New Haven Birth Injury Lawyer

Birth Injury Lawyer In New Haven, CT

The birth of a baby should be a joyous occasion filled with happiness and anticipation of the future. A birth injury can temporarily or permanently alter a family’s outlook and a newborn’s life including emotional, physical, mental, and financial complications.

If your newborn sustained a birth injury at the hands of a medical professional or another trusted health provider, contact the birth injury professionals at Weber & Rubano.

Bringing a new baby into the world is cause for a family’s joy and celebration, but what if your precious baby is one of the minority of infants who suffer a serious injury during the labor and delivery process? Sometimes a medical emergency occurs during delivery.

While not every emergency is correctable, a large number of birth injuries are preventable when promptly and correctly addressed by the medical professionals tasked with caring for the mother and baby in a hospital or birthing center. Sadly, not all doctors and their birthing teams live up to their duty of care to treat patients at the medical community’s accepted standard of care.

If your child has suffered a birth injury, contact a New Haven personal injury lawyer to pursue deserved compensation today.

Call us at (203) 888-8888 to schedule a free consultation.

New Haven Birth Injury Lawyer

Why Choose Us?

The expert attorneys at Weber and Rubano are dedicated to delivering exceptional legal representation with a personal touch.

Here’s why you should choose us:

  • Over 75 years of combined legal experience handling thousands of cases.
  • No win, no fee – we only get paid when you do.
  • Available 24/7 to provide support when you need it most.
  • Personalized attention – we work closely with you to tailor our approach to your case.
  • Skilled trial attorneys with a track record of securing favorable outcomes.
  • Free consultations to get started on your claim without any obligations.

Weber & Rubano’s birth injury attorneys are seasoned negotiators and litigators. We are a Connecticut law firm with more than seventy years of practice in the state.

At Weber & Rubano, it is our goal to provide you with individualized legal representation that is:

  • Suited to meet your legal goals and expectations
  • Compassionate and responsive to your family’s situation
  • Driven to secure the compensation you need to move your family forward with their lives

When you choose Weber & Rubano, you’re choosing a firm that will fight relentlessly for your rights and the justice you deserve.

How a New Haven Birth Injury Attorney Can Help

Having an experienced birth injury attorney by your side, like those at Weber & Rubano, is vital to navigating a birth injury claim. Birth injury claims are complex medical and legal claims requiring a variety of experts to build and prove a strong compensation claim.

If you are confused about where to turn and what your next steps may be, speak with Weber & Rubano in a complimentary consultation. One of our attorneys can provide you with information about the birth injury claims process and review your claim. We can advise you of your available legal options and how best to proceed.

Additionally, when Weber & Rubano handle your birth injury claim, we can do the following and more on your behalf:

  • Handle all insurance company correspondence and calls
  • Contact any medical creditors on your behalf regarding a pending claim
  • Compile and analyze any medical records and other evidence
  • Interview witnesses
  • Consult with medical experts about your claim
  • Assess your losses and any medical needs both present and future
  • Make a settlement demand
  • Negotiate with the insurance company
  • Settle your claim
  • Take your case to trial

Most birth injury claims settle outside of court. However, Weber & Rubano will move forward with a lawsuit if that is in your best interests. 

Contact our New Haven office today to discuss your situation with a birth injury attorney. Connecticut places time limits on filing birth injury claims so do not hesitate, to contact Weber & Rubano today.

What Birth Injuries Result from Medical Errors?

When doctors fail to promptly diagnose and properly treat a medical emergency, the results could be birth injuries ranging from mild to severe. The most common infant birth injuries resulting from medical negligence include the following:

  • Brain damage — a brain injury attorney in New Haven can provide necessary legal help if your child is born with brain damage.
  • Cerebral palsy
  • Erb’s palsy
  • Hypoxia
  • Broken clavicle (collarbone)
  • Shoulder dystocia
  • Brachial plexus injury
  • Spinal cord injury — injuries of this nature can cause partial or even full paralysis, contact a New Haven spinal cord injury attorney to get justice.
  • Facial paralysis
  • Neonatal encephalopathy
  • Forceps injuries
  • Subconjunctival hemorrhage
  • Caput succedaneum

The above birth injuries are avoidable when medical providers follow proper procedures and practice due diligence while monitoring and treating a laboring mother and unborn baby.

What is a Birth Injury?

A birth injury is any trauma occurring before, during, or immediately after the birth of a baby. A birth injury may be mild, severe, or life-threatening and require little to lifelong care.

The majority of birth injuries happen during delivery and are minor, healing on their own within days to weeks.  

What is a Birth Defect?

A birth defect is not the result of trauma. Birth defects are fetal abnormalities that form during pregnancy due to:

  • Maternal alcohol or drug use
  • Untreated maternal infections
  • Environmental exposure
  • Genetic factors

Birth defects generally appear in the first trimester of pregnancy.

What Causes a Birth Injury?

There are several causes of birth injuries. One of the common causes of birth injuries is medical negligence. Medical providers may be negligent or fail to provide an acceptable level of care at any time during pregnancy or the birth process.

Negligent practices that may cause a birth injury include but are not limited to the following:

  • Failing to monitor maternal and fetal health during pregnancy
  • Failing to treat infections and conditions in the mother that injure the baby, such as an untreated herpes infection in the mother
  • Improperly using forceps or a vacuum extractor when delivering the baby
  • Using excessive force during delivery
  • Failing to recognize signs of fetal distress including stress due to a delayed or prolonged delivery
  • Failing to perform a c-section when complications arise

All of the above are preventable breaches in care that can devastate maternal and fetal health for a lifetime.

