When you go to the hospital to deliver your baby, your primary concern is likely the baby’s safety. Doctors should be focused on the baby’s health and safety as well, but the mother is also their patient, and they must take care to ensure that their attention for the mother meets applicable standards of care and skill. If you suffered severe injuries or complications because your doctor failed to provide you with adequate care, you may be entitled to sue the doctor and the hospital for their medical malpractice and medical mistakes.
For help with your potential case, call our Miami, Florida attorney for birth injuries to mothers. Prosper Shaked Accident Injury Attorneys PA represent injured mothers and families seeking compensation for the death or serious injury of the mother during childbirth. For a free legal consultation on your case, call our law offices today at (305) 694-2676.
Suing a Doctor for Injuries to a Mother During Childbirth
Mothers are expected to undergo some pain and discomfort during childbirth. Medical science simply isn’t advanced enough to protect mothers from at least some negative feelings and effects during childbirth, and sometimes complications and unforeseen problems are unavoidable. However, through diligent medical care and attention, many of these issues can be avoided. If you or the mother of your child suffered injuries during delivery that should have been avoidable, you may be entitled to sue the doctor for failing to avoid these injuries.
Every doctor is held to a “standard of care” when performing any procedures or giving any medical attention to a patient. As soon as the doctor-patient relationship is formed, the doctor is required by law to give the patient care that is up to the standards that any other reasonable physician in the same situation would use. This standard of care is not something that you can look up in a medical textbook, but rather, other doctors with similar training and experience in the same community would be able to identify what they would and would not do.
If your doctor provided you with care that fell below those standards, and that care resulted in injuries, you can usually sue the physician for negligent care or medical malpractice. To prove your case in these lawsuits, you will typically need a medical expert – another doctor – to testify as to what the standard of care was and how your doctor failed to uphold those standards.
Birth injury cases for the mother can often include injuries and complications that should have been avoided, such as excessive bleeding that should have been caught and repaired, injuries caused by mishandled forceps, unnecessary stretching or tears brought about by negligent birth coaching, and other injuries resulting from a doctor’s inattention or failure to take a patient’s complaints seriously. Your medical expert can help explain to a jury how these injuries are beyond the range of standard complications and why your doctor should be held responsible for these harms.
In many negligence cases involving injuries to the mother, there could also be injuries to the baby, which the family can also sue for.
Damages for Injuries the Mom Suffers During Delivery
If you gave birth and suffered serious injuries, or if the mother of your child was injured or died during childbirth, you may be entitled to substantial compensation from the negligent doctor and hospital. Doctors and hospitals are usually covered by medical malpractice insurance, which means that they can typically afford to pay high damages to cover the harms you and your family suffered. These “damages” can often include the cost of additional medical care brought about by the negligence, lost wages you suffered because of the injuries, and damages for pain and suffering. In the case of death or permanent injury, you may be entitled to additional damages.
The damages for medical expenses can typically cover the cost of any care that was needed because of the negligence. If you are going to the hospital to deliver a baby, you already expect to pay the costs of the normal hospital stay and delivery care, but if you needed additional surgeries or hospital stays because of avoidable injuries, these care costs should be covered in a lawsuit.
Having a baby might mean having to take maternity leave, but if your injuries caused you to miss additional work or caused permanent disabilities or physical restrictions, you could be entitled to claim damages for lost wages. If these injuries and disabilities resulted from negligent healthcare, your doctor should be made to pay for those negative effects on your life.
Damages for pain and suffering can also be claimed in a medical malpractice lawsuit. These damages cover the direct harm you faced, separate from the damages for medical expenses and other costs. More severe injuries and disabilities often result in higher damages.
If the mother passed away because of the doctor’s negligent care, or if the mother suffered permanent injuries, you may suffer other damages. The lost value of childcare, companionship, household services, and other lost services and duties can be claimed as financial damages. These costs are often difficult to conceptualize, but your lawyer can help you, your baby, and the rest of your family get compensation for the permanent harm a doctor’s negligent care caused.
Call Our Miami, Florida Lawyer for Mothers Injured During Childbirth
Many injuries and instances of discomfort you suffer while delivering a baby are within the bounds of normal complications, but some injuries and complications are the direct results of negligent healthcare. If you or a loved one suffered negligent care while delivering your child – or if the mother of your child passed away during the delivery – contact Prosper Shaked Accident Injury Attorneys PA today. Our Miami, FL attorney for birth injuries to mothers may be able to fight for financial compensation and work to help you seek justice for your injuries. For a free legal consultation, call our attorney today at (305) 694-2676.