Every Pittsburgh parent hopes that his or her newborn child enters the world with a happy heart and a healthy body. While most children are able to make it through labor and delivery without suffering any complications, others require interventions and significant medical care just to survive. After living through a traumatic birth experience, parents may wonder if the complications and challenges that their children suffered during and after birth were the result of negligence committed by the doctors and nurses present when their children were born.
While birth injuries can be caused by medical malpractice, birth defects generally are not. A birth injury is an injury suffered by a child during the actual birth process, and often can occur when a doctor, nurse or other medical care practitioner makes a mistake or commits and error that results in the child suffering harm. In contrast, though, a birth defect is a medical condition that is present in the child as a result of their natural development and may not be the result of any actions taken by medical professionals.
Although it can be natural for a parent to want to hold someone responsible for the challenges his or her child may face, birth defects usually are not compensable. If they were not caused by the fault of any doctor or other health care provider, then there is no one who may be held responsible for their harm.
Birth injuries, though, are often preventable and may provide individuals with sufficient facts and damages to warrant civil litigation for the recovery of a child’s losses. However, it is not possible to predict the outcome of any birth injury case, and as such, readers who have questions about their birth injury cases are encouraged to consider discussing them with birth injury attorneys.
Birth defects and birth injuries both throw difficulties into the early lives of kids. However, only one is usually compensable under personal injury law. To learn more about this topic, readers should seek out their own legal and medical advice as this post provides only an introduction to this specialized topic.