Protecting your child's future
Birth Injury Attorneys
Birth Injury Attorneys in St. Louis and Missouri. After the devastation of a birth injury, you need an experienced lawyer you can trust and count on to fight for your family in this difficult time. Call the birth injury attorneys of Burger Law in St. Louis right away at (314) 500-HURT to discuss your birth injury case for free and learn how we can help you recover full compensation for your damages. Let our legal professionals help your family move forward and be made whole with a complete financial recovery.
When your child suffers a birth injury before, during or after delivery, it can be traumatizing and painful. It can be especially infuriating when the birth injury is the result of negligent or improper medical care. If your child has been injured because of a doctor’s breach of care, Burger Law’s St. Louis team of birth injury lawyers will fight for you to get the financial compensation you and your family deserve to protect you and your loved ones’ future and start on the road to recovery. Call our Missouri birth injury attorneys now at (314) 500-HURT or contact us online to get your free case evaluation to see why hiring Burger Law is the first step to making you and your family whole again.
Birth Injuries in St. Louis and Missouri
About 6 to 8 out of 1,000 children born in the United States suffer a serious birth injury, which is about 1 in every 9,714 children and 28,000 infants a year. Birth injuries are responsible for around 2% percent of neonatal deaths. Such injuries can include fractures or disorders that affect an infant’s development or brain function.
Many St. Louis attorneys may have experience in medical malpractice suits, but not in birth injury cases or with the specific birth injury you or your child suffered. Our Burger Law birth injury lawyers have seen every type of birth injury and know every type of birth injury claim, and you can be sure that we will fight by your side until you get a full recovery.
Do I Need a St. Louis Birth Injury Lawyer?
If you believe that you or your child was injured due to a doctor’s negligence or substandard care, then you must turn to the help of experienced birth injury attorneys in St. Louis. Having a child in St. Louis already comes with a mountain of costs and stressors including food, clothing, school supplies and more. Add to that the chance that your child could need months or years of medical treatment, rehabilitation or lifelong care, all because of a doctor’s negligence or careless actions. You deserve to be thinking about when your child will outgrow their shoes, not when they might need a replacement wheelchair because a doctor broke the rules.
The knowledgeable St. Louis birth injury attorneys at Burger Law will calculate your complete damages, including the dollar amount of any potential future medical costs and other expenses and damages. Your dedicated birth injury attorney will demand that you receive a complete and fair recovery.
Whatever your child’s condition, you want to spend your energy providing your child with nourishment and joy, not trying to navigate a maze of complex legal processes. When you call our birth injury attorneys at (314) 500-HURT, we get started on your case right away to get you the best possible results. We take care of all the documentation, communication and litigation so you can focus on you and your child’s physical and emotional well-being. Our expert birth injury lawyers will maximize your compensation and get you and your family on the road to recovery. We finance your case so you will not have to pay any fees until we win your case.
Luckily, many birth injuries are minor, and as babies are still developing and growing rapidly, some injuries can heal pretty quickly. But whether the injury is minor or leads to lifelong disability, you are entitled to maximum compensation for your medical costs, pain and suffering and other damages if the injury was incurred because a St. Louis doctor or St. Louis medical institution broke the rules and did not give you and your newborn child the proper care they owed.
Types of Birth Injuries
Cerebral Palsy
Cerebral palsy is a movement disorder and the most common form of birth injury that affects about 4 in 1,000 children. There are three types of cerebral palsy:
- Spasticity (stiff muscles)
- Dyskinesia (uncontrollable movements)
- Ataxia (poor balance and coordination)
Spasticity is the most common type and affects about 80% of people with cerebral palsy. The disorder can be mild – the child may walk awkwardly but not need any special help – or more serious, and your child may need special equipment to walk or not be able to walk at all. Diagnosing and treating cerebral palsy involves closely monitoring your child’s development, and that can include extensive medical appointments, expensive tests and special equipment to help your child walk or complete other basic tasks. The St. Louis-based birth injury lawyers at Burger Law insist that the responsible party pays for all of your past, present and future medical damages related to your birth injury.
