Birth injuries can have devastating consequences on the health and happiness of children later in life. But a sad truth is that many parents are unaware of what birth injuries are, how they happen, and what is considered a birth injury.

This means birth injuries can go undiagnosed, and parents are left on their own handling the complications and financial difficulties resulting from birth injuries.

Causes of Birth Injuries

Birth injuries can harm either or both the infant and the mother. They are often the result of healthcare providers making a mistake or acting negligently before, during, or after delivery.

Examples of birth injuries include:

  • An obstetrician failing to notice a health problem in the pregnant mother that would cause the birth to be dangerous
  • Handling the baby roughly during delivery and causing injuries
  • Delaying treatment for complications during delivery

Our guide below details several common birth injuries, how to recognize them, and what type of treatment they require. Click the image to download your free copy.

If your child’s condition is the result of an obstetrician, nurse, midwife, or other healthcare provider’s actions, you may deserve compensation.

It is difficult and expensive to treat infants for injuries. Birth injuries can also result in permanent conditions that require a lifetime of treatment.

Our experienced medical malpractice attorneys will help you calculate how much you need to ensure your child receives adequate compensation to offset the harm their injury caused. In these cases, the insurance company will likely try offer far too little, or deny responsibility at all, but we aren’t afraid to push back.

It’s Not Too Late to Get Help

When your child is the victim of a health care provider acting negligently at any point during your maternity, delivery, or post-birth treatment, you have rights under the law. However, since many serious birth injuries, including Erb’s palsy and cerebral palsy, are not always obvious until months or years after the injury that caused them, parents may worry it is too late to file a claim. This isn’t true.

In South Carolina, the statute of limitations for most personal injury cases is three years from the date of the injury. However, for birth injury cases, the statute of limitation is three years from the date you discovered the injury, up to age six. If your child is under the age of six and is showing signs of a medical condition that could have been caused by a birth injury, there is still time to talk to an experienced medical malpractice lawyer in South Carolina about your options.

Contact our firm today for a free case consultation.

About the Author

Mark Joye is the Head of the Litigation Department at the Joye Law Firm. A Board-Certified Trial Advocate with nearly 30 years of litigation experience, he currently serves on the Board of Governors for the American Association for Justice and is a past president of the South Carolina Association for Justice. In a recent trial, Joye headed a trial team that secured $17 million for a family killed in a tractor-trailer accident.

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