C Section Delays

Many parents are unprepared for the possibility that their child will be born with serious and possibly permanent injuries. Birth injuries are often quite expensive to treat and sometimes they require lifelong care. Additionally, parents may experience significant emotional distress when witnessing their newborn or toddler suffer and trying to help him or her through it. C-section delays can lead to complications that cause trauma to a laboring mother and birth injuries in the baby who is being born. You should hire the best lawyers to pursue damages for birth injuries such as cerebral palsy or nerve injuries. The Syracuse birth injury lawyers of DeFrancisco & Falgiatano may be able to help. While no attorney can guarantee a win for his clients, we have built a record of success over decades and work hard to achieve the best available outcome. Give us a call if you and your family were harmed.

Doctors may perform an emergency C-section for many different reasons. Reasons for performing C-section include placental abruption, breach birth, reduced fetal heart rate, gestational diabetes, infection risks, and set the low pelvic disproportion. While a pregnant mother is laboring, staff members and nurses and doctors should monitor a fetus’ status and any signs that it would be appropriate to provide a C-section. Fetal distress can result in serious injuries when a C-section is needed and delayed. For instance, if a baby’s heart rate drops precipitously in response to labor, your obstetrician-gynecologist may need to order a C-section. It may be appropriate to sue for medical malpractice if your physician failed to order a timely C-section such that a baby suffered birth injuries such as Erb’s palsy or cephalohematoma. However, this situation could be complicated from a legal perspective if you were intent on a natural birth and decided to go against medical advice.

Not every C-section delay in Syracuse constitutes medical malpractice. In order to establish medical malpractice, we’ll need to prove: (1) there was a doctor-patient relationship giving rise to a professional standard of care, (2) breach of the professional standard of care, (3) causation, and (4) damages.

Whether a C-section delay constitutes a breach of the professional standard of care is usually an expert question. The professional standard of care is determined by looking at what a reasonably competent obstetrician gynecologist in Syracuse would have done given the same or similar circumstances. For instance, if your nurse failed to notice fetal distress while you were laboring and as a result, your baby suffered brain damage, we may be able to recover damages for the birth injuries in a medical malpractice lawsuit.

Under New York law, we will need to consult experts even before filing your complaint in most cases. We would send the medical records to an expert to determine whether your obstetrician-gynecologist or a staff member’s errors departed from the professional standard of care and caused birth injuries.

If we’re able to demonstrate a defendant’s liability, we may be able to recover damages arising out of the baby’s birth injuries. In most of the birth injury lawsuits that involve delays in providing C-sections, these are compensatory damages. In other words, they’re damages intended to put you back in the position you and your baby would have been in had the doctor or staff member not been professionally negligent. These damages may include:

• Pain and suffering
• Emotional distress
• Medical bills
• Therapy
• Rehabilitation
• Loss of enjoyment of life.

When a baby dies due to birth injuries are being born, parents may be able to file a wrongful death lawsuit.

It can be devastating to learn that your baby or child’s birth injuries could have been prevented with a timely C-section. The Syracuse birth injury attorneys of DeFrancisco & Falgiatano may be able to represent you and your baby after C-section delays cause untold harm. We have more than 3 decades of experience representing families in birth injury suits and we’ve recovered more than $100 million in personal injury awards and settlements. We represent babies and their families in Rochester, Auburn, Watertown, Oswego, Lowville, Wampsville, Canandaigua, Lyons, Ithaca, Cooperstown, Oneida, Utica, Herkimer, Binghamton, and Elmira. Complete our online form or call us at 833-200-2000.