Birth Injury Attorney Seeking Maximum Compensation for Clients and Their Children throughout Florida.
The birth of your child should be the happiest time of your life—but if your child suffered an injury at birth, that birth injury can quickly turn a celebration into a time of worry about your child’s health and your ability to financially handle the costs that a birth injury can generate. Unfortunately, many birth injuries are the result of medical malpractice committed by the doctors, nurses, and other healthcare professionals involved in your child’s birth. If you or a loved one suffered severe birth injuries due to medical negligence, contact an experienced South Florida birth injury lawyer at Gonzalez & Cartwright, P.A. for a free case evaluation as soon as possible to discuss your legal options.
When you are coping with a birth injury that was suffered by your child, it can be difficult to grasp the potential financial ramifications that the injury can cause, and getting legal advice may be the furthest thing from your mind. The personal injury attorneys at Gonzalez & Cartwright, P.A. understand that you are likely angry, frustrated and most of all, concerned for your child’s wellbeing after discovering that he or she was injured at birth. We are here to take on the burden of pursuing your right to recover the compensation to which you are entitled while you focus on caring for your child. We offer a free initial consultation to all of our potential clients, where we will evaluate your case and provide our honest opinion as to how best to proceed to protect your rights.
Qualified South Florida Birth Injury Lawyer Holds Hospitals Financially Accountable for Birth Injuries
Medical malpractice is a primary cause of birth injuries, and is generally defined as a medical professional’s failure to follow medically accepted standards of care, where this failure causes injury or damage to the child at birth. Common birth injuries include:
- Brain damage,
- Injuries during a C-Section,
- Erb’s Palsy, which is nerve damage that occurs when mistakes are made during the delivery process,
- Shoulder dystocia, which occurs when the baby’s shoulder becomes caught in the mother’s pubic bone during delivery,
- Disfigurement,
- Preeclampsia,
- Damage to the child caused by prescription medication prescribed to the mother during pregnancy, such as Zofran, which can cause birth defects.
Birth injuries can impact your child’s ability to lead a normal childhood, and can also result in substantial medical costs that are not always covered by health insurance. If your child has suffered a birth injury that was caused by medical malpractice, it is important to hold the responsible parties liable for their actions both to protect your financial future, and to ensure that the error is not made again in the future.
Some of the major hospitals where birth injuries commonly occur in the area include:
- The Good Samaritan Hospital
- St. Mary’s Medical Center
- Jupiter Medical Center
- JFK Medical Center
- Palm Beach Gardens Medical Center
- Wellington Regional Medical Center
- Palms West Hospital
- Lake Hospital of the Palm Beaches
Why Choose Gonzalez & Cartwright, P.A. to Protect Your Rights
At Gonzalez & Cartwright, P.A., our birth injury lawyers understand the emotional and financial toll that an injury to your child at birth will cause. We are committed to holding medical professionals responsible for their actions that may have caused these injuries. Even when complications arise, it is important to understand that your doctors and nurses are responsible for addressing those complications by following the medically accepted standards that apply in the situation.
Experienced legal counsel is particularly important in cases involving birth injuries, as large hospitals and medical centers employ teams of lawyers and insurance experts whose primary job is to minimize your right to compensation. We will fight to obtain a full and fair compensation package that accounts for all expenses, including:
- Current medical expenses,
- The cost of long-term medical care over your child’s lifetime,
- Pain and suffering,
- Your child’s future loss of earning capacity, and
- Compensation for your child’s inability to enjoy his or her life.
Schedule a Free Consultation With a Compassionate South Florida Birth Injury Lawyer to Discuss Your Right to Compensation
The advice of an experienced South Florida birth injury lawyer can be critical in establishing your right to financial compensation after medical malpractice caused a birth injury to your child. If your child was injured at birth anywhere in South Florida, contact an experienced birth injury attorney in Palm Beach County, FL by filling out this online contact form to schedule a free initial consultation today. Our main office is conveniently located at 813 Lucerne Ave, Lake Worth, FL 33460, and we also have an office in Pompano Beach, Florida. We are also available to visit you in the hospital or in your home if you prefer.
Frequently Asked Questions About Birth Injury Claims
The hospital itself is financially responsible for the negligent actions of its employees that leads to medical malpractice and birth injuries. Nurses, medical technicians, paramedics and a variety of other medical professionals are usually hospital employees. However, if it was the doctor’s negligence that caused the birth injuries, it may be necessary to sue the doctor if the doctor was not a hospital employee (which is actually very common). If the doctor was an independent contractor, and the birth injury occurred because of his or her error, the hospital itself may not be financially responsible. However, doctors are required to carry malpractice insurance, and it may be possible to sue the hospital in certain circumstances—for example, if the hospital was negligent in allowing an incompetent doctor to treat patients in the hospital, the hospital can be held responsible.
The Florida statute of limitations for medical negligence is generally two years from the time you knew, or should have known, about the injury, where there was a reasonable possibility that the injury was caused by medical negligence. This is much shorter than the four-year statute of limitations that applies in personal injury cases, making it important to see the advice of legal counsel as soon as possible.