Signs of Birth Injury

Our Houston Texas Medical Malpractice and Birth Injury Lawyers Discuss Signs of Birth Injuries

Assessing a birth injury can be challenging since some birth injuries are a normal result of the inherently traumatic event of the birth process.

However, severe birth injuries can lead to life-long medical issues for an affected child, and these issues are often accompanied by great financial strain. As such, a parent who suspects that their child has suffered a birth injury due to the negligence of a medical professional may be able to seek compensation that can help with the financial losses they’ve sustained, including past and future medical bills. Medical malpractice lawsuits in Texas are often some of the most challenging types of personal injury lawsuits due to the highly technical nature of these kinds of cases as well as recent tort reform that has made it more difficult for legitimate medical malpractice lawsuits to be brought against negligent medical professionals.

However, such challenges should not prevent an aggrieved family from seeking restitution for their child’s birth injury since the compensation that can be received through a medical malpractice lawsuit can help offset the likely mounting medical costs that you may currently be experiencing. With 20 years of experience in personal injury law and working to defend the rights of aggrieved victims and families in relation to medical malpractice suits, Houston birth injury attorney Michael Grossman can help you seek such compensation. Due to the subtleties sometimes involved in birth injury cases, knowing when you have a legally actionable case can be challenging. However, we offer the following informative article on the signs of birth injuries so that you might have a better understanding of what may constitute a medical malpractice case in connection to a birth injury.

What is a Birth Injury?

Birth injuries can happen at any stage of the process, from pregnancy to labor to delivery to post-birth, and can happen to the child or to the mother. Birth injuries are often brain injuries, since the bones in a baby’s head are soft, malleable, and still in formation. However, certain minor injuries are normal, especially in vaginal deliveries, due to the child’s soft bones and the delivery process through the birth canal.

Normal Birth Injuries

The following signs of birth injuries are normal:

• Bruising on the scalp, forehead, nose, and neck often occurs in vaginal deliveries since these parts of the baby’s body are forced through the birth canal. If the baby is delivered from a breech position, bruises may appear on the hips, buttocks, or legs. Such bruising often clears up in a few days to a week. Longer-lasting bruises, or bruises located in other places, may be cause for alarm.
• Head malformation, a.k.a. pointy-head, may occur due to the flexible bones in the head being pushed through the birth canal. Such malformation should also clear up in a few days to a week.
• Pink marks, a.k.a stork bites, can appear on the forehead, neck, eyelids, or face. These pink marks are dilated capillaries and are not a cause for alarm. The marks fade as the child ages, typically clearing up by the age of one or two-years old.
• Small, white cysts, a.k.a milia, are clogged sweat glands and can appear as small pimples on the face. These cysts should clear up on their own in a few days to weeks.
• Broken collarbones can happen, although rarely. Such an injury does not often hint at medical malpractice; however, other broken bones, like a broken arm, broken leg, or broken shoulder, may be an early sign of long-term effects caused by a birth injury, and should be further looked into in order to ensure that medical negligence did not contribute to your child’s birth injury.

New parents may become alarmed when anything detrimental may happen to their newborn. However, not all minor injuries are cause for concern, and a responsible doctor or obstetrician should be able to tell you about whatever medical condition may be affecting your child. Should they be withholding information in any way, you may have cause for concern. The following section describes signs of abnormal birth injuries.

Signs of Birth Injuries in Abnormal Pregnancy

Doctor care is often the leading cause of birth injuries caused during pregnancy. A medical malpractice birth injury can be caused when a medical professional, like a doctor or an obstetrician, fails to properly monitor, treat, or warn an expectant mother of existing or developing medical conditions like diabetes, hypertension, preeclampsia, or other, similar long-term medical conditions. Furthermore, a mother must be warned of any fetal complications or other dangers occurring during pregnancy. Lastly, a mother must be warned about possible side effects, both to herself and to her child, that could occur if a certain drug is taken. The last type of medical malpractice often occurs in conjunction with drugs prescribed for asthma, diabetes, nausea, depression, or gastrointestinal disorders, all of which can lead to long-lasting effects on a child. Such lack of care or warning can be considered medical malpractice if it results in harm to the mother or child.

