Global Development Delay

When significant issues arise during pregnancy or the birth process, there can be effects on the baby. Birth injuries like cerebral palsy, hypoxia, or breech birth can result in serious physical and mental developmental delays. If your baby has developmental delays as a result of harm sustained during pregnancy or delivery, the experienced Syracuse birth injury attorneys at DeFrancisco & Falgiatano may be able to help.

Babies and children with developmental delays may need special school or in-home care, as well as medical equipment. They may also need surgery in cases where, for example, they are unable to use a leg or arm. Most families cannot afford these costs, and many must bring a birth injury lawsuit to recover them and obtain the help that their children need if their harm resulted from medical negligence.

Developmental delays can be caused by many different things. Contributing factors can include genetics, maternal problems such as gestational diabetes or drug abuse, and infections or illnesses that arise in pregnancy. All of these contributing factors can impact a fetus' development. Sometimes a developmental delay is caused not by conditions during pregnancy but by errors made during labor and delivery. Sometimes, an OB-GYN makes errors during labor that result in a traumatic brain injuries. These traumatic brain injuries may not be immediately evident, but might show up later as developmental delays.

Developmental delays refer to difficulties a child faces in gaining certain skills or abilities, when other children of that age are either in the process of acquiring those abilities or have already obtained them. For example, if your baby can't crawl and most babies of the same age have already mastered crawling, this might indicate a problem. Similarly, if your child isn't able to talk even though most others his age can, this may also indicate that there's a developmental delay. It is also true, however, that some children naturally develop at a slower rate than other children. It may be important to obtain a medical evaluation and consult an attorney before assuming that medical malpractice caused your child's developmental delay.

To establish a birth injury case, you will need to show medical negligence by a preponderance of the evidence. This means you'll need to prove: (1) a doctor-patient relationship, (2) the healthcare provider's actions or omissions fell below the professional duty of care, (3) actual or proximate causation, and (4) actual damages. In most cases, it is necessary to hire an experienced and credible expert to provide an opinion about what the professional standard of care was and whether it was breached.

Doctors are supposed to monitor for the possibility of developmental delays such as ADHD, autism, cerebral palsy, hearing loss, intellectual and learning disabilities, vision impairment, brachial plexus palsy, Klumpke's Palsy, spinal cord trauma, torticollis fractures, cephalohematoma, intracranial hemorrhage, and other delays. Damages you may be able to recover by bringing a lawsuit include coverage for economic losses like medical care, rehabilitation, therapy, and out-of-pocket costs. They may also include noneconomic losses for both the child with developmental delays and the parents.

If you notice possible developmental delays in your child, you should seek help as soon as you can. Identifying and intervening early on can significantly impact a child's ability to obtain new skills and reduce what interventions will be necessary over time.

If your suspect that your baby's developmental delays are the result of medical negligence in Syracuse, you should consult an experienced lawyer. It is important to hire lawyers who understand the complexity of medical malpractice claims as well as the full scope of injury to your child as a result of the malpractice. Our law firm may be able to help you file a lawsuit to recover damages from all potentially responsible parties. DeFrancisco & Falgiatano represents injured patients in areas including Syracuse, Rochester, Auburn, Elmira, Binghamton, Norwich, Delhi, Herkimer, Cortland, Watertown, Lowville, Oneida, Wampsville, Utica, Oswego, Canandaigua, Cooperstown, Ithaca, and Lyons. Call us at 833-200-2000 or contact us via our online form.