Why You Should Hire a Birth Defect Lawyer

If your child was born with a birth defect, it can cause a huge impact on you and your family. Therapy costs, medical bills and other losses can quickly mount up.

A Hyattsville birth defect lawyer could assist you in filing claim for compensation for the cost of caring for your disabled child. A legal claim for birth defects could be complex, so you should consult a lawyer as soon as you can.

Medical Malpractice

Medical professionals are required to follow a standard when treating pregnant women or their babies. A doctor could be held responsible for damages if their actions result in birth defects or injuries. A DC lawyer who has expertise in lawsuits involving birth defects will help you determine if your child's condition was caused by a medical mistake during pregnancy or the birth.

A doctor can be held accountable for birth injuries if they fail to detect fetal distress or do not respond appropriately. This can lead to a number serious problems including hypoxic-ischemic neuropathy and brain injuries like cerebral palsy.

Birth injuries differ from birth defects in that they are caused by circumstances during pregnancy, birth, or labor. The causes of injuries include ailments like Erb's palsy which is caused when the nerves that stimulate and control the arms of an infant are stretched or damaged during birth and caput succedaneum, an increase in the size of the scalp. Both of them can cause permanent disability and ongoing treatment will cost a lot of money. A Washington, DC lawyer who specializes in birth defects can provide a free consultation to look over your case and determine the most appropriate course for you and your baby.

Prescription Drugs

A birth defect lawyer could be able to help parents determine the reason for the birth injury or defect. Many birth defects result from genes or other factors that occur during pregnancy. However, medications can also cause birth defects. A variety of commonly used medications can have a negative impact on the fetuses. This is especially true in the first three months of pregnancy. This includes anti-nausea medication such as NSAIDs, chemotherapy medicines including certain antibiotics, and more. These drugs have been linked with an increased risk of limb deformities and brain defects, heart defects and craniosynostois.

It is the duty of a doctor to consider these risks when prescribing medicines for pregnant women. If doctors fail to adhere to this standard of care, then they may be held liable for negligence. Pharmaceutical companies can be held liable as well for not properly warning mothers of the dangers associated with their medications. For example, Zofran, a medication used to treat nausea in cancer patients, has been found to significantly increase the risk of congenital defects that are major in the first trimester of a pregnancy.

A birth defect lawyer can help a family receive compensation for the future and present medical expenses associated with the disability or injury and also loss of earnings and quality of life. This could include hospital fees medical expenses, doctor's fees and pharmaceutical costs and other expenses in addition to assistive devices, and therapy.

Chemical Exposure

A birth defect lawyer can bring a lawsuit for parents of children with congenital disabilities because of the negligence of businesses who expose pregnant women to chemicals and medications that cause birth defects. These lawyers are specially trained to find out the cause of the birth defect in order to sue companies that expose mothers to teratogens while they work or at their homes.

Metals, fungicides and herbicides as well as pesticides are some of the chemicals that can cause birth defects. These chemicals are known as Teratogens as they interfere with the healthy development of the fetus through producing chemical changes that block normal cell function, or can cause organs to be malformed. These chemicals are used in diverse settings like manufacturing of semiconductors, metal cleaning and paint production.

Other chemicals that can cause birth defects are aliphatic hydrocarbons, such as dichloroethane and trichloroethylene perchloroethylene. These chemicals have been proven to cause heart defects in babies born to mothers exposed while they were in the womb.

Parents have filed lawsuits in order to make companies accountable for the families of soldiers who live at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, to harmful chemicals. Some of these birth defect lawyers have won significant settlements for families who had their children born with severe defects as a result of the toxic chemical exposures at the base.

Environmental Exposure

Some birth defects can be caused by a combination of medical negligence and environmental conditions. If a family suspects that the birth defects of a baby could be the result of medical negligence, prescription drug overdose, or exposure to harmful chemicals, they should consult an DC birth injury attorney to discuss their case.

Chemicals and other pollutants in the environment can cause birth defects of a serious nature when they are consumed or taken in by pregnant women. Teratogens are the name for these chemicals. More than 4 million chemicals exist in our food, air and water and some can be harmful if they come into contact with a woman who is pregnant.

Arsenic in drinking water or cadmium from coal that is contaminated for instance, could cause birth defects and other health problems. Certain birth defects are linked to industrial solvents like benzene (a metal degreaser) and toluene (a solvent for plastics) and trichloroethylene. Glycol-ethers also increase the risk of birth defects in women. These chemicals are used to manufacture semiconductors display devices, silicon chip displays and video displays.

LK's experienced birth defect attorneys have filed a variety of lawsuits on behalf of children suffering from a variety of birth defects due to improper exposure to chemicals and toxic substances at work or in their homes. These lawsuits often involve complex scientific analysis and experts as witnesses, like toxicologists, epidemiologists, geneticists, occupational medicine experts, and embryologists.