Why You Should Hire a Birth Defect Lawyer

If your child is born with a birth deformity this can have a devastating effect on your family and you. Therapy costs, medical bills and other losses can quickly accumulate.

A Hyattsville lawyer with a specialization in birth defects could assist you claim reimbursement for the expenses of caring for your disabled children. Legal claims for birth defects can be a little tangled and it is essential to seek legal advice whenever you can.

Medical Malpractice

Medical professionals are required to adhere to a set of standards when treating pregnant women or their babies. When a doctor's actions are not in line with this standard and result in birth defects or injuries and/or death, they may be held liable for the harms suffered by their patient. A DC lawyer who has expertise in lawsuits involving birth defects can assist you in determining whether your child's condition was caused by a medical error during pregnancy or the birth.

A doctor may be held accountable for birth injuries if they fail to identify fetal distress, or don't respond appropriately. This can result in a variety of serious problems, including hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE) and cerebral palsy.

Birth injuries differ from birth defects because they are caused by circumstances during pregnancy, delivery or labor. Injury can include Erb's Palsy where the nerves that control the infant's limbs and arms are stretched or torn. Another form of injury is called caput succedaneum. It's an increase in the size of the scalp. Both of them can cause permanent disability, and Vimeo ongoing treatment will cost a lot of money. A Washington, DC birth defect lawyer can provide a free initial consultation to look over your case and determine the best course of action for you and your child.

Prescription Drugs

An attorney for birth defects may be able to assist parents in determining the reason behind a child's birth injury. Many birth defects are caused by genetics or factors during pregnancy. However, medications can also cause birth defects. Certain common medications have a significant impact on fetuses, especially in the first trimester of a pregnancy. Anti-nausea medication, NSAIDs and chemotherapy drugs are among the most commonly used. These drugs have been proven to increase the risk of limb and heart defects, brain deformities and craniosynostois.

A doctor's duty is to be aware of the risks when prescribing medications for pregnant women. If doctors do not adhere to this standard of care, then they may be held liable for malpractice. Pharmaceutical companies can be held accountable for failing to adequately warn mothers of the risks associated with their medicines. For example, Zofran, a medication used to treat nausea in cancer patients, has been shown to significantly increase the risk of major congenital problems in the first trimester of pregnancies.

An attorney for birth defects can assist a family to obtain compensation for medical expenses, income loss and the quality of life. This could include doctor's, hospital or Vimeo pharmaceutical expenses, as well as assistive devices and therapies.

Chemical Exposure

A birth defect lawyer can file an action on behalf of families of children who suffer from congenital disabilities resulting from the negligence of businesses that expose pregnant women chemicals or drugs that cause birth defects. These lawyers are specially trained to discover the reason for the birth defect, so they can file a lawsuit against companies who expose mothers to teratogens during the time they work or at their homes.

Metals, fungicides, herbicides and pesticides are just a few of the chemicals that can cause birth defects. They are referred to as teratogens because they affect the healthy development of the fetus producing chemical changes that block normal cell function, or can cause organs that are malformed. These chemicals are found in diverse settings like manufacturing of semiconductors, cleaning of metals and paint production.

Other harmful chemicals that could cause birth defects are aliphatic chlorinated hydrocarbons such as perchloroethylene (trichloroethylene), trichloroethylene ( dichloroethane. These chemicals have been shown to cause birth defects, such as cardiac defects in babies born to mothers exposed to them in the womb.

Parents have filed lawsuits to ensure that companies are held accountable for exposing families of soldiers at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina exposed to harmful chemicals. Some of these birth defects lawyers have secured significant settlements for families that had children born with serious defects as a result of the toxic chemical exposures on the base.

Environmental Exposure

Some birth defects can be caused by an unintended medical error and environmental conditions or chemicals. If a family suspects that a child's birth defects may be the result of medical negligence, prescription drug overdose, or exposure to harmful chemicals and/or environmental factors, they should talk to an DC birth injury attorney to discuss their case.

If pregnant women ingest or absorb contaminants from their environment they could develop serious birth defects. These substances are known as Teratogens. Over 4 million chemicals are present in our air, food and water and some can be harmful if they come into contact with a woman who is pregnant.

Arsenic from drinking water or cadmium found in coal that has been contaminated for instance, could cause birth defects and other health problems. Certain birth defects are also caused by industrial solvents such as benzene (a metal degreaser), toluene (a solvent for plastics) and trichloroethylene. Glycol-ethers are also known to increase the risk of birth defect attorney defects among women. These chemicals are used to manufacture semiconductors as well as silicon chip displays and video displays.

LK's experienced attorneys for birth defects have filed a variety of lawsuits in the name of children who suffered from a variety of birth defects as a result of accidental exposure to toxic chemicals or Vimeo chemicals at their workplace or home. These lawsuits require complex scientific analyses and expert witnesses, such as toxicologists and epidemiologists.