As with any medical procedure, it doesn’t take much to go wrong during childbirth to create lifelong injuries for the baby or the mother. It may take some time for birth injuries to become apparent, because young children obviously aren’t capable of describing how they feel. However, in many cases, injuries sustained during childbirth are ones that affect a child for years to come.
This is the case in a recent jury trial that saw a family awarded nearly $13 million; the girl who was injured at her birth in 2008 is now 5 years old. To this day, she has limited use of her right arm and has had to undergo multiple surgeries on it.
According to the lawsuit, the girl’s arm was stuck behind her mother’s pelvic bone at the time of delivery. Rather than attempt a cesarean section or otherwise attempt to alter the delivery to be less harmful to the baby, the family says that the resident physician pulled down on the baby’s head too hard during the delivery, severing several nerves.
According to the judge in the case, the award was one of the largest he had ever seen in his courtroom. This is likely due to the fact that the girl has almost her entire life ahead of her and will never regain the full use of her arm.
Whenever a preventable birth injury incident occurs, compensation might be available to the family. An experienced New Mexico medical malpractice attorney can help to advise a family of their rights.
Source: mlive.com, “Genesee County jury awards nearly $13 million verdict in birth trauma lawsuit against Genesys,” Gary Ridley, Oct. 5, 2013