Types Of Birth Injuries
Harte Law, located in Richmond Hill, Ontario, has handled hundreds of cases against obstetrician/gynecologists across Canada, including lawsuits involving:
Birth Injury/Obstetric Malpractice
Helping Injured Babies And Mothers
The birth of a child should be cause for joy and celebration. In some cases, that joy is muted when a preventable injury at birth affects the baby or mother's health. Mistakes made in a moment during the delivery of a baby can result in a lifetime of physical, emotional and financial harm.
While some birth injuries are unavoidable, many result from errors made by obstetricians, nurses, midwives or other health care providers. In these cases, we can help obtain compensation that families desperately need to care for a child with physical or mental handicaps.
Cerebral palsy
Delayed delivery causing cerebral palsy, a group of disorders that permanently affect your baby’s body movement or muscle coordination.
Shoulder dystocia
Mistakes made in managing a delivery where the baby’s shoulder gets caught on the pelvic bone, which can result in a range of injuries including brain damage, damage to the brachial plexus (damage to the neck nerves) and Erb’s palsy (paralysis of the arm).
Obstetric negligence
General errors made in managing pregnancy and delivery, including pregnancy-related hypertension; inadequate prescreening; failure to recognize and treat placenta previa (where the placenta blocks the birth canal); and misinterpretation of non-stress tests and/or biophysical profile.
Labour and delivery negligence
Adverse events occurring during labour and delivery including a failure to recognize that the baby is not coping well; cord prolapse; meconium aspiration; placental abruption (placenta separates from the uterus), improper use of forceps and/or vacuum and maternal injury.
Fetal distress
Brain injuries that occur when doctor or nurse fails to properly monitor the baby during labour, often involving the misinterpretation of fetal heart monitoring strips.
Newborn care
Misdiagnosis or delay in treatment of babies immediately after birth for conditions such as jaundice, hypoglycemia, infantile seizures and hemorrhage.
Common Mistakes
The safe delivery of babies in Canadian hospital continues to improve, but mistakes still happen. The most common errors resulting in lawsuits are those that cause brain damage to the baby, often resulting in cerebral palsy. Cases we have successfully managed include:
- Failing to monitor the fetal heart rate
- Misinterpreting fetal heart monitoring strips
- Misuse of oxytocin (used to induce or augment labour)
- Failure to recognize uterine overstimulation (too frequent contractions)
- Unnecessary delay in performing a cesarean section
- Unnecessary delay in expediting vaginal operative delivery
- Improper use of forceps or a vacuum extractor
- Leaving the baby without oxygen for a prolonged period of time
Here To Help
If you have experienced a serious, lasting injury or lost a member of your family as a result of medical error, our respected and trusted medical malpractice lawyers may be able to help. To explore a relationship with the Toronto-based firm of Harte Law, schedule a free consultation with one of our experienced team of medical malpractice professionals. Call us at 289-695-2450 or fill out our online contact form for a free case evaluation.