Since 1988, Grossman Roth Yaffa Cohen has represented families who have lost loved ones to someone else's negligent actions. Our firm has a proven track record of success, winning millions of dollars in rightful compensation for our clients.
Hypoxic Ischemic Encephalopathy Lawyer in Miami
Was Your Child Diagnosed With HIE? Trust a Proven Florida Trial Team.
Pregnancy and childbirth are not without risks, but many risks can be effectively managed by medical professionals who uphold their duty of care. When doctors, nurses, and other providers fail to meet this duty, they increase the potential for serious and life-altering injuries – including HIE.
As a firm that has excelled in litigating complex claims of medical malpractice and birth injury, Grossman Roth Yaffa Cohen is trusted by clients and colleagues across Florida and beyond following the most severe injuries and losses.
If your child has been diagnosed with hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy or another form of brain damage due to substandard medical care, our Miami attorneys can help evaluate your case, and whether you may be entitled to financial compensation.
Why Trust GRYC?
- Proven Results: Over $1 Billion Recovered, Numerous 7-Figure Verdicts & Settlements
- Influential Change: Our work has helped shape law, strengthen victims’ rights, and redefine industry practices.
- A Team Approach: Our attorneys leverage over 200 years’ experience, and are backed by a team of paralegals, medical investigators, and experts.
- We Rise to The Challenge: We fight for victims who’ve suffered the most severe losses, and have prevailed in complex claims on both a national and international level.
Grossman Roth Yaffa Cohen has become a leader in litigating medical malpractice cases for a reason: we have the resources, experience, and determination to help clients prevail in the most challenging cases. Learn more about our firm and how we can help when you contact us.
HIE: Brain Damage Caused by Oxygen Deprivation
Hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy (HIE) is a life-threatening form of birth asphyxia that occurs when an baby’s brain is deprived of oxygen. Because it can cause severe disability or death, it requires immediate medical intervention.
How HIE affects a child depends on many different factors – from the duration and severity of oxygen deprivation to how and when distress and damage are addressed by treating providers. Tragically, HIE can have devastating repercussions that create a lifetime physical, emotional, and financial challenges, including:
- Developmental and intellectual disabilities
- Specialized treatment, accommodations, and education
- Diminished earning potential and independence
- Expenses associated with long-term medical care
- Emotional and psychological suffering of families
HIE Caused by Medical Negligence: Your Birth Injury Claim
Though there are risks to childbirth, brain damage and HIE have many verifiable links to medical negligence and the failures of obstetricians (OB/GYN), nurses, and other providers whose care deviates from accepted standards.
In malpractice claims, Plaintiffs have the burden of proving their provider failed in some manner to meet their duty of care. Generally, breaching the duty of care means:
A medical professional failed to act in a manner that a reasonably skilled, educated, and similarly experienced professional in the same field would have acted under the same or similar circumstances.
Proving a breach of duty means proving negligence. In addition to working with our team of medical investigators, GRYC also taps into our network of highly reputable medical experts to determine what standards applied to a given situation, and how treating professionals erred in meeting those standards.
In cases of hypoxic ischemic-encephalopathy, medical negligence can take many forms – stemming from errors during pregnancy, labor or delivery, or shortly after birth. For example:
- During Pregnancy: Providers treating pregnant mothers have a duty to provide a level of treatment comparable to what a reasonably competent provider of the same specialty would provide. This means properly identifying complications or risk factors that can increase risks of HIE (maternal high blood pressure, infection, or placental rupture), and responding to them in accordance to the standard of care.
- During Labor & Delivery: During birth, proper care is vital to preventing oxygen deprivation and brain damage. One of the most important ways to avoid asphyxia is to monitor fetal heart rate, identify signs of fetal distress, and take prompt and appropriate action under the given circumstances (i.e. refraining from administering labor-inducing hormones like Pitocin, or performing an emergency C-section).
- Post-Delivery: If a baby suffers oxygen deprivation, the standard of care may require medical professionals to provide timely treatment, such as therapeutic hypothermia (brain cooling), which can significantly reduce risks of long-term problems. In situations where there’s sufficient reason to suspect HIE, providers are often required to perform therapeutic brain cooling.
The Resources & Experience to Level the Playing Field
Even in matters as tragic as birth injuries, hospitals, practitioners, and the companies which insure them are apt to prioritize their reputations and profits above the needs of people. It is a common theme in civil torts, and something we encounter frequently in high-value claims. As powerful corporations with deep pockets, malpractice Defendants go to great lengths to dispute, deny, and underpay.
Given these challenges, working with a proven legal team is crucial. At Grossman Roth Yaffa Cohen, we have the depth resources and experience to help clients level the playing field with the powerful entities against whom they bring claims. Because our reputation as skilled and successful malpractice attorneys precedes us, it lets Defendants know they’re in for a fight should they go to trial.
If you would like to learn more about our team and how may be of assistance in your potential claim, please contact us. GRYC proudly serves clients across South Florida and the U.S.
