Legal Claims Available for Birth Injuries in Atlanta
If you have questions regarding legal claims available for birth injuries in Atlanta, do not hesitate to reach out to a professional medical malpractice attorney who can fight for the compensation you deserve. A skilled lawyer could work to help hold medical professionals liable for their negligence in delivering your child. Read on to learn more about different types of legal claims available for birth injuries in Atlanta, as well as the ways a dedicated injury attorney could make a difference for your family.
Steps to Take Upon Suspecting Medical Malpractice
A significant option available to parents who have realized that something may have gone awry with their child’s delivery is to consult with a birth injury lawyer who can look at a case and determine whether or not they have a viable claim for malpractice. A professional injury attorney can help a child’s parents recover their damages if their child’s injury came about as a result of negligent actions. In many cases, these injuries require a lot of medical attention and therapy early on for the baby to get past any learning or physical disabilities they have acquired as a result of the medical professional’s negligence. In a worst-case scenario, a birth injury can entail lifelong care for a child well into their adult years.
Examples of Legal Claims Available for Birth Injuries in Atlanta
Before bringing a lawsuit, it is important to understand that the legal claims available for birth injuries in Atlanta will change depending on a family’s situation. If a birth injury leads to death, parents could bring about a wrongful death case where they would recover for the value of the life of their child. If their child survives a negligent delivery but is severely injured, their circumstances would constitute a medical malpractice birth injury case where they can recover for current and future medical expenses that include the care of that child going forward in life, as well as the loss of their income and services.
Parents can bring about claims for the negligence of the nurses that were involved, the negligence of the physicians, and sometimes from the hospital if the facility did not have adequate policies or procedures to prevent this type of injury.
The Role of Negligence
In birth injury cases, negligence is defined as when an obstetrician either in the prenatal pregnancy period or during the labor and delivery process do something or fail to do something that, in the exercise of their skill and judgment, should have been carried out to prevent an injury to the baby. For example, if the baby was showing signs of distress and a nurse was not paying close attention to the fetal heart rate monitor to determine what was happening or did not report those circumstances to the doctor, they would have committed medical malpractice.
Georgia’s Statute of Limitations
If the child is less than five years old when the parents discover they received a birth injury, they will have two years from the toddler’s fifth birthday to bring about a birth injury case. This time limit is known as the statute of limitations. In medical malpractice cases, legislators realize that sometimes it takes more time to figure out how badly hurt a child is. If the child is older than five years of age, then parents have two years to bring a lawsuit forward.
If you wish to learn more about legal claims available for birth injuries in Atlanta, contact a skilled injury attorney today to schedule your initial consultation.
