According to the Burlington Times-News, on January 13, jury selection began in a medical malpractice case stemming from a 2011 birth injury.
The lawsuit was filed in September 2011, and the trial is expected to last three weeks. In the suit, the plaintiffs, a mother, father and their 2-year-old son, allege that negligence by a Burlington women’s clinic and obstetrician during the child’s birth resulted in birth injuries, including the boy losing the normal use of some body parts.
The complaint states that after the child was born by cesarean section on May 2, 2011, following 18 hours of labor, he “was floppy, had no tone, response or heart rate,” and was diagnosed with “hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy and birth asphyxia,” which will require him to have special care for the rest of his life.
According to the lawsuit, the family is contending that the obstetrician failing to respond correctly to the mother and baby’s medical condition, use proper judgment, exercise reasonable care or follow standards of practice among obstetricians during labor led to the baby’s birth trauma.
Locate a Birth Injury Lawyer
When families put the health and well-being of mothers and their children in the hands of a physician, they do so because medical professionals are supposed to put the safety of their patients above all else. However, if that trust is broken, the consequences are often devastating, with children sustaining injuries that leave them in need of expensive medical treatment, long-term rehabilitation and, in some cases, life-long care.
Children who are victims of birth trauma often need specialized education, including speech, vocational and physical therapies and possible accommodations in the classroom. If complications during childbirth resulted in your son or daughter suffering birth trauma, you should meet with our birth injury attorneys to see what options are available to you.
For more information or to speak with one of our attorneys about your son or daughter’s injuries, call our firm at 1 (800) 460-0606 to schedule a free consultation.
[Did You Know: According to the World Health Organization, birth asphyxia accounts for an estimated 900,000 deaths each year.]
Cappolino Dodd Krebs LLP – Birth Injury Attorneys
Source: http://www.thetimesnews.com/news/top-news/jury-selection-begins-in-medical-malpractice-case-1.261825, http://www.who.int/bulletin/volumes/86/4/07-049924/en/