The medical world is still learning about the causes and potential risk factors of cerebral palsy. We do know it is caused by abnormal development of the brain while the brain is still developing, which can occur before, during or shortly after birth. When it occurs during birth, it is often because a doctor or nurse who was delivering the baby was negligent. Doctors need to adequately monitor if a child is in distress or if it is receiving enough oxygen to its blood supply.
If they fail to do so and your baby develops cerebral palsy as a result, Burger Law’s St. Louis birth injury attorneys will take on your case and make sure you get the full recovery you deserve. If you are concerned that your child is not meeting movement milestones and think they may have cerebral palsy, it is important to immediately reach out to your doctor, who will evaluate your child and may refer you to a specialist. You can also contact Missouri’s Early Intervention system for a free evaluation if your child is less than 3 years old. If your child is diagnosed with cerebral palsy and you think a St. Louis medical professional is responsible, call Burger Law today at (314) 500-HURT for your free case review with a Missouri birthday injury attorney today, and start on the path to getting a full recovery and protecting the future of you and your child.
Brachial Plexus Injuries and Erb’s Palsy
Brachial plexus injuries are a type of birth injury that results from damage to the brachial plexus – the network of nerves in the shoulder that controls movement and feeling in the arms and hands – during birth. It restricts the use of the arm and shoulder. This is caused by excessive stretching around the shoulder, neck or head during birth, usually when the infant’s head is stretched to the side. This can happen because the baby was too large to pass through the mother safely, abnormal birthing presentations such as buttocks first or because a doctor was too rough with your baby during delivery or used improper birthing techniques. Erb’s Palsy is a type of brachial plexus injury where the arm is weak and the shoulder joint lacks range of motion. Some severe cases involve the tearing of the nerves and can cause permanent nerve damage. Fortunately, in most cases, movement will return within a few months, and there are special exercises you can do with your baby to help maintain range of motion while he or she heals. Whatever the extent of the injury or and the cost of the medical care, the St. Louis birth injury lawyers at Burger Law will make sure that you receive maximum compensation and that the responsible party’s insurance company pays every dime they owe.
Shoulder Dystocia
When the baby’s shoulder or shoulders get stuck inside the mother’s pelvis during labor, it causes a birth injury complication called shoulder dystocia. In most cases, the baby is born safely, and treatment may include simply moving the mother’s and fetus’s position during birth. However, failure to notice or properly treat shoulder dystocia can lead to fracture, lack of oxygen, Erb's palsy, or heavy loss of blood for the mother. If any of these conditions occurred during your child’s birth, call our Missouri birth injury attorneys at (314) 500-HURT now.
Cephalohematoma
This birth injury occurs when there is a collection of blood between a baby’s scalp and the skull as the result of damaged blood vessels during labor or delivery. You will notice a bulge on your child’s head, which typically goes away after a few weeks. The condition is usually not serious, however, there are a few rare complications that can arise. Cephalohematoma can increase your child’s risk of jaundice or anemia, and your baby may need a blood transfusion or other treatments.
Bruising, Lacerations, Soft Tissue Injuries or Fractures
Bruises and cuts are typically minor birth injuries that heal quickly. Still, they lead to extra medical costs and undeserved stress and worry for the parents. Oftentimes a baby can be bruised or cut by complications in the birth process. For example, if the baby is oversized or the birth is excessively long, the baby spends too much time pressed against the mother’s pelvis and can be harmed.
Obviously, fractures are much more serious and can do much more harm. While a fracture can lead to long-term or lifelong disability, typically they heal relatively quickly as babies are rapidly and constantly developing new bone. Either way, a fracture during birth causes unimaginable pain for your child and mental anguish for you. The delivering doctor must note the conditions of birth and take precautions to protect the mother and child from harm. When the doctor fails to act as the are obligated to, you may have a birth injury claim. Our birth injury attorneys will fight to get you the recovery you and your family deserve while holding the negligent doctor accountable.
Sometimes there are steps a St. Louis doctor should have taken but did not, and other times the doctor improperly used delivery tools or used too much force during the delivery. In that case, it is important to reach out to our birth injury attorneys in St. Louis immediately to discuss your options. Contact us today for a free case evaluation.
