Expertise
We have helped hundreds of families whose child has been impacted by a birth injury.
Having a baby is an exciting time, an event that should be filled with great joy. Every expectant parent has dreams of a life full of accomplishment and happiness for their child. While most children are born healthy, a small number of newborns suffer injury at or near the time of birth. These traumatic birth events are devastating for every parent. Once the initial shock has started to wear off, most parents want to know what happened to their baby. Questions arise about why their baby was injured, and whether the injury could have and should have been prevented. This is the time to turn to a Birth Injury Lawyer for help. Finding the answers to these questions can be difficult. An experienced Birth Injury Lawyer can help answer these questions for parents. As personal injury lawyers with considerable experience in Birth Injury cases, we are here to help. If you have any questions about medical negligence leading to a Birth Injury, we may be able to help you find the answers.
What are birth injuries?
Most Birth Injuries are related to a disruption in blood flow to the baby’s brain, although other forms of trauma also occur at or around the time of birth. Injury to the baby’s brain from impaired blood flow to the brain can occur before labour, during labour and delivery, or shortly after birth. If severe enough, the impaired flow of oxygen can cause permanent injury to the baby’s brain, resulting in a diagnosis of Cerebral Palsy. Unfortunately, Cerebral Palsy is a permanent injury to the brain that often results in severe motor dysfunction, cognitive impairment and developmental delays. It can also affect vision and hearing and can often cause seizures. Cerebral Palsy resulting from birth trauma will have a dramatic impact on many aspects of their lives. They will have need for care, therapies and surgical interventions, often for life.
Other injuries from physical trauma can also occur, most notably from shoulder dystocia, resulting in injury to the nerves in the neck, shoulder and arm. Other forms of Birth Trauma are described below.
Types of birth injuries
Some examples of birth injuries would include:
- Fetal & Neonatal Stroke
- Hypoglycemia leading to brain damage
Obstetrical Errors
For some expectant parents, hearing about a new pregnancy means everything is going according to plan. For others, it may come as a big surprise. And for still others, it may be the culmination of a long and difficult effort to conceive.
No matter how they arrived at this point, for the next months they will all be travelling down a road filled with doctor’s appointments, tests, and learning how to prepare for the big day. In all cases, an obstetrical care-provider will be joining them for the ride. That care-provider may be an obstetrician, a family doctor, or a mid-wife.
Obstetricians are highly skilled medical specialists who focus on matters relating to preconception and fertility, pregnancy, birth and early postpartum care. Although family physicians can provide obstetrical care, higher risk pregnancies are generally managed by obstetricians.
Unfortunately, errors do occur due to the medical care provider in pregnancy and during labour and delivery. Where a newborn is suffering from some birth related injury, parents may not be aware if that injury is due to substandard obstetrical care. We can help make that determination. Nurses are also extensively involved in providing obstetrical care, with some birth injury due to nursing negligence.
Obstetrician errors.
What do obstetricians do?
Obstetricians specialize in managing health conditions associated with pregnancy, particularly high- risk pregnancies. In addition to routine prenatal care, screenings and tests, during the course of a pregnancy obstetricians will monitor fetal growth, size and position in the uterus. The obstetrician will look for anomalies and determine if there may be complications that require treatment.
Obstetricians also manage labour and delivery and provide postpartum care for approximately one month after birth. While pregnancy care and delivery can be provided by midwives for normal, low-risk pregnancies, an obstetrician (working with or without a midwife) is strongly recommended if the pregnancy is high-risk.
Some examples of potential high-risk pregnancies include:
- maternal health conditions (diabetes, high blood pressure).
- young (teenage) or older (35+) maternal age.
- multiple gestations.
- Overweight or underweight pregnant women.
- Fetal growth restriction.
What are some common obstetrical errors?
Obstetricians are highly trained and many of these doctors are exceptionally good at what they do. Unfortunately, errors happen. If the obstetrician’s own negligence or the negligence of their supporting staff or institution causes harm, they may be legally accountable for damages in a medical malpractice lawsuit.
