Some of the most vulnerable victims of medical malpractice are newborn infants. Problems and medical complications related to childbirth and delivery often lead to lifelong issues that cause long-term medical issues for newborns. In some extreme cases, the infant might even die due to the negligent actions of the supervising doctor or medical practitioner.
In many cases, medical negligence might even lead to brain damage which causes cerebral palsy, if during delivery the infant suffers nerve damage or injury to the skull during a forceps delivery. In the wake of such tragedy, parents of the injured child often consult professional legal attorneys in order to initiate a lawsuit against the doctor and hospital for causing such irreparable harm to their infant.
A University of Chicago hospital is the recent recipient of such a lawsuit, with a mother suing the hospital and claiming medical malpractice by an attending doctor. Through the lawsuit, attorneys for the plaintiff cited that medically negligent treatment led to the baby contracting cerebral palsy assumedly while he was still a fetus. A Chicago medical malpractice attorney can help a parent or family of an injured newborn hold negligent doctors or hospitals accountable for birth injury.
The mother stated she had given a full and accurate medical history to the attending doctor, which revealed her past struggle with holding a pregnancy to full term. While pregnant with the baby boy, who now suffers from cerebral palsy, the mother stated she suffered from back pain and a few medical complications which were reported to the attending doctor.
The mother and her attorneys now claim that she should have been administered a certain hormone and the doctor should have performed a procedure on her cervix which both could have prevented the pre-term delivery of the child. The plaintiff in this case is seeking more than $50,000 in damages.
Source: Cook County Record, “Mother sues U of Chicago hospital over baby son’s cerebral palsy,” Dan Harkins, July 7, 2015