Projecting the future care needs of a baby with an HIE birth injury is essential when bringing birth injury case against hospitals, doctor, and nurses. As I have stated in past educational articles and supporting videos, many families are initially hesitant to speak with a birth injury attorney after their baby has suffered an HIE injury.
With that said, as time goes on, and medical care costs and other costs increase, families can be moved to seek help when they think that the cause of their baby’s HIE brain injury is due to medical malpractice. When projecting the future care needs for a baby with an HIE birth injury, one important tool that is used by birth injury attorneys like myself is certified life care planners. This post will go into depth as to the role these professionals play in the birth injury process.
Why Do Damages Even Matter?
Before getting to the above question, it is important to note that one of the elements which are present in a negligence case is damages. Damages is just a fancy way to say in our context the harm or loss endured. So damages can be the injury to the baby, the financial cost of past and future medical bills, lost wages, etc… All of these things, and more are accounted for when a negligence case is brought.
One other things to understand is that many states have what we call caps on the amount of damages that can be obtained when a tort negligence case is filed. I will not go into vast detail on this issue because each state can have different financial amounts for the caps. Also, the type of damages can be impacted differently. For example, in some instances, economic damages, and these would be damages like the financial cost of past and future medical bills, lost wages, etc… will not have caps in some jurisdictions but non-economic damages will. Non-economic damages will cover damages like pain and suffering.
If you have more questions about specific types of damages and whether caps apply, I suggest that you reach out and speak to an attorney in your jurisdiction for guidance. As i said above, each state can look at these issues differently and it is imperative to get accurate information on this topic.
Projecting Future Care Needs For A Baby With An HIE Birth Injury
When putting together a damages amount, especially for mediation and settlement, it is important to have an idea as to the needs of the baby not only today, but into the future. Life care plans are some of the tools that we use to accomplish this and help families.
Life care plans are prepared by experts called certified life care planners. Life care planners can be from a host of professional disciplines. For example, nursing, rehabilitation counselors, physicians, among others. These professionals are trained to understand not only disability, but also vocational industries. To put it another way, these professionals are trained to understand a wide variety of careers.
The life care planners will review the necessary medical records, interview the family, and in many instances visit them to get a first hand look into a typical day and the needs associated with that family.
If you have more questions regarding this issue and whether your baby’s HIE birth injury was caused by medical malpractice, what I invite you to do is give me a call at my contact information below. I woud be honored to listen to your story.
Marcus B. Boston, Esq.
9701 Apollo Dr. Suite 100
Largo, Maryland 20774
1-833-4 BABY HELP
