Oxygen Deficiency

Tenacious Attorneys Assisting Boston Families with Birth Injury Cases

Birth injuries are emotional and traumatic for the baby and his or her family. Instead of celebrating the addition of a new family member, the family is often fraught with worry and questions about whether the baby will suffer a lifetime of pain and disabilities. At Breakstone, White & Gluck, our Boston birth injury lawyers have handled medical malpractice cases on behalf of families throughout Massachusetts, including cases involving oxygen deficiency. This is a complex and challenging area of the law, which means that it is a good idea to seek guidance from an attorney who has handled many birth injury cases and who knows how to help you identify a strategic way to assert your rights. We are ready to help you protect your legal right to the compensation that you deserve.

Recognizing Oxygen Deficiency Injuries

There are many serious consequences that can result from oxygen deficiency at birth. The brain requires oxygen to function at any stage of life, and deprivation of oxygen can leave a baby facing serious, lifelong impairments and disabilities. Depending on how serious the deprivation is, the disabilities can be severe and can even cause delays in the baby’s development and progress. Although the dangers associated with oxygen deficiency are preventable, many medical professionals make serious errors when it comes to identifying the risk of oxygen deprivation or treating the symptoms in a timely fashion.

There are many different medical terms that describe oxygen deprivation. One of these is hypoxia, which occurs when the baby has a low level of oxygen in his or her blood. This can happen when the lungs are not fully developed or when the oxygen source is cut off for a period of time, such as by having an umbilical cord wrapped around his or her throat. By comparison, anoxia occurs when a baby goes for a few minutes without oxygen and is therefore completely deprived. There are many different causes of oxygen deficiency, including preeclampsia, eclampsia, fetal distress, umbilical cord prolapse, waiting too long to perform a cesarean section, placenta complications, and shoulder dystocia.

Seeking Compensation Following a Birth Injury

If your baby suffered oxygen deficiency during birth, and you believe that it was a result of medical negligence, you should speak to a qualified birth injury lawyer as soon as possible. There are many different elements and aspects of your case that your attorney will need to investigate and ultimately prove. In general, medical professionals are required to treat each patient according to a certain standard of care. This standard of care has been defined as using the same practices and protocols that similarly equipped medical professionals in the same locality would use when treating a patient with similar symptoms. Therefore, if your attorney can show that the medical professional who treated you failed to recognize common signs of oxygen deficiency that most other professionals in the area would have been able to recognize, it is likely that a strong case can be made to prove medical negligence against the care provider.

Establishing negligence in a medical malpractice case can be challenging, due to the complexity of most medical conditions and cases. It is usually essential to hire a seasoned expert who can testify about your case and show how the defendant’s conduct led to your injuries.

Schedule a Consultation with a Diligent Boston Lawyer for Your Birth Injury Case

There is no amount of money that can truly make your family whole again after a devastating birth injury, but it can help you cope with the financial stress. Our seasoned team of trial lawyers can assist you with all phases of the process, including investigating your claim and gathering evidence. We serve people dealing with the impact of a birth injury related to oxygen deficiency or other consequences of labor and delivery negligence in cities such as Boston, Cambridge, Waltham, Lowell, Newton, Somerville, Quincy, Dedham, Norwood, Brookline, Attleboro, Barnstable, Brockton, Plymouth, Worcester, Lawrence, and Springfield. To schedule your free consultation, call us at 1-800-379-1244 or contact us online to get started.