A Legacy of Compassion & Excellence
Working With Grossman Roth Yaffa Cohen-
Changing Lives by Changing The Law
Since our firm opened, we've made it our mission to get justice for our clients and their families. We've not only taken on cases that other firms had turned down, but we've also fought to get unjust laws and restrictions overturned or modified.
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A Team of Legal Professionals
Complex legal cases require extensive research, trial experience, and industry knowledge, which is why we always have a team of attorneys working on every case we take on. Our team-centric approach to litigation means that we're able to really focus on getting our clients the best possible outcome.
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There Are No Upfront Legal Fees
We handle all of our claims on a contingency fee basis and will handle all legal fees, court costs, and expert fees related to your specific case. With decades of experience in this industry, we have a wealth of experts we work with routinely to ensure your case is handled with the utmost care.
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We Understand the Medicine
Our attorneys not only take the time to understand the evidence in your case, but also the pathology and medical techniques used in your specific situation. We believe that any attorney that takes on these types of cases needs to be on equal footing with medical professionals and physicians.
A LEGACY OF CHANGING LIVES
Millions Recovered on Behalf of Our Clients-
Medical Malpractice Seven-Figure Orthopedic Medical Malpractice
A Punta Gorda, Florida woman in her forties visited an ear, nose, and throat specialist for a check-up due to fatigue. After performing a brief examination, the doctor at the facility recommended that she undergo parathyroid surgery, however he did not order the necessary radiological scan that determines which side of her neck should be operated on. Without that information available, the surgeon began on the wrong side of her neck and did not realize his error until they were well into the procedure.
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Medical Malpractice Seven-Figure Settlement for Woman Who Lost Her Leg After Misdiagnosis
A woman in her sixties was brought to a hospital after she slipped and fell, injuring her leg and causing severe pain. During her treatment, the hospital staff failed to notice that the impact had caused a blood clot behind her knee, which was restricting circulation to the rest of her leg. Over time, the untreated clot cut off blood flow to the point where her leg was beyond saving and needed amputation.
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Medical Malpractice Seven-Figure Settlement for Family of Mother Who Died During Childbirth
In 2015, a 23-year-old mother began experiencing severe complications while giving birth in Charlotte County, Florida. The hospital’s staff did not give her the attention she needed, and failed to realize that her complications required an emergency transfer to a Sarasota County Hospital, which had the needed staff and equipment to treat her. The mother and her unborn child eventually died in the hospital.
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Medical Malpractice Seven-Figure Settlement for Misdiagnosis of a Blood Clot
A 68-year-old man was complaining about pain in his left leg, which was swollen, red, and painful. He went to a local emergency room, and the family asked the doctor if it was a blood clot. The doctor assured the family that it was not a blood clot but was instead cellulitis from a sunburn. When the patient returned home the next day, he died of a pulmonary embolism due to the blood clot that was initially suspected by the family.
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Medical Malpractice Over $1 Million Settlement for Medical Malpractice Victim
A middle-aged man had a history of an aortic aneurysm. His plan was to fly to Stanford University, where a doctor was scheduled to repair the aneurysm. Rather than starting the transfer to Stanford the day he arrived, the hospital waited three days and then failed to get his insurance company to pay for the transfer. Tragically, while the patient was speaking with the insurance company on the phone about the transfer, the aneurysm ruptured, and he died.
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Jury Verdict Against the University of Florida $23,500,000
A $23.5 million medical malpractice jury verdict against the University of Florida on behalf of a woman who suffered a massive stroke when a medical procedure to ease her migraines went wrong.
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Jury Verdict on Behalf of a Former Major League Baseball Star $898,000
A medical malpractice jury verdict on behalf of a former Major League Baseball star against an ophthalmologist for negligence in the removal of a cataract and implantation of an artificial lens in our client’s left eye.
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Medical Malpractice Eight-Figure Settlement for Victim of Nursing Medical Malpractice
A middle-aged woman was in a hospital recovering from a brain aneurysm. While recovering in her hospital room, she grew agitated and began pulling on the tracheostomy tube connected to her neck. The nurse on duty documented that she was pulling at her tubes six different times in 24 hours, and yet did nothing to prevent her from being able to dismantle the tubes.
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Medical Malpractice Eight-Figure Settlement for Failure to Timely Treat a Heart Attack
After successfully opening and stenting a 53-year-old man's blocked artery, while in the recovery room, the patient suffered another heart attack, but this time it took medical staff nearly 90 minutes to get him back to the catheterization lab. Due to the delay, his heart stopped. He was revived in the operating room, but he suffered a hypoxic brain injury, causing massive brain damage.
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Medical Malpractice Seven-Figure Settlement for Victim of Cardiology Medical Malpractice
A 46-year-old man was undergoing heart surgery at a South Florida hospital after suffering a heart attack. During the procedure, the cardiologist perforated the patient’s left anterior descending artery. The patient died, leaving behind an 11-year-old daughter and wife.
