While a birth injury and a birth defect can both have physical or cognitive effects on a child, they differ on a medical and legal level. Understanding this difference is critical as a parent with a child who has been diagnosed with any type of medical condition before, during or just after birth. The distinction can determine your family’s legal rights and options.
What Is a Birth Injury?
A birth injury describes trauma suffered by the child before, during or shortly after the birthing process. It can refer to various physical injuries, including:
- Facial paralysis from nerve injury
- Bone fracture
- Intracranial hemorrhage
- Hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy (HIE)
- Brain injuries
- Cephalohematoma
- Cerebral palsy
- Brachial plexus injuries
- Erb’s palsy
Birth injuries can arise due to complications from a difficult labor, but they may also stem from carelessness by the medical team. Common examples are the misuse of forceps, failing to properly monitor for fetal distress and failing to take proper action in an emergency.
What Is a Birth Defect?
A birth defect is a condition that develops while the child is still developing in the womb. Defects can affect any part of a child’s body, with common locations including the mouth, heart, abdomen, brain, spine and limbs. Birth defects can be caused by external factors, such as exposure to harmful substances during pregnancy. Some cases are genetic, while still others have no discernible cause.
Understanding Your Family’s Legal Rights in Minnesota
Whether your child has a birth injury or a birth defect, it may be possible to hold someone accountable if the medical condition was caused by negligence. The definition of negligence is the failure to act or behave with ordinary care, resulting in harm to another person.
In the medical industry, negligence is often referred to as medical malpractice and describes a health care provider falling short of the correct standards of patient care. When this results in a birth injury or defect, the provider can be held accountable.
Birth Injury Lawsuits
Your family may have a birth injury claim if a doctor, nurse or obstetrician made a mistake that injured your child during the birthing process. In this scenario, your family may be able to bring a lawsuit against the health care provider for harm done. You must provide evidence showing that the health care provider caused your child’s injury by failing to act with adequate care.
Medical Negligence and Birth Defects
If your child was born with a birth defect, medical negligence could also be involved. A doctor may have failed to conduct the proper prenatal tests to screen for the condition, for example, or prescribed a dangerous medication during pregnancy that caused the birth defect.
In these situations, a family has the right to file a personal injury or wrongful death claim against the health care provider for negligence. If a dangerous medication was involved, a product liability claim may also be possible against the drug manufacturer for defects. If your child has been affected by a birth injury or defect and your family wishes to discuss the possibility of a lawsuit, contact Goldenberg Lauricella, PLLC for a no-cost, no-pressure case evaluation with an experienced birth injury lawyer in Minneapolis, Minnesota.