Has the hospital blamed you for your baby’s brain injury at birth? For many parents, confusion arises when they realize that the hospital is essentially blaming them for their child’s birth injury. As one mother put it, “Mr. Boston I did everything that my doctors told me to do during my pregnancy. How can they now come back and blame me for this?”
One of the main points of this Maryland medical malpractice educational article is to focus and explain to you some of the ways in which a hospital will defend itself in a brain birth injury case. It is my hope that at the conclusion of this article and accompanying video you will have a better understanding as to the motives of the hospital in some situations.
HOW TO PROVE A MARYLAND BIRTH INJURY CASE…
Birth injury cases in the state of Maryland fall under the umbrella of tort law. To be successful in these types of cases one must prove certain elements. These elements are duty, breach of duty, causation, and damages. For the purpose of this article I would like to focus on the element of causation.
Causation is a hotly contested issue in many medical malpractice cases in the state of Maryland. This is because a plaintiff must be able to tie their injury into something that the defendant did or did not do, thus proving causation. If the injury alleged cannot be tied down to something that the hospital or medical providers did or did not do then the causation element is missing. If this element is missing then more than likely you will not be successful in your case.
HOW DOES THE BLAME MANIFEST ITSELF?
Some of the mothers who I speak with about birth injuries explain to me that they had an uneventful pregnancy. They followed all of the directions of their doctors and other medical professionals and they thought that everything was going well. However at the time of birth things seemed to not go as planned.
When a brain injury at birth is present parents can sometimes notice certain things. The baby may be blue in color, suffer from seizures, have to be resuscitated, and taken to the NICU.
As the doctors begin to figure out what is wrong they may tell the parents things such as “we think that genetics may be the cause of why your baby has a brain injury.” Or the medical professionals may tell the parents that the cause of their baby’s brain injury is due to some type of abnormal development in utero.
HAS THE HOSPITAL BLAMED YOU FOR YOUR BABY’S BRAIN INJURY AT BIRTH?
For some parents, when they are told that their baby has suffered a brain injury at birth, they go and seek a second opinion. In some cases the second opinion doctor will disagree (in some cases the second opinion doctor will agree with the first doctor) with what has been told to the parents initially. The second opinion doctor may contradict what the original doctors told the family. For example, the second opinion doctor may say that genetics had nothing to do with the child’s injury but that the injury occurred during labor and delivery. Or the second opinion doctor may say that the child does not have an abnormality which led to the baby’s brain injury. When doctors conclude that the cause of the baby’s brain injury is due to something like genetics for example, then essentially the doctors are blaming the parents as the cause of the child’s brain injury at birth.
When hospitals use something like genetics as the cause of the baby’s birth injury then the hospital is saying that their actions or inaction did not lead to the child’s injury. Remember what I stated above, and that is that causation is an element that has to be proven when we are talking about a Maryland birth injury case. Using genetics to blame the parents and birth abnormalities in utero are two big defenses that hospitals used to defend themselves in these types of cases.
DO YOU NEED A SECOND OPINION?
Has the hospital blamed you for your baby’s brain injury at birth? To speak with me further about your baby’s brain injury at birth, this is what I invite you to do. Pick up the phone and give me a call. I can be reached at
301-850-4832. I answer birth injury questions like yours all the time and I would be happy to listen to your story.
Marcus B. Boston, Esq.
Boston Law Group, LLC
2 Wisconsin Circle, Suite 700
Chevy Chase, Maryland 20815
301-850-4832
