Rochester Birth Injuries

Rochester is the seat of Monroe County and has about 90,000 households, of which 30% have children under age 18 living in them. Many of these children have been born at hospitals such as Rochester General Hospital, Strong Memorial Hospital, and Highland Hospital. The birth of a baby should be a joyous occasion, but unfortunately, it is sometimes an occasion of extreme stress. Mothers are often blamed when things go wrong during a pregnancy or in delivery. However, the errors and mistakes of health care providers can cause serious injuries that require lifelong medical care and assistance. Birth injuries can include cerebral palsy, Erb's palsy, head injuries, bleeding in the brain, brachial plexus injuries, perinatal asphyxia, and fractures. If your child is born with birth injuries, you should consult the Rochester birth injury lawyers at DeFrancisco & Falgiatano.

Birth injuries are distinct from congenital birth defects. Defects are usually based on genetics. Birth injuries are preventable and may have been caused by negligence. For example, an obstetrician who sees signs of fetal distress and should perform a C-section to avoid brain damage to the baby, but does not, may have caused a birth injury. For another example, an obstetrician who uses forceps improperly could injure a baby's head.

If your child was diagnosed with birth injuries, the medical professionals involved may not admit to fault. It is important to consult an experienced birth injury attorney in the Rochester area who can consult an expert as appropriate to determine whether the injuries at issue were preventable. Many birth injuries have arisen as a result of negligent prenatal care, labor complications, trauma during delivery, failure to monitor acidosis to prevent oxygen deprivation, or medical mistakes resulting in various types of palsy, hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy, or other conditions.

Birth injury claims are a type of medical malpractice claim. This means that you will need to show that: (1) a professional duty of care was owed to the baby and you, (2) the health care provider committed a breach of the professional duty of care, (3) there was actual and proximate causation, and (4) actual damages resulted. Your OB-gyn and others on the medical team that helped deliver the child owe a professional duty of care. The professional duty of care is the medical community's accepted standards and practices when faced with a particular medical problem or situation. The professional standard of care can vary by geography and depend on an individual patient's characteristics, such as age or sex.

Your Rochester birth injury attorney will need to retain an expert to establish what the professional duty of care was under the circumstances. Often, the expert in a birth injury case is a board-certified OB-gyn. The expert will also need to provide an opinion about how the defendant breached the professional standard of care. Should they have performed a C-section? Should they have monitored the mother more closely during the prenatal period? Did they misdiagnose a problem or delay in diagnosing a problem? In order to recover damages, the breach of the professional standard of care must be a contributing cause of the baby's birth injuries. You will not be able to recover damages if the baby would have suffered harm no matter which actions the doctors and nurses took.

Damages that you may be able to recover in a birth injury case include all of the medical expenses associated with the injuries, such as pain and suffering, past and future medical expenses, rehabilitation and therapy costs, lost wages when a parent needs to reduce work hours to care for an infant with birth injuries, and the costs of special education and in-home care.

If your child was born with birth injuries in Rochester, we may be able to help you recover damages from the appropriate health care providers. DeFrancisco & Falgiatano aggressively represents families in bringing claims for compensation after these traumatic events. Call us at 833-200-2000 or contact us via our online form.