Disclaimer: The information presented below only gives you the background you’ll need in the situation that your doctor made a medical mistake in your birth and you want to take legal action. You shouldn’t use all the information indicated here as a replacement for professional legal advice. What you should do instead is to discuss your legal options with a licensed lawyer who’s more knowledgeable with cases involving medical malpractice.
Nothing beats the joy of finally giving birth after nine months of labor. The extra caution and all the preparation you did for both yourself and your baby due to the rather delicate nature of pregnancy itself are beginning to pay off. It would all be for nothing though if your doctor does something wrong while you’re giving birth to your child. A doctor almost injuring you or your baby during the delivery might sound like a plot of some horror movie, but medical malpractice cases of the sort do happen in real life. If your doctor had wronged you while giving birth to your child, you might be considering filing a lawsuit against them, but you would have to prove that your doctor did commit medical malpractice while delivering your baby.
What Are Some Common Mistakes That Doctors Do During Childbirth?
As much as your doctor has to deliver your baby safely, they should consider your health and well-being during the process as well. However, not all doctors get that memo and some of them commit one of the many errors that result in a birth injury:
- Not anticipating birth complications such as your baby not getting enough oxygen due to a tangled umbilical cord or you having a hard time getting your baby out because of their larger size.
- Not responding promptly after you’ve experienced signs of fetal distress.
- Not ordering a caesarian section in case you’re unable to normally deliver your baby.
- Mishandling either forceps or a vacuum extractor while performing assisted delivery.
- Not properly administering you with epidural anesthesia to ease the delivery of your baby.
How Can You Prove That Your Doctor Committed Medical Malpractice While You Were Giving Birth to Your Child?
Unfortunately, just because your doctor made a mistake while you were giving birth to your child or you’re not satisfied with how your doctor treated you during your childbirth doesn’t mean that you can immediately take them to court. For you to prove that your doctor did commit medical malpractice, you should establish not just one or two but all of these:
You had a doctor-patient relationship going on when your doctor made the mistake during your childbirth.
Once you’ve been rushed to the hospital to give birth to your child there, you should make sure that the doctor who will deliver your baby becomes your attending physician the very minute they admit you under their care.
- A doctor-patient relationship is only applicable once you hired the doctor who in turn agreed to be hired by you and thus became your attending physician.
- You wouldn’t want to file a medical malpractice lawsuit against a consulting physician who happened to be present while you were giving birth as they’re only there to offer advice to your attending physician and not supposed to treat you directly.
Your doctor was negligent.
All doctors are supposed to adhere to a standard of care as part of their chosen field to embark on.
- You should be able to prove that your doctor caused you harm in such a way that a more competent one wouldn’t have if given the chance to deliver your baby.
- As doctors are only human too just like you, they’re not required to perform at an absolute best or an impossible standard as long as their reasonably skillful and careful while they’re doing their job.
Your childbirth injury was the result of your doctor’s negligence.
Trying to prove that your doctor had committed medical malpractice isn’t easy, especially if there were already complications surrounding your pregnancy.
- You have to show that your doctor directly caused your injuries that you’ve sustained after they’ve negligently handled your childbirth.
- Finding a medical expert who can attest to your claim that the doctor who delivered your baby did cause injury is helpful.
Your childbirth injury caused you a considerable amount of harm.
No harm, no foul applies to medical malpractice cases such as the one you’re considering filing against the doctor who delivered your baby.
- If you can prove that your doctor did incur damages on you while you were giving birth and put an estimated amount on those damages that they did to you, you may be granted a damage award by your state court once you’ve successfully filed your medical malpractice lawsuit against your doctor.
- Some states though place a cap on the maximum amount of damages that you can claim as a result of your medical malpractice lawsuit.
The birth of your baby is a huge milestone for you as an expectant parent, but it shouldn’t come with the price of your life or that of your baby’s just because some doctor of yours was negligent while delivering your child. After all, your doctor is beholden to their duty to make sure that you’d receive the best treatment that you should have – especially given your delicate condition – and nothing against your will would happen to you while you’re under their care. Suing your doctor for medical malpractice isn’t necessarily a simple process. However, hiring an attorney with sufficient knowledge regarding medical malpractice cases such as yours can ease your burden if you’re decided enough to take your lawsuit against your doctor to trial.
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