Signs of Birth Injuries in Abnormal Labor and Deliveries

When an expectant mother is taken into a hospital or other health care facility to deliver a baby, the mother is monitored by many machines to ensure both her own health and the baby’s health. If delays occur that result in such monitoring not taking place within a reasonable amount of time and a birth injury occurs, medical malpractice may have occurred. Furthermore, such malpractice can happen when medical personnel simply disregard the monitors, since a spike in in the monitors can signal fetal distress, like an abnormally low or abnormally high heart rate, which can cause severe birth injuries if not treated immediately.

Delivery issues can include the following:

• Abnormal positioning can occur in which a vaginal delivery becomes dangerous to both the mother and the child. Such hazardous instances can be averted through the proper use of ultrasounds before delivery and the informed decision of a doctor or obstetrician to perform a c-section so that a dangerous vaginal delivery is not attempted.
• An abnormally small birth canal, or an abnormally large child, can also result in injuries to the mother or child, especially if the medical professional involved in the delivery applies undue pressure or force to extract the child from the womb.
• A high-forceps delivery, in which forceps are used to pull the baby through the birth canal, can result in serious brain injury or shoulder injury if improperly done. Injuries to the neck, spinal cord, and nerve bundles are also possible in a high-forceps delivery.

Signs of birth injuries at the birth of the child can include the following:

• Asphyxia can happen when a child has no oxygen in their blood. Asphyxic children can appear pale and lifeless-looking, with little to no breathing, and a slow heartbeat, which all hint at a brain injury.
• Hypoxia can happen when a child has too little oxygen in their blood. Newborns suffering from hypoxia can appear blue, with shallow or no breath, and a slow heartbeat, which also hint at a brain injury.
• Both asphyxia and hypoxia often hint at a drug interaction that occurred during the pregnancy, or during an epidural, or can suggest an improper delivery procedure. Both of these conditions can cause serious organ problems, developmental delays, including retardation, and will often require long-term medical attention.
• Low APGAR scores can be cause for concern. An APGAR score rates the general health of a baby and is scored on a scale of 1 to 10, and is assessed at certain intervals after birth, from 1 minute, to three, then five, 10, 15, and 30 minutes. Scores under six after the one-minute interval means that the child needs medical attention. Scores under five after the later intervals are cause for concern and may mean long-term neurological damage, possible developmental delays, retardation, cerebral palsy, or a similar brain injury, resulting in the need for long-term health care.

Signs of birth injuries post-birth can include the following:

• The baby has little to no desire to feed, or lacks the instincts to suckle or grapple.
• The baby is lethargic, or exhibits asymmetrical movement in the arms, legs, or face. For example, children may appear to be looking out of only one eye, showing half of a smile, or may heavily favor one side of their body over the other.
• The baby experiences seizures, which may include a rigid or tense body, glassy eyes, or abnormal brain activity.

Contact Houston Birth Injury Attorney Michael Grossman for Help With Your Medical Malpractice Lawsuit

In a majority of birth injury accidents, the injury itself is not immediately diagnosed. Medical professionals who believe a birth injury may have occurred often choose to wait until certain signs, like the missing of developmental milestones, occur before making a diagnosis of a birth injury. On the other hand, some birth injuries are not diagnosed out of the hope that the injury will heal itself over time. It is rare for a doctor or obstetrician to be forthcoming about the causes for a birth injury, as they will likely be focused on the health care needs of the child for their present and future well-being.

As such, it can often take the work of an independent investigation in order to uncover the cause or causes for a birth injury. Without the help of an experienced Houston birth injury attorney Michael Grossman and his investigative team at Grossman Law Offices, you may lack the resources, knowledge, and prior experience often required to discover the truth of such medical malpractice cases. Medical records must be pored over in order to see whether or not a medical professional was in fact negligent during your pregnancy, labor, delivery, birth, or post-birth, and that their negligence caused or contributed to your child’s birth injury. Grossman Law Offices has two decades of experience in litigating such cases, and we’re here to help you seek compensation that can go toward helping your child. Contact us at 1-855-392-0000 (toll free) for a free, private consultation in which you can ask further questions and get answers. We’ll also apprise you of your possible legal options so that you can stand to be fairly and fully compensated for your injury, or your child’s injury, as a result of a medical professional’s negligence resulting in a birth injury.