A birth injury lawsuit has reached a $5.3 million settlement for a young family after the baby was born with serious problems, including brain damage

The lawsuit was filed over failure to use neonatal cooling therapy to treat the infant. According to the lawsuit, neonatal cooling therapy was required to treat the baby for her birth injury, ultimately minimizing its impact.

However, doctors failed to treat the baby with neonatal cooling therapy, which would have required an immediate transfer to a regional hospital instead of the birthing center in rural Florida where she was born. Though she was transferred shortly after birth to a local hospital, that hospital had no neonatologist to perform the necessary neonatal cooling therapy.

The baby’s pediatrician testified that he was aware of neonatal cooling therapy, but believed it to be new and experimental rather than a plausible approach to the baby’s treatment. Neonatal cooling therapy has actually been a well-accepted practice since the late 2000s.

Neonatal cooling therapy can help mitigate a number of serious birth injuries, including permanent brain injuries and acute birth asphyxia. However, neonatal cooling therapy must be done within the first few hours of life. Unfortunately, the pediatrician waited to transfer the baby to a regional hospital until the window of time for neonatal cooling therapy had passed.

According to one attorney involved in the case, “For so many years there was nearly nothing doctors could do in the neonatal intensive care units to help these poor babies with birth injuries. We finally have a treatment that really works, and it was so frustrating to see a missed opportunity to help this poor child because the doctor was not paying attention to medical advances. It is my hope that this recovery for the family will help to educate other doctors about this therapy, so that the next baby will have a better chance at making a full recovery.”

Hundreds of families like this one file lawsuits each year after they realize their child suffered a birth injury, potentially due to negligence or even medical malpractice. Families hope that compensation from a birth injury lawsuit will help them with medical expenses going forward.

Common birth injuries include:

• Cerebral palsy
• Oxygen deprivation
• Mental retardation
• Erb’s palsy
• Klumpke’s palsy
• Brachial plexus
• Retinopathy of prematurity

If you are the parent of a child who has suffered a birth injury, this may be caused by negligence or medical malpractice. You have the right to know how this happened to your child.

Of course, not all birth injuries are the result of medical malpractice. For many children, these things just happen, especially when delivered using obstetrical forceps, vacuum extraction, or cesarean section. For others, however, injuries like substantial nerve damage during birth may have been avoided with the proper care. An experienced medical malpractice lawyer can help you find answers.

Filing a Birth Injury Lawsuit

If your child has suffered from a birth injury caused by lack of neonatal cooling therapy or other problem, you may be able to file a lawsuit. While filing a lawsuit cannot take away the pain and suffering of these conditions, it can help to alleviate the financial burden caused by medical expenses and lost wages.