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Birth Injury Compensation Claims

If you or a member of your family has suffered a personal injury caused by the negligence of medical professionals during a birth, our specialist personal injury lawyers may be able to help you claim compensation. Contact us today on 0800 032 8511 for claim advice, or by completing a claim enquiry form.

Birth Injuries
Making a Clinical Negligence Claim
Birth Injury Compensation
Specialist Clinical Negligence Lawyers

Successful Birth Injury Compensation Claims

Birth Injuries

During some births there can be injury to either the mother, the baby or both. Some of these birth injuries are unavoidable, however each year there are a number of cases where injuries are caused by medical mistakes.  Some of the types of birth injury that can occur include:

Cerebral Palsy

Cerebral palsy is one of the main conditions that can be caused by the negligence of clinical staff. Research is still ongoing, however it is estimated that as many as 20% of cerebral palsy cases are as the result of mismanagement of the birth process and the failure to act quickly when there are signs of trouble. The condition is lifelong and devastating to the families affected.  See our cerebral palsy information page for further advice.

Erbs Palsy (Brachial Plexus Injury / Shoulder Dystocia)

Shoulder dystocia (stuck shoulders) can be identified during labour and steps should be taken to avoid injury during delivery. Failure to correctly identify this could mean there has been clinical negligence. It occurs when the head has been delivered but the shoulders are too large and are impacted on the mother’s pelvis.

When the baby is delivered, if it is larger than average, there can be an injury to the neck which results in damage to the nerves (brachial plexus nerves) which control the muscles in the shoulder, arm or hand, and the nerves are paralyzed. This injury may result from shoulder dystocia, causing the nerves to stretch or tear, although this is not always the case.

Symptoms for the baby may be a limp or paralyzed arm, lack of muscle control in the arm, hand, or wrist. And there may be a lack of feeling or sensation in the arm or hand.

Injuries to the Mother

Injuries to the mother can include excessive perineal tearing, and septicaemia caused by failure to ensure that the placenta is fully delivered. The largest compensation payment awarded by the NHS was to a mother who suffered a heart attack during labour, but, due to a series of hospital errors, was not resuscitated in time to avoid serious damage to her brain.

Other Birth Injuries

There are many other types of birth injury, including varying degrees of damage to the brain and scarring or nerve damage caused by tools used during assisted deliveries (e.g. forceps).  Negligence during the birth of a baby may even result in stillbirth.

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Making a Clinical Negligence Claim

Clinical negligence cases can be both lengthy and complicated. The support and assistance of an experienced personal injury lawyer is invaluable. The Legal Line's lawyers are specialists in all aspects of medical negligence and can provide expert claim advice at all stages of your case.

In every case, medical evidence will be required and it is necessary to show that the person you are making a claim against owed you a duty of care, that they breached that duty of care (what is known in law as negligent), and that the injury sustained was a reasonably foreseeable consequence of that negligence. Your lawyer will be able to collate all of the necessary information and evidence in order to pursue your claim to the best possible conclusion.

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Birth Injury Compensation

There are two elements to a compensation award.

The first, called general damages, is for the pain and suffering you may have gone through and any loss of amenity (perhaps an inability to wash your car, look after your garden, walk the dog). The award for loss of amenity can be for a short period after a birth injury or for ever if that is what the medical evidence supports.

Whereas the first element of compensation cannot make you better and can only really apologise, the second element of a compensation award, for your losses and expenses,
is known as special damages and aims to put you back in a position financially as if the medical accident had never occurred. It is important to keep receipts for any expenditure you have related to the birth injury so that these can be reclaimed.

Awards for children are awarded in a number of ways. They can be invested under court supervision until the child reaches the age of 18 or, in cases of disability, part of the settlement can be set out into periodical payments. This is to enable payment of regular expenses such as equipment, carers and transport facilities.

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Specialist Clinical Negligence Lawyers

The Legal Line's lawyers have extensive experience in recovering compensation for the victims of clinical negligence. They can provide expert claim advice on all areas of making a birth injury claim and offer the assistance and guidance that you need.

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Successful Birth Injury Compensation Claims

Our solicitors have assisted many people affected by birth injuries in recovering compensation.  Details of some of these cases can be found in our news and success stories sections, with further case summaries below:

• During an emergency caesarean section to deliver her baby, our client suffered an injury to her ureter as the result of a surgical error. She had to undergo further operations to repair the damage and a lengthy stay in hospital. During her recovery she suffered a lot of pain, discomfort and disruption. Her husband, parents and parents-in-law were involved in turns staying in the hospital to care for the baby – as there were no nursery nurses on the surgical ward - and at home to care for her other young child. Her sister expressed milk to help when our client was too ill to feed the baby. She was not able to spend as much time with her baby as she would have wanted and as a result of this birth injury, our client had to extend her maternity leave to recover.
  
  Even when she was fit to go home she still required a lot of assistance from her husband and family in caring for her children and home, as well as paid work after he had to go back to work. Her claim included the costs of this care and services and the family’s travel, as well as loss of earnings for her and her husband.
  
  Fortunately after a very difficult few months she went on to make a good recovery.
  
  Our specialist clinical negligence lawyers were able to recover £18,500 compensation in respect of our client’s injuries, losses and expenses.

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