Jacksonville Birth Injury Attorneys

Seeking Justice for Families After Medical Negligence Nationwide

Making the decision to expand your family can be a magical and exciting time for parents. A critical step to preparing for the birth of an unborn child is enlisting trusted guidance and treatment from a qualified medical team to administer safe care and protect the well-being of both mother and baby. 

Unfortunately, medical professionals aren’t immune to mistakes. Negligent errors by healthcare providers during pregnancy and childbirth can jeopardize the lives of the baby and mother-to-be, resulting in a wide range of birth injuries. If you or your child suffered a birth injury due to negligence during pregnancy or childbirth, our compassionate birth injury lawyers can help you pursue justice for the unimaginable hardships you’ve suffered. 

At Edwards & Ragatz, P.A., our caring Jacksonville attorneys have a longstanding reputation for securing top national verdicts and extraordinary results for our clients. With extensive knowledge in many complex legal areas, including medical malpractice and personal injury law, you can trust us to represent your best interests while working to maximize the value of your birth injury claim. When you partner with our firm, we’ll work tirelessly to hold all liable parties accountable, allowing you to focus on healing.

If you were harmed by negligence during childbirth, turn to a firm with a history of record-setting verdicts. Call (904) 295-1050 to schedule a free consultation.

When Can Medical Negligence Cause Birth Injuries? 

During pregnancy and childbirth, medical malpractice can result in preventable harm to mothers and their babies. While not every birth injury is caused by negligence on the part of healthcare providers, it’s crucial for parents and families to understand the warning signs and take swift legal action if they suspect harm due to medical negligence. 

Common types of medical negligence that may result in birth injuries include: 

• Failure to monitor fetal distress 
• Use of excessive force during delivery
• Improper use of forceps and other instruments
• Administering incorrect medications or dosages
• Delayed interventions and failure to detect or treat

If you or your child suffered a birth injury due to malpractice by healthcare providers during pregnancy or delivery, turn to our compassionate birth injury lawyers to relentlessly pursue justice on your behalf. With a history of record-breaking medical malpractice verdicts and decades of legal experience, our Jacksonville attorneys can aggressively protect your rights while advocating for the fair compensation you deserve.

Types of Birth Injuries Resulting from Negligence

Medical negligence during childbirth can lead to a variety of birth injuries, each with potentially serious long-term implications for the child and their family. 

Common types of birth injuries resulting from medical negligence include: 

• Erb’s palsy: Also known as Erb-Duchenne paralysis, Erb’s palsy causes nerve damage to tissue connecting the arm and shoulder. This birth injury can result from medical negligence due to improper pressure or pulling on the baby’s shoulders, head, or neck during delivery.    
• Cerebral palsy: This movement disorder entails brain damage due to excessive force or pulling during childbirth and other forms of medical negligence, such as failure to detect and treat fetal distress or maternal infections.
• Shoulder dystocia: This complication occurs when the baby’s shoulder becomes stuck behind the mother's pelvic bone, leading to nerve damage and other birth injuries.
• Kernicterus: This birth injury entails brain damage due to high levels of bilirubin in the newborn's blood, a condition commonly caused by untreated jaundice.
• Spinal cord injuries: These injuries can occur from excessive force during delivery, resulting in partial or complete paralysis.
• Periventricular leukomalacia (PVL): PVL is a common brain injury in premature babies. When medical negligence or malpractice occurs during delivery, the infant may suffer blood vessel damage and insufficient oxygen to the brain, resulting in this condition. 

Our birth injury attorneys are well-versed in common types of birth injuries and the medical negligence that can cause them, allowing us to help clients navigate the legal complexities of their claims and hold healthcare providers accountable for life-altering negligence.

Seeking Compensation in a Birth Injury Claim

Recovering fair compensation in a birth injury lawsuit can be challenging and complex, especially given the legal intricacies of Florida law. Our lawyers can examine all types of potentially recoverable damages to maximize the compensation available to you. 

In Florida, recoverable damages can include: 

• Economic damages: These cover financial losses, such as past and future medical expenses, lost earnings, rehabilitative care, treatment costs, and medications.
• Non-economic damages: These cover non-financial losses that aren’t easily quantified into monetary amounts, such as pain and suffering, scarring and disfigurement, emotional distress, loss of consortium, and loss of enjoyment of life.
• Punitive damages: These damages are only awarded in rare cases involving extreme negligence or malice. Unlike other damage types, punitive damages are meant to punish the defendant rather than compensate the victim. 

Under state law, damages awarded in any medical malpractice claim are subject to certain limitations. While there is no cap on economic damages in birth injury cases, Florida does have a cap on non-economic damages.

Under Florida Statutes §766.118, practitioners cannot be liable for non-economic damages exceeding $500,000. This limit may be increased to $1,000,000 if the negligence resulted in the patient's death or a permanent vegetative state. Fortunately, our firm has extensive knowledge of these legal nuances to guide your steps wisely and pursue the fair compensation you deserve.

With over $10 million recovered for the wrongfully injured, you can trust our tenacious attorneys to pursue justice after a birth injury. Contact us online to discuss your case.