Injury to the Mother
Sometimes, the mother or both the mother and child were injured during birth. The mother may experience excessive blood loss or other complications. In some cases, the mother is injured because of a doctor’s negligence. For example, high blood pressure before or during birth can be a sign of preeclampsia, which can cause seizures. If you had a seizure while giving birth after a physician failed to note your high blood pressure, you are owed damages and our birth injury attorneys will fight to ensure you are properly compensated.
Emotional Injury
Not all damages in birth injury cases are quantifiable. If you or your child were hurt because of medical malpractice, then you have experienced undeserved worry, stress, heartbreak, shock and more. In the worst cases, you and your child may have to face the prospect of your child never being able to enjoy typical St. Louis childhood activities or having special medical needs for the rest of their life. Getting a full recovery for your pain and suffering and mental anguish is an important step in making you whole again. In order to receive the full recovery you and your family deserve, you need experienced birth injury attorneys in St. Louis on your case. Burger Law’s team of birth injury lawyers can help.
It is important to understand that there are several potential causes of birth injuries that are unrelated to medical negligence or substandard care. For example, many St. Louis birth injuries occur in the event of a delayed birth (labor that lasts over 18 hours). In some instances of delayed birth, a Cesarean section may have been the best method of treatment and in others, it may not have been. That depends on your unique situation. Each patient and each birth is different and individual cases vary greatly.
Our St. Louis birth injury attorney at Burger Law has seen every type of birth injury suit and will help you determine if the standard of care you received is below that which a competent doctor would have given you. Our network of St. Louis physicians and medical experts will help us understand the specifics of your case, determine the value of your damages and prove the medical professional’s negligence in providing you and your child substandard care so that we can get you a full recovery to make you and your family whole.
Medical Malpractice Lawsuits
Doctors, healthcare professionals and St. Louis medical institutions have what is called professional liability insurance, commonly known as medical malpractice insurance. Like any St. Louis insurance company, these insurers will try to bully, trick, and deceive you with complicated and misleading legal jargon. The skilled birth injury lawyers at Burger law will take up all communication and litigation for you and will stand up to bullies like resistant insurance companies to make sure they are held accountable and give you the maximum compensation you deserve. Medical malpractice cases in St. Louis can be tricky, but our birth injury attorneys have over 20 years of experience arguing and winning birth injury cases and will get the evidence, proof, expert testimony and, eventually, the complete compensation you deserve.
In order to succeed in a medical malpractice claim, you must do 3 things:
- Determine and prove negligence. Not all instances of birth complications or birth injury are the result of a doctor’s negligence. You must prove that the doctor breached the industry standard of care that a competent doctor in the same field would have given you. Burger Law’s network of St. Louis physicians and medical experts will help determine if there was negligence, and prove it in your case.
- Get a letter of support. You will need to hire a St. Louis doctor or nurse in the same field—in this case, neonatal care—to write an affidavit stating that the care you received was negligent, improper, or substandard. As your birth injury attorneys, the Burger Law team will obtain your letter of support.
- Prove that negligence caused the harm. Your child may develop cerebral palsy or may be born with a broken collarbone because of shoulder dystocia. The doctor may or may not be at fault, and you will have to prove that the doctor’s actions or inaction directly led to the harm caused. You must have a St. Louis birth injury lawyer you trust to help demonstrate how the defendant's negligence caused a birth injury that has damaged you and your family.
Burger law’s dedicated team of St. Louis-based birth injury attorneys will be by your side every step of the way and handle all the legal work for you so you can spend your energy on the health of you and your child.
Call Our St. Louis Birth Injury Attorneys Today
If your child suffered a birth injury, it is normal to feel a range of emotions: scared, confused, angry and grief-stricken. If the birth injury occurs because of medical malpractice, Burger Law will stand by your side to fight for your complete compensation and put you on the road to recovery. Our determined St. Louis birth injury lawyers will take on your claim and work around the clock for you, from initial consultation until we win your suit. Let us help you protect you and your child’s future. Get a free case review today by calling us at (314) 500-HURT or by filling out this form.