The Intermediate Guide Towards Birth Defect Litigation

Why You Should Hire a Birth Defect Lawyer

If your child was born with a birth defect this can cause a huge impact on you and your family. Medical bills, therapy costs and other expenses can quickly become a burden.

A Hyattsville lawyer who is specialized in birth defects can help you seek compensation to cover the costs of taking care of your disabled children. Legal claims for birth defects can be a little tangled and therefore it is vital to seek legal advice as soon as you can.

Medical Malpractice

Medical professionals are required to follow a standard when treating pregnant women or their infants. A doctor could be held responsible for damages when their actions cause birth defects or injuries. A DC lawyer who is experienced in birth defect lawsuits can help you determine whether your child's health condition may be due to a medical error during pregnancy or delivery.

A doctor could be liable for an injury to the fetus if they fail to identify or respond adequately to distress in the fetus. This can result in a number serious problems including hypoxic-ischemic neuropathy and brain injuries such as cerebral palsy.

The difference between birth defects and birth injury is that defects are a part of a person's genetic make-up and injuries are triggered by something occurring during labor, pregnancy or the birth. Injury can include Erb's Palsy which is a condition where the nerves that control the baby's arms and limbs are stretched or torn. Another form of injury is called caput succedaneum. It's a swelling on the scalp. Both of them can cause permanent disability and require ongoing treatment, resulting in significant medical bills. A Washington, DC birth defect lawyer will provide a no-cost initial consultation to review your case and determine the best course of action for you and your child.

Prescription Drugs

A birth defect lawyer could be able to help parents determine the cause of a child's birth injury, or defect. Many birth defects are caused by genetics or factors during pregnancy. However, certain medications can also cause birth defects. A number of commonly used medications have a profound effect on fetuses, especially in the first trimester of a pregnancy. Anti-nausea medication, NSAIDs and chemotherapy medications are among the most common. These drugs have been shown to increase the risk of limb and brain defects, heart defects, and craniosynostosis.

The duty of a doctor is to consider the risks when prescribing medications for pregnant women. If doctors fail to meet the standards of care required, they could be held accountable for medical malpractice. Pharmaceutical companies could be held accountable for not adequately informing mothers of the dangers associated with their medications. For instance, Zofran, a medication used to treat nausea in cancer patients, has been demonstrated to significantly increase the risk of serious congenital defects during the first trimester of pregnancies.

An attorney for birth defects can assist a family to obtain compensation for medical expenses, loss of income and the quality of life. This can include hospital costs physician's fees, pharmaceutical costs, and other expenses, as well as assistive devices and therapy.

Chemical Exposure

A birth defect lawyer can bring a lawsuit on behalf of the families of children suffering from congenital disabilities that result from the negligence of companies that expose pregnant women chemicals or drugs that cause birth defects. These lawyers are specially trained to find out the reason for the birth defect in order to bring a lawsuit against companies who expose mothers to teratogens during the time they work or in their homes.

Metals, fungicides, herbicides, and pesticides are a few chemicals that can cause birth defects. They are referred to as teratogens because they affect the healthy development of the fetus by causing chemical changes that prevent normal cell function or create organs that are malformed. These chemicals are found in a variety of situations, such as processing of semiconductors and metal cleaning.

Other chemicals that can cause birth defects are aliphatic hydrocarbons, such as dichloroethane, trichloroethylene, or perchloroethylene. These chemicals have been proven to cause birth defects, such as cardiac defects, in babies born to mothers who were exposed to them while in the womb.

Parents have filed lawsuits in order to make companies accountable for exposing families of soldiers at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina exposed to harmful chemicals. Some of these birth defects lawyers have secured substantial settlements for families who had children born with severe birth defects due to the exposure to toxic chemicals at the base.

Environmental Exposure

Certain birth defects are caused by the combination of medical negligence and environmental conditions or chemicals. If a family suspects that the birth defects of a baby could be the result of medical negligence, prescription drug overdose, or exposure to harmful chemical, they should consult a DC birth defect lawsuits injury lawyer to discuss their case.

Chemicals and other substances in the environment can cause birth defects of a serious nature when they are inhaled or absorbed by pregnant women. These substances are known as teratogens. More than 4 million chemicals are found in our food, air and water and a few are harmful if they come into contact with pregnant women.

Arsenic in drinking water or cadmium in coal that has been contaminated for instance, could cause birth defect attorneys defects and other health problems. Industrial solvents such as benzene, toluene and trichloroethylene (a metal degreaser) are also associated with certain birth defects. Glycol-ethers are also known to increase the risk of birth defects in women. These chemicals are used to make semiconductors display devices, silicon chip displays and video displays.

The experienced lawyers at LK for birth defects have filed a variety of lawsuits in behalf of children who suffered from many birth defects as a result of wrongful toxic or chemical exposure at their workplace or home. These lawsuits typically involve sophisticated scientific analysis and experts, such as toxicologists and epidemiologists, geneticists, embryologists and occupational medicine experts.