The First Steps In A Birth Injury Case
One of the first things an attorney will do to assess a birth injury case is obtain the mother's medical records, including the fetal heart tracings, as well as the child's medical records. The fetal heart tracings document the baby's status during the labor and delivery process; they measure the baby's heart rate in relation to the mother's contraction pattern. Physicians and nurses can overlook important clues on the fetal heart tracings that should lead them to speed up a child's delivery. The delay in delivery can be the cause of hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy, or cerebral palsy. The medical records will also include important laboratory data that will help determine whether the hypoxic event occurred. Attorneys typically obtain the baby's diagnostic tests of the brain and placental pathology to help determine when the injury to the child occurred. The customary defense in these cases is that the hypoxic event (period where the child was without sufficient oxygen) occurred days, weeks or months before the mother came in to deliver the child; in which case it couldn't be the fault of the physicians and nurses who delivered the child. The medical records are then reviewed by experts that the attorney retains in the fields of maternal-fetal medicine, nursing, as well as neonatology, pediatric neurology, pediatric neuroradiology, placental pathology, depending upon the issues that arise in the case. It is important that your attorney have access to the top experts in these fields; as the success or failure of your case can depend upon the quality of your expert witnesses. All of these steps are taken to determine whether a client has a viable case for cerebral palsy caused by medical malpractice. Parents who suspect that their child suffers from hypoxic ischemic enchephalopathy, or cerebral palsy, should consult with an attorney to determine whether their child's brain injury was caused by the malpractice of a health care provider.
