Fighting for Families.
No parent ever wants to receive the devastating news that their child has suffered a birth injury during birth or as a young infant. Neonatal birth injuries such as Hypoxic Ischemic Encephalopathy (H.I.E.), brachial plexus injuries, and traumatic brain damage can lead to lifelong consequences, including disabilities and motor disorders like cerebral palsy.
We can help you recover compensation for your baby’s care and future long-term expenses.
Grossman Roth Yaffa Cohen stands ready to help. Contact our experienced team today to schedule a free consultation.
Filing a birth injury claim requires technical knowledge and the resources to take on well-funded medical insurers or facilities. Our attorneys have both. We can help you file a claim for:
Children who sustain these injuries need extensive and costly medical care. They are often left with lasting disabilities that impact the opportunities available to them. Ask how we can help you secure compensation to make sure your child has access to the best care and treatment for their lifetime.
Florida’s unique Birth-Related Neurological Injury Compensation Association (NICA) allows parents to file for financial assistance for children injured during childbirth.
Our attorneys can help you determine whether you may be eligible for NICA and, if so, which type of claim is the best to pursue.
NICA covers injuries to a baby’s brain or spinal cord that were caused by trauma or oxygen deprivation during childbirth. Your family will only qualify for this program if you meet all its criteria.
Some families are attracted to these benefits of NICA claims:
On the other hand, NICA claims are not for everyone. Parents may want to pursue a birth injury lawsuit instead because:
Whether you are not sure about your eligibility and want to petition for acceptance or you do not want your case to be covered by NICA, ask our lawyers what we can do to support your claim.
Childbirth is a delicate process, meaning the slightest error can injure a mother or her baby. Birth injuries are caused by:
Members of your care team are responsible for properly preparing for the birth of your child, staying attentive, and having the necessary knowledge to make crucial calls if something goes wrong. They must know how to use monitoring equipment to decide when and how to intervene. Most birth injury claims address instances of poor judgment.
Some pregnancies are at a higher risk of birth injuries due to factors that can be identified before childbirth. These include:
During childbirth, injury is more likely in cases of:
Birth injuries are not guaranteed when one or more of these risk factors are present, nor are they exclusive to situations that have these warning signs. However, a doctor’s failure to address a risk factor can be evidence in your claim.
In a birth injury claim, you will be able to request compensatory and non-compensatory damages. In other words, your settlement or verdict would include both tangible expenses and intangible losses caused by the injury.
We can help you calculate your damages by considering the following factors:
Our medical investigators and network of expert consultants identify the full extent of the losses and expenses a family might face due to a birth injury. When you know how much your settlement should be, the initial offer made by an insurer may look paltry in comparison.
The brachial plexus, a network of nerves that extend through the neck and shoulders, controls much of the function and feeling in the chest, shoulders, arms, and hands.
When these nerves are placed under stress during labor or delivery, a baby may experience injuries that can range from mild and temporary to severe and permanently disabling.
In the course of childbirth, nerves within a baby’s brachial plexus may become stretched, compressed, or torn. While this can manifest as a mild injury from which babies can recover, it may also cause severe trauma that results in a loss of muscle function, impaired mobility, or even paralysis in the upper limbs.
Brachial plexus injuries may affect all or part of the brachial plexus, and may be categorized as one of four primary types of nerve injuries:
In addition to nerve injuries, trauma to the brachial plexus may also manifest in the form of specific medical conditions. This includes:
Though childbirth has inherent risks, many brachial plexus injuries can and should be prevented – particularly when treating medical professionals uphold their duty of care. This includes properly identifying and managing risk factors during pregnancy, and properly responding to complications that arise during labor or delivery.
If a hospital or health care provider’s failure to meet the standard of care resulted in your child’s injuries, you may be entitled to compensation for the pain and suffering, lost income, past and future medical expenses, and emotional injuries you and your baby suffered.
Examples of medical negligence relating to Erb’s palsy and brachial plexus injuries may include:
Medical mistakes can have tremendous consequences for victims and families, causing stress and anxiety over injuries, and physical, financial, and emotional setbacks due to serious impairments. Because there can be life-long repercussions, recovering full and fair compensation becomes critical to helping families and children effectively navigate their futures.
Hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy (H.I.E.) is a life-threatening form of birth asphyxia that occurs when a baby’s brain is deprived of oxygen. Because it can cause severe disability or death, it requires immediate medical intervention.
How H.I.E. 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, H.I.E. can have devastating repercussions that create a lifetime physical, emotional, and financial challenges, including:
Brain damage and H.I.E. have verifiable links to medical negligence and the failures of obstetricians (OB/GYN), nurses, and other providers whose care deviates from accepted standards.
In cases of H.I.E., medical negligence can take many forms, for example:
Modern medicine has made pregnancy and childbirth much safer than in the past, but it has not eliminated all risks of poor outcomes, including complications that threaten the lives of mothers.
While some maternal injuries may result from unavoidable causes, many are caused by the negligence of hospitals and treating medical professionals.
If your loved one died due to what you suspect to be medical malpractice, you may have the right to seek justice and compensation.
Childbirth will always have inherent risks. As such, we trust obstetricians, nurses, and other medical providers to take the appropriate steps in identifying potential risks, addressing complications, and adhering to the relevant standard of care to keep mothers and babies free from preventable harm.
Unfortunately, that is not always how it works.
Maternal death, or the death of a woman during pregnancy or up to 1 year after birth, is a significant problem in America. According to a statistics and studies from the CDC, it is more dangerous to give birth in America than any other developed country in the world:
While there are different factors associated with each case of maternal death, researchers have identified preventable underlying causes including:
Surviving family members who have lost loved ones due to medical negligence may have the right to file a lawsuit over an alleged wrongful death. If a medical professional failed to provide the care that a reasonably skilled and competent medical professional in the same field would provide under the same or similar circumstances, you may have a valid wrongful death claim.
Substandard care can take many forms, including:
Every GRYC case is handled by a team of lawyers supported by in-house investigators and legal professionals with extensive experience in the medical, law enforcement, and insurance sectors.
We have recovered over $1 billion in settlements and compensation for our clients, fighting for full and fair compensation for medical expenses, lost wages, physical suffering, and emotional trauma.
We fight to change the laws and policies that hurt our clients to protect other innocent people from harm.
We take all cases on a contingency basis, which means that we pay all fees upfront, and only get paid if we win.
We fight every day to bring justice and truth back into the lives of unheard victims. We use our passion to improve the lives of our clients and our communities. GRYC is a force for justice, focused on you.
To speak to someone on of our highly skilled team, fill out the form below, or call 866-629-1061 for a free case review.
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GRYC has been a voice for injured victims in the South Florida area since 1988. Together, we will be heard. Together, we can make change happen.
