygen deprivation during pregnancy or childbirth that causes severe muscle movement restrictions and spasms.

• Cesarean section, or C-section, is an alternative to vaginal birth that may be appropriate when certain risk factors exist, such as a baby’s large size or a mother’s diabetes, obesity, small stature or history of difficult labor.

• Erb’s palsy is a condition that may result from brachial plexus injury and is characterized by paralysis of the upper brachial plexus nerves.

• Facial nerve palsy may occur after prolonged pressure on the cranial nerve, and manifests in facial nerve paralysis.

• Femoral nerve dysfunction is a debilitating postpartum condition in which the mother’s leg nerves are damaged during a difficult labor.

• Fetal distress refers to the fetus’s or newborn baby’s stress signals during pregnancy or labor, often caused by oxygen asphyxia.

• Klumpke paralysis is a condition that may result from brachial plexus injury and is characterized by paralysis of the upper brachial plexus nerves.

• Lumbosacral plexus injury is a debilitating postpartum condition in which the mother’s leg nerves are damaged by an improperly placed epidural needle during delivery.

• Meconium aspiration syndrome (MAS) occurs when the baby passes the first stool in the amniotic fluid and then breathes in, which results in oxygen asphyxia.

• Oxygen asphyxia refers to oxygen deprivation, often caused by a pinched placenta, early placental birth or prolonged delivery, and can result in brain damage within minutes.

• Perineal tears occur to the mother’s vagina during delivery, and may penetrate her muscles, nerves and the anal sphincter, resulting in pain, numbness, incontinence, sexual dysfunction and disability.

• Shoulder dystocia happens when the baby’s arm gets trapped during delivery and is a common precursor to brachial plexus injury.

• Uterine prolapse refers to the condition in which the mother’s pelvic floor stretches and weakens during pregnancy or delivery, allowing the uterus to bulge through the vaginal canal, and may result in discomfort, sexual dysfunction, infertility, problems urinating and prolapse of other organs.

Learn More About Birth Injuries and Your Right to Recovery

For more information about birth injuries and your options for filing a medical malpractice claim, consult with Searcy Denney. Your case evaluation is free and we handle your claim on contingency so you do not pay lawyers’ fees unless we recover damages. Contact us today to speak with an experienced medical malpractice lawyer in Florida.

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