A Primer on Birth Injury Cases and How to Keep Them Simple

 The following article was contributed by Nelson Tyrone of the Tyrone Law Firm to CaseMetrix Legal Database service in March of 2013, for upcoming publication. Please read below for more information on birth injury cases and how to present them to a jury.

Our firm recently had success in a birth injury case in Gwinnett County, Georgia. In that case we represented the family of Kailey Watson against the labor and delivery team that delivered her and the hospital where they worked.https://askcompetentlawyer.com/ Following her delivery, Kailey was diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy. The term "cerebral palsy" refers to several different kinds of permanent brain injuries that occur before, during, or shortly after birth. Victims of cerebral palsy can suffer a variety of symptoms including: limited movement, speech difficulties, learning disabilities, visual problems, hearing problems, and Epilepsy, seizures or spasms. Kailey suffered many of these. And by the time of trial Kailey was a ten year-old girl who suffered grand-mal seizures, had limited use of her right arm and leg, and whose intellectual development had stopped at the level of a three year-old.

In Kailey's case the jury was faced with two very different stories of how her injuries occurred. Our story was that she had suffered a Hypoxic injury (lack of oxygen during delivery). The Defense claimed she had developed an infection. Although there was medicine and experts supporting both sides, the jury found our story the most credible. They returned a verdict for Kailey of $12.9 Million Dollars.

The purpose of this article is to provide three things: first, a primer for lawyers on actionable birth injuries and to give them a very basic starting point if they have a parent who comes to them with a child who has suffered complications from delivery like Kailey. Second, an outline of the kinds of experts and their specialties that are often required to successfully litigate a birth-injury case. And third, a reminder to "keep it simple" when teaching complex medicine to a jury.

I. Common Types of Birth Injuries
There are several common types of injuries (and causes of injuries) that lawyers are referring to when they refer to "birth injuries". Though not a complete list, in general, there are birth injuries that result from Hypoxia (a lack of oxygen to the unborn baby); injuries that result from difficulty delivering the baby's shoulder (called Shoulder Dystocia); and injuries that result from attempts to extract an unborn baby during delivery (forceps or suction injuries).

Fetal Distress from lack of oxygen (Hypoxia): Fetal distress, or hypoxia occurs when the unborn baby is deprived of oxygen, often because of umbilical cord complications. The first indication of fetal distress is an abnormal heart rate. In a competent labor and delivery team the unborn baby's heart rate should be carefully monitored by doctors and medical staff using electronic fetal heart equipment such as the fetal heart monitor (a device that registers both the unborn baby's heart rate in conjunction with the mother's contractions.) If an abnormality is found suggesting that the unborn baby is not tolerating the labor well, there are immediate steps that can and should be taken to prevent birth injury, including:

• Giving the mother more oxygen,
• Stopping the use of Pitocin (which stimulates contractions),
• Turning the mother onto her left side, or
• Delivering the baby as quickly as possible using forceps or by Caesarean Section (C-Section).