What Types of Medical Mistakes Cause Birth Injuries in New Haven Hospitals?

When a medical emergency disrupts the joy of bringing a new baby into the world, the monitoring nurses must react with the proper protocol and act quickly to inform the doctor. The most common medical mistakes that result in birth injury include the following:

  • Failure to identify and address fetal distress
  • Prolonged labor
  • Delayed C-section deliver
  • Improper forceps use
  • Improper use of vacuum suction
  • Overly forceful delivery of a baby lodged behind the pubic bone
  • Failing to prevent infant hypoxia (lack of oxygen to the brain)
  • Untreated maternal conditions such as infection, diabetes, Preeclampsia, and obesity

When medical providers have an overly slow response to a medical emergency during labor and delivery, the results can birth injuries ranging in severity from bruising to permanent brain damage.

Symptoms of Birth Injuries

Doctors take special care to assess the health of every newborn immediately after delivery, including checking for low oxygen levels, lack of reflexes, and low heart rate, but sometimes the symptoms of birth injuries aren’t immediately clear. Parents should be watchful for the following symptoms, particularly if there was an adverse medical event during the late-term pregnancy, labor, or delivery process:

  • Seizures
  • Floppiness or stiffness
  • Inconsolable or high-pitched crying
  • Unresponsiveness
  • Paralysis on one side or paralyzed or drooping facial features
  • Forceps marks on face and head 
  • Difficulty sucking or swallowing
  • Arched back while crying
  • Hands curled into a claw-like position
  • Facial bruising
  • Head bruising
  • Scalp and head cuts
  • Caput succedaneum
  • Facial paralysis

Excessive drooling and failure to meet milestones can be later signs that a baby suffered a birth injury.

Babies suffer brain damage whenever brain cells are harmed or destroyed. This may happen at any time before, during, or shortly after the birthing process. 

Some brain damage can be caused by maternal infections passed from the mother to the baby. Others involve the lack of oxygen or blood flow to the baby’s brain during childbirth like:

  • Hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy or HIE
  • Periventricular leukomalacia or PVL
  • Hydrocephalus
  • Intraventricular hemorrhage or IVH
  • Newborn cephalohematoma. 

Brain damage may be mild to severe. Brain damage can also lead to cerebral palsy, lifelong medical treatment, and even death.

What Is “Duty of Care” When Proving Liability for Birth Injuries in New Haven?

A birth injury claim for compensation falls under the umbrella of medical malpractice in New Haven. Proving medical malpractice requires demonstrating the following:

  • That a doctor/patient relationship existed at the time the injury occurred
  • The doctor owed a duty of care to the patient to treat them at the industry-accepted standard of care
  • They breached their duty of care through negligence
  • Their breach of duty directly caused the injury
  • The injury victim suffered damages from the injury

Common damages in birth injury claims include past and future medical costs, education costs, a parent’s lost income, and compensation for diminished quality of life and pain and suffering.

What Damages are Available in a New Haven Birth Injury Claim?

Severe birth injuries require significant medical treatment. The costs of corrective medical visits, medications, and caregivers can be exorbitant. One or both parents may need time off from work to travel with their child to appointments or be at home full-time.

In addition to time and expense, birth injuries have a profound mental, emotional, and physical impact on families. These often take a far greater toll than any financial loss.

While monetary damages cannot undo a birth injury, they can provide specialized care to address a family’s injury-related needs. Money damages can also serve as a means to hold a negligent medical provider or facility responsible for the pain and suffering they have inflicted.

Every birth injury claim is different and there is no way to predict the exact damages amount a family will recover. However, the following types of compensation are typically sought:

  • All current and future medical expenses;
  • Any home health or specialist care;
  • All surgeries, therapies, and medications;
  • Lost income;
  • Loss of earning potential;
  • Loss of enjoyment of life;
  • Pain and suffering;
  • Home and vehicle modifications;
  • Medical equipment; and
  • Mental and physical trauma.

An experienced birth injury attorney will work with medical experts to assess a fair and just settlement demand. This demand will be presented to the medical provider’s insurance company(ies). 

Unlike other states, Connecticut has no caps on damages in medical malpractice cases. However, there are strict time limits to recover compensation for a birth injury. Therefore, it is vital to speak with a New Haven attorney right away.

Contact an Experienced New Haven Birth Injury Attorney Today

Medical providers and their insurance companies commonly dispute medical malpractice claims against them. Unlike other types of personal injury cases, many malpractice claims go to court. An experienced medical malpractice attorney in New Haven can navigate the process for the best possible outcome.

If you suspect your baby suffered a preventable birth injury, speak with a legal professional at Weber & Rubano. We will listen to you and review your medical documentation. 

Negligent medical providers must be held accountable for preventable mistakes. Do not wait to file your claim. You could prevent other mothers and babies from harm. 

Weber & Rubano has no upfront fees and your consultation is risk-free. Make your appointment with a caring birth injury attorney today to learn about Connecticut’s medical malpractice laws and how they may entitle you to compensation.

Contact Weber & Rubano online for a results-oriented approach that helps the parents of birth-injured children achieve a sense of justice as well as compensation after a New Haven birth injury case.