Why You Should Hire a Birth Defect Lawyer

If your child was born with an anomaly in the birth this can be devastating for you and your family. Therapy costs, firms medical bills and other expenses can quickly add up.

A Hyattsville birth defect lawyer can assist you in filing an action to collect reimbursement for the costs of taking care of your disabled child. Legal claims for birth defects can be a little tangled and therefore it is vital to seek legal advice as soon as you can.

Medical Malpractice

Medical professionals are required to follow a standard when treating pregnant women or their infants. Doctors can be held accountable for any damages if their actions result in birth defects or injuries. A DC lawyer with experience in lawsuits involving birth defects can help you determine whether your child's condition could be the result of a medical error during the pregnancy or delivery.

A doctor could also be held accountable for birth injuries if they fail to detect fetal distress or don't respond appropriately. This can cause various serious problems, including hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy and brain injuries like cerebral palsy.

Birth injuries differ from ottawa hills birth defect lawyer defects because they are caused by events during pregnancy, delivery, or labor. Injury can include Erb's Palsy, where the nerves controlling the infant's arms and limbs are stretched or torn. Another injury is caput succedaneum - swelling of the scalp. Both of these can lead to lifelong disability and require ongoing treatment, resulting in large medical bills. A Washington, DC birth defect lawyer can offer a no-cost initial consultation to review your case and determine the most appropriate option for you and your child.

Prescription Drugs

A birth defect lawyer could be able to help parents identify the cause of the birth injury or defect. While many birth defects are caused by the genetics of the pregnancy of a mother but they can also happen due to medications. Certain common medications have a significant impact on fetuses especially during the first trimester of a pregnancy. Anti-nausea medicines, NSAIDs and chemotherapy drugs are among the most common. These drugs have been linked with an increased risk of limb deformities and brain defects, heart defects and craniosynostois.

A doctor's job is to take into account the risks when prescribing medications for women who are pregnant. If doctors fail to adhere to this standard of care they could be held liable for medical negligence. Pharmaceutical companies can be held accountable for not adequately warning mothers of the dangers associated with their products. For instance, Zofran, a medication used to treat nausea in cancer patients, has been proven to significantly increase the risk of major congenital defects in the first trimester of a pregnancy.

A birth defect lawyer can help families receive reimbursement for future and ongoing medical expenses that result from the disability or injury, in addition to loss of income and quality of life. This could include hospital costs as well as doctor's fees, pharmaceutical costs and other expenses in addition to assistive devices, and therapy.

Chemical Exposure

A birth defect lawyer could sue families of children who suffer from congenital disabilities as a result from the negligence of companies which expose pregnant women and medications that cause birth deformities. These lawyers are specially trained to determine the cause of birth defects so they can file a lawsuit against companies that expose pregnant women to teratogens either at work or at home.

Some of the chemical exposures that can lead to birth defects are metals, fungicides, herbicides and other pesticides. These chemicals are called Teratogens since they interfere with the healthy development of the fetus by making chemical changes that inhibit normal cell function or lead to malformed organs. These chemicals are found in many different settings, including the manufacturing of semiconductors, metal cleaning and paint production.

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

Parents have filed suit against a number of firms that were responsible for the exposure of families of soldiers at Camp Lejeune to these harmful chemicals. Some of these birth defect lawyers have secured significant settlements for families who have children who were born with severe defects due to the toxic chemical exposures at the base.

Environmental Exposure

Some birth defects can be caused by the combination of medical negligence and environmental factors or chemicals. If a family believes that the birth defect of their child could be a result of medical malpractice, prescription drug overdose or exposure to harmful chemicals, they should talk to an DC birth injury lawyer to discuss the issue.

If pregnant women ingest or absorb contaminants from the environment they could develop serious birth defects. Teratogens are the term used to describe these substances. Over 4 million chemicals exist in our air, food and water, and some of them are harmful if they come into contact with pregnant women.

Arsenic from drinking water or cadmium in coal that has been contaminated, for example, can cause birth defects and other health issues. Certain birth defects are caused by industrial solvents such as benzene (a metal degreaser) as well as toluene (a solvent for plastics) and trichloroethylene. Glycol-ethers, which are used in the manufacture of silicon chips, semiconductors and video displays, are well-known to increase the risk of developing birth defects.

Our experienced attorneys for birth defects have filed many lawsuits in the name of children who suffered from many birth defects due to an unintentional exposure to chemicals or toxic substances at work or at home. These lawsuits often involve complicated scientific analysis and expert witnesses, including toxicologists as well as epidemiologists, geneticists occupational medicine experts and embryologists.