Why You Should Hire a Birth Defect Lawyer

If your child was born with a birth defect this can be devastating for you and your family. Medical bills, therapy costs and other losses can quickly increase.

A Hyattsville birth defect lawyer can help you file an appeal to receive reimbursement for the costs of taking care of your child with disabilities. A legal claim for birth defects could be complicated, and you should seek legal advice immediately.

Medical Malpractice

Medical professionals must adhere to a standard of care when treating pregnant women or their babies. When a doctor's actions are not in line with this standard and cause birth defects or injuries and/or death, they may be held accountable for the injuries suffered by their patient. A DC lawyer with experience in birth defect lawsuits can help you determine if your child's condition may be the result of an error made by the medical professional during the pregnancy or delivery.

A doctor could also be held liable for birth injuries if they fail diagnose fetal distress or fail to respond appropriately. This can lead to a range of serious issues, including hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy (HIE) and cerebral palsy.

Birth injuries differ from birth defects in the sense that they are caused by events during pregnancy, delivery, or labor. Injuries can result from conditions such as Erb's palsy, which occurs when the nerves that power and control the arms of a newborn are stretched or damaged during birth and caput succedaneum, a swelling of the scalp. Both of these conditions can result in permanent disability and require ongoing treatment, resulting in large medical bills. A Washington, DC birth defect lawyer can offer a no-cost initial consultation to examine your case and determine the most appropriate method of action for you and your child.

Prescription Drugs

A birth defect lawyer might be able to assist parents in determining the root of a child's birth injury. While many birth defects are due to the genetics of the pregnancy of a mother however, they can also be caused because of medications. A variety of common medications can have negative effects on fetuses. This is particularly true in the first three months of pregnancy. They include anti-nausea medicines and NSAIDs as well as chemotherapy medications, certain antibiotics, and more. These drugs have been linked with an increased risk of deformities in the limbs and heart defects, brain deformities and craniosynostosis.

It is the responsibility of a doctor to take into consideration the potential risks when prescribing medications for women who are pregnant. If doctors fail to follow this standard of care, they may be held liable for negligence. Pharma companies can also be held responsible for not properly informing mothers of the risks of their medication. For example, Zofran, a medication used to treat nausea in cancer patients, has been demonstrated to significantly increase the risk of serious congenital defects during first trimester pregnancies.

A birth defect lawyer can assist families get compensation for future and current medical expenses resulting from the injury or disability, in addition to loss of earnings and the quality of life. This could include hospital costs medical expenses, doctor's fees and pharmaceutical costs and other expenses as well as assistive devices and therapy.

Chemical Exposure

A birth defect lawyer could bring a lawsuit on behalf of families of children with congenital disabilities because from the negligence of companies exposing pregnant women to chemicals and medications that cause birth defects. They are trained to determine the cause of birth defects so that they can bring a lawsuit against companies who expose pregnant women to teratogens either at workplace or at home.

Metals, fungicides, herbicides and pesticides are among the chemicals that can cause birth defects. These chemicals are known as teratogens due to the fact that they affect the development of a healthy the fetus via chemical changes that lead to abnormal organs, or disrupt normal cell function. These chemicals are found in many different locations, such as metal cleaning and semiconductor manufacturing.

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

Parents have filed lawsuits in order to hold companies accountable for exposing families of soldiers at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, to harmful chemicals. Some of the birth defect lawyers have secured substantial settlements on behalf families whose children were born with severe birth defects because of exposure to toxic chemicals at the base.

Environmental Exposure

Some birth defects can be caused by a combination of medical negligence and environmental conditions. If a family believes the birth defect of their child may be due to medical negligence, prescription drug overdose or exposure to harmful chemicals, they should contact a DC birth injury lawyer to discuss the situation.

If pregnant women consume or absorb pollutants from the environment, they can cause serious birth defects. Teratogens are the term used to describe these substances. More than 4 million chemicals can be found in our air, food and water. Certain of these chemicals could be harmful to pregnant women.

For instance, arsenic from drinking water and cadmium in coal that is contaminated can cause numerous birth defects and health issues. Certain birth defects are also linked to industrial solvents like benzene (a metal degreaser), toluene (a solvent for plastics) and trichloroethylene. Glycol ethers, utilized in the production of semiconductors, silicon chips and video displays are known to increase a woman's chances of having birth defect law firms defects as well.

LK's experienced birth defect attorneys have filed a variety of lawsuits on behalf of children who have suffered from a range of birth defect attorney defects resulting from improper exposure to chemicals and toxic substances at workplaces or at home. These lawsuits often involve sophisticated scientific analysis and expert witnesses, including toxicologists and epidemiologists, geneticists, occupational medicine experts and embryologists.