Some types of obstetrical errors include:
- Failure to properly manage fetal-wellbeing during labour, leading to newborn neurological injury called hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy or HIE. Excessive use of oxytocin to promote uterine contractions, resulting in undue hypoxic stress on the fetus.
- Misuse of instruments, like forceps and vacuum, to achieve assisted deliveries.
- Failure to expedite delivery in cases of undue fetal stress, failure of labour to progress, and in cases of suspected infection. Failing to properly manage labour in view of known fetal or maternal complications, including prematurity, growth restricted fetuses, preeclampsia, and large for gestational age babies.
- Failure to properly manage emergent complications of labour, including uterine rupture, umbilical cord prolapse, and placental abruption. surgical errors - If surgery is required during the pregnancy or birth, an obstetrician must follow established protocols and procedures to ensure the safety of mother and baby.
- Lacerations, perforations, leaving foreign objects in the body, and improper remedial care can all have negative consequences for the health of the mother, her fetus or her child.
Commonly, these errors involve miscommunication amongst the obstetrical team, poor record keeping, improper assessment of fetal-well-being, a failure to respond to signs of undue fetal stress, the failure to address and resolve technical issues, and inadequate supervision.
Room for improvement.
A 2016 report entitled “Obstetrics Services in Canada: Advancing Quality and Strengthening Safety,” brought together four health safety organizations to survey the state of obstetrics in Canada and to determine which areas were working well and which areas had room for improvement.
The survey identified five areas most commonly encountered in medical-legal cases in the previous 10-year period. These included:
- fetal heart rate monitoring.
- induction and augmentation of labour.
- assisted vaginal delivery.
- timing of the decision to perform a caesarean section (C-section).
- managing shoulder dystocia.
Injuries caused by obstetrical errors.
An obstetrical error can cause or contribute to a variety of injuries sustained by a pregnant woman, her fetus or her child. By far, the most significant and devastating injuries seen in obstetrical malpractice cases is hypoxic-ischemic brain injury in the newborn. In many cases, the brain damage would have been prevented had the obstetrical care met applicable standards. Other serious injuries include brachial plexus injuries from shoulder dystocia and trauma to the newborn that might lead to skull fractures and brain hemorrhage.
Maternal injuries can also be significant, including: perineal injury (blood loss, skin, tissue and muscle damage, injury to the vaginal mucosa or anal sphincter), pelvic floor injury (muscle and nerve damage, prolapsed organs), postpartum infection, and spinal injuries from epidurals.
Help when you’re hurt.
An injury caused by an obstetrical error can result in pain, suffering, and disability. Obstetricians, nurses, and midwives will be legally accountable to you and your child for the failure to meet applicable standards of care that results in harm. The burden of caring for children affected by obstetrical malpractice is enormous, both emotionally and financially and appropriate compensation will be provided to you and your family where malpractice can be proven.
Gluckstein Lawyers has highly experience medical malpractice lawyers to help you with your claim arising out of obstetrical error. As one of Canada’s leading birth injury law firms, our lawyers have the knowledge, skill and experience to deal with even the most complex of these cases.
When you contact our office for a no cost, no obligation initial consultation, you can be assured you will be received with the compassion, empathy, and he attentive care you need and deserve. Once you explain what has happened and how it has affected you and your loved ones, we will carefully explain your various rights and options. If we believe we can help you launch a successful claim, we will gladly offer to be your legal representative and advocate.
A commitment to full-circle care.
There are other birth injury lawyers out there who may be able to take on your case. Beyond our sterling reputation among our peers, we believe our commitment to full-circle client care truly sets us apart. When we treat clients as we would treat our own family, it demonstrates that we care about you and your family beyond the life of a case. We care about you as a person and will do whatever we can to help you as you begin what should be a healing journey.
Gluckstein Lawyers’ renowned client liaisons will be an important point of contact for you as your case develops. They will not only answer your questions and provide updates, but also simply to check in to see how you’re doing. These client liaisons, some of whom have had their own personal injury cases, understand what kind of information, resources and support will be most helpful to you.
You may be worried about your ability to afford a lawyer. If you pursue a civil action with Gluckstein’s obstetrical error birth injury lawyers, we will only receive payment if we are successful in negotiating a settlement for you or obtaining a court award.
