Has Your Child Developed Erb’s Palsy?

Erb’s palsy (or brachial plexus palsy) is frequently a result of preventable medical errors during childbirth. A Halifax medical malpractice lawyer can hold medical providers responsible and help your family recover compensation for your medical expenses and related losses.

Erb’s palsy happens when the brachial plexus nerves are damaged. This damage may happen during childbirth and affect an arm and shoulder, causing paralysis or weakness. Erb’s palsy injuries can vary in severity.

The mildest cases of Erb’s palsy heal naturally, but more serious cases may require surgery and long-term treatment. Erb’s palsy treatment can be time-consuming, meaning that new parents may have to miss work and lose some of their wages.

What Can Cause Erb’s Palsy?

Erb’s palsy is usually preventable and may result from an obstetrician’s or other medical provider’s negligence during the delivery process. Erb’s palsy usually happens after pulling on a newborn’s head or neck and damaging nerves that are linked to the spinal cord.

Shoulder dystocia can happen when a child’s shoulders get stuck after the head is delivered. If not handled appropriately, shoulder dystocia may lead to Erb’s palsy. Other medical negligence that may lead to Erb’s palsy includes:

  1. failing to perform a required C-section
  2. applying excessive force to the baby’s head and neck during childbirth
  3. misuse of delivery tools such as vacuum extractors and forceps
  4. improperly holding the baby’s shoulders in a head-first delivery
  5. pulling improperly on a child’s feet in a breech birth

You can reduce the risk of Erb’s palsy by staying in good health during pregnancy, eating properly, getting enough sleep, and discussing the risks with your doctors to determine if you should have a cesarean (C-section) delivery.

What is Required of Obstetricians and Delivery Room Staff?

During the pregnancy and delivery processes, medical providers should monitor both mother and child and be prepared for unexpected complications. If medical providers don’t take the proper steps to avoid preventable birth injuries, their failure to act is medical negligence.

Not every birth-related injury is caused by medical negligence or malpractice. The parents of Erb’s palsy victims will need guidance from a Nova Scotia medical malpractice lawyer who has substantial experience handling Erb’s palsy cases.

The victims of birth-related injuries may need treatment and care – and may need to pay for that treatment and care – for the rest of their lives. Parents must retain a birth injury lawyer who will fight effectively for the maximum available compensation.

What Are the Effects of Erb’s Palsy?

If your newborn develops Erb’s palsy, you need to know its effects. In mild cases, many youngsters improve or fully recover three or four months after birth. Other newborns suffer long-term difficulties and may not have full control of a shoulder and elbow.

Untreated, Erb’s palsy may cause severe disability of the shoulder, arm, and hand. About twenty percent of Erb’s palsy injuries result in permanent arm and shoulder paralysis. Physiotherapy exercises can help you keep your child’s arm functioning – hopefully to heal by itself.

When the damage is serious, surgery may be required. If a baby with Erb’s palsy does not recover full use of the shoulder and arm by age two, the child will probably never have full use of that arm and shoulder.

What Are a Parent’s Rights?

Far too many birth injuries are catastrophic or permanently disabling. When negligence is the reason for a birth injury in Nova Scotia, the law entitles parents to pursue compensation for their child’s ongoing medical care and treatment.

When parents retain the services and advice of a Halifax medical malpractice lawyer, one of the first steps your lawyer will take is to review the medical chart to determine how the injury happened and identify every party that may have liability for your child’s Erb’s palsy.

When a nurse, obstetrician, anesthesiologist, or any other party that provides medical services or care is negligent during childbirth, that party may have liability and may be a defendant in your medical malpractice lawsuit.

What Will a Lawyer Do for You and Your Child?

When medical negligence in the delivery process leads to Erb’s palsy, a Nova Scotia medical malpractice lawyer will work on your family’s behalf to prove that your child’s injury was preventable. An Erb’s palsy lawyer can help you and your child by:

  1. discussing your parental rights and explaining your legal options
  2. determining how and why your child developed Erb’s palsy
  3. determining which medical providers may be held liable
  4. filing a medical malpractice lawsuit against the responsible medical providers
  5. compiling medical records, witness statements, and other evidence
  6. negotiating for the compensation your family is entitled to recover
  7. taking your medical malpractice lawsuit to trial if necessary

How Much Will Justice Cost Your Family?

Birth injury lawyers in Nova Scotia represent their clients on a contingent fee basis. You pay no lawyer’s fee upfront and no fee unless and until your lawyer recovers your family’s compensation.

If your child is a victim of Erb’s palsy caused by medical malpractice, and if your birth injury lawyer proves it, your family will recover compensation for your child’s current and projected future medical expenses and related losses like loss of income and pain and suffering.

In Nova Scotia, the deadline for medical malpractice claims, including claims related to Erb’s palsy and other birth injuries, is two years from the date the injury was, or should have been, discovered. But in claims involving a minors, the time limit does not start to run until the child reaches the age of majority (19 years of age).

In other words, no matter when your child was injured, it may not be too late to pursue a claim. Parents should not wait two years to consult a birth injury lawyer. Contact McKiggan Hebert Lawyers as soon as you know your child is an Erb’s palsy victim.

Take Your Concerns to McKiggan Hebert Lawyers

For more than thirty years, the lawyers at McKiggan Hebert have fought for families affected by birth-related injuries in Halifax and across Nova Scotia. Canadian Lawyer Magazine has named us one of Canada’s Top Ten Injury Law Firms in Canada.

The lawyers at McKiggan Hebert know how to resolve the most challenging medical malpractice cases. Call the Halifax offices of McKiggan Hebert Lawyers now – at 902-706-2298 – if your child is a victim of Erb’s palsy or another birth-related injury.

If a negligent medical provider injures your newborn child, McKiggan Hebert Lawyers will use every available legal tool to prove it. We will fight aggressively and effectively to win your compensation and put the law on your side.