How do we know if malpractice caused baby’s brain injury? Usually, we get this question a couple of times a month offline, and it is an important one. What this question essentially gets at is how do birth injury attorneys prove that medical malpractice is what caused the traumatic brain injury, usually HIE or hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy.
I cannot stress enough that just because there is a result in your child’s birth that was unexpected, this does not mean that medical malpractice is the cause of the injury. This can be frustration for some parents, but this is the state of the law in this area.
How Do We Know If Malpractice Caused Baby’s Brain Injury?
So how do we know if malpractice caused baby’s brain injury? It is done by understanding the proof elements for medical malpractice. In general, these cases will turn on whether there was a departure from the standard of care which caused the injury. To understand the standard of care, we use medical experts who will give opinions as to the standard of care. In addition, these experts will also opine as to whether this departure from the standard of care is indeed the cause of the injury.
That last sentence in the above paragraph deals with the element of causation. Causation is usually a hotly contested element in birth injury cases because sometime the doctors and medical professionals will content that they were not what caused the injury. This position may be advanced by suggestion that the reason for the brain injury is genetics, or developmental, or the baby having a stroke in-utero.
Birth injury attorneys are well familiar with these types of issues, and others, and will be on the lookout for these types of issues during their birth injury investigation for a family.
If you would like to speak with me further regarding an investigation into the cause of your baby’s HIE diagnosis, this is what I invite you to do. Pick up the phone can call me.
I talk with families all the time about MAS, HIE, CP (cerebral palsy) and I would be happy to listen to your story. I can be reached at 301-850-4832.
Marcus B. Boston, Esq.
2 Wisconsin Circle, Suite 700
Chevy Chase, Maryland 20815
1-833-4 BABY HELP