If you or a loved one has experienced the trauma of a serious obstetrical error, you should know that you are not alone. Trust the team at Gluckstein Lawyers to be your tireless advocate when you need it the most.
- Birth Injury microsite
- Gluckstein main site
What our birth trauma lawyers can do
If you think your child or grandchild has suffered a Birth Injury that might have been preventable, we can help make that determination. We start by meeting with you to get the facts. We then obtain all the relevant medical records and perform a detailed and comprehensive review. Where indicated, we will consult with highly qualified, respected and independent doctors to get the answers you need and deserve.
Consultation
There is no fee charged for your initial consultation about your Birth Trauma case. In our first meeting, we will carefully discuss the relevant obstetrical history as well as the circumstances surrounding labour and delivery. We will obtain the antenatal records, the labour and delivery records, the fetal heart tracings and the newborn records, at no cost to you. Following our careful analysis of those records, we will again meet with you to discuss our findings and move your case in the right direction, again at no cost to you.
Investigation
If concerns are identified, following our review of your Birth Trauma case and our meeting with you to discuss the records and issues, we will consult with highly trained medical experts. We seek support from these medical experts to demonstrate that the health care provided did not lead up to reasonable expectations – called a breach of the standard of care. We also seek medical support to prove that the failure to provide proper medical care resulted in your child’s Birth Injury – called “causation”. Once we have the required expert support to establish your case, we can proceed with a birth injury claim for compensation for your child and your family.
Building the case
The goal of a Birth Trauma medical malpractice claim is to get your child and your family the justice and compensation you deserve for an injury that should have been avoided. The economic and emotional burden of caring for a child injured by Birth Trauma is enormous. All affected families are in need of substantial assistance. Your Birth Trauma Lawyer must ensure all the required steps are taken to get the compensation you deserve. These cases are complex and usually take many years to prosecute. Due to the complexity of these cases, it is important that you select a Birth Trauma lawyer with both experience and credentials
Contact a birth injury lawyer today
If you and your family have been affected by Birth Trauma, Gluckstein Lawyers can help you. We have a team which includes lawyers, clerks and a client liaison who herself has experienced the entire process of a birth trauma case. Our birth injury lawyers in Toronto, Ottawa, and Niagara, Ontario have vast experience in these cases and will tirelessly advocate for your child and your family.
Contact us for a free consultation today.
How long do I have to file a lawsuit if I suspect my child has sustained a birth injury or perinatal injury?
Typically, in Ontario, you have two years from the day which the injury occurred, or the day you discovered that the injury had occurred, to bring a lawsuit or file a claim relating to the personal injury. In the case of a birth or perinatal injury, the limitation period does not start until the child reaches the age of majority, which in Ontario is 18 years old. The limitation period can be delayed even further if, when the child reaches the age of majority, he or she remains legally “incapable” of commencing litigation because of a physical, mental, or psychological condition. In this case, the limitation period does not begin to run until a Litigation Guardian is appointed for the purposes of the lawsuit.
It is best to contact a lawyer early to ensure that proper steps are taken and that deadlines are not missed. You do not have to retain a lawyer right away, but it can be helpful to learn about your legal rights early.
How will I find out what happened to my child?
Our lawyers will use a combination of resources to determine what happened in the context of a birth or perinatal injury. We will start the investigative process by obtaining the medical records and by gathering information from our clients. We will then seek out the most appropriate medical and non-medical experts to interpret and provide opinions and expertise as to whether there was a breach of the standard of care, whether that breach caused the injuries suffered, and the extent of the injuries suffered. Throughout the litigation process, we will receive further evidence as to what happened through the exchange of documents between parties and through the Examination for Discovery process.
What will legal action cost? What will I have to pay?
Generally, there are no costs to our clients throughout the course of litigation. Our firm carries the cost of litigation and any disbursements. When your matter is resolved either through settlement or at trial, our firm will take a portion of the settlement for our fees and disbursements. Our lawyers will explain the retainer and fee arrangements clearly at the initial consultation.