Houston Birth Injury Lawyers Who Put Your Family’s Needs First
Our attorneys can take aggressive legal action on your family’s behalf
The birth of a child should be a happy event. Unfortunately, birth injuries sometimes occur. Worst of all, many of these injuries could have been prevented. That’s because many birth injuries occur due to mistakes made by medical professionals. When this happens, it’s critical that you take strong legal action to hold them accountable for their actions.
Our experienced Houston birth injury lawyers at Smith & Hassler can help your family demand justice. Our attorneys have more than 30 years of experience handling medical malpractice cases throughout Texas. We know the law, we know how the system works, and we’re prepared to do the work that needs to be done to demand the maximum financial compensation you deserve.
What are common birth injuries?
Birth injuries can happen to a child or mother. Some injuries take place during natural childbirth, but others may be a result of medical malpractice. Injuries may occur before, during or directly after delivery, and can include:
- Fractures to the arm or collar bone
- Bruising on the face or head
- Facial paralysis
- Skin irritations
- Umbilical cord entrapment
- Cerebral palsy
- Brachial plexus palsy
- Brain damage
Whatever type of birth injury you’re dealing with, our law firm can investigate your birth injury and aggressively search for the facts you need to build the strongest possible legal case.
What are warning signs of a birth injury?
Signs that your baby may have sustained a birth injury include:
- Seizures that develop within 24-48 hours after birth
- Prolonged resuscitation of the baby after delivery
- Persistent poor nursing
- An infant that is "floppy" after five minutes
- An APGAR score of 5 or less at five minutes; 7 or less at 10 minutes
- Full-term baby who does not go home with his or her mother
- No infant cry before the child is 10 minutes old (unless the baby has a breathing tube in his or her throat)
Why do birth injuries happen?
Birth injuries occur for many different reasons before, during or shortly after birth. Some of the most common causes of birth injuries due to mistakes made by medical professionals include:
- Misdiagnosis of medical condition during pregnancy
- Delay in diagnosis of medical condition during pregnancy
- Failure to preform necessary tests during pregnancy
- Delay in ordering a Caesarian section before birth
- Failure to identify change in the position or health of the fetus
- Miscommunication between medical professionals about health of mother or baby
- Failure to diagnose hypoxia, a medical condition in which a baby during childbirth does not have enough oxygen, often due to umbilical cord wrapped around the baby
Why your birth injury happened matters, and it’s our job to get to dig deeper to find evidence to support your birth injury claim – and win your case.
What makes birth injury cases so complicated?
Birth injury cases often turn out to be very complex cases for many different reasons. In general, the main reason why is these cases often come down to your word versus theirs. Some of the excuses medical professionals often try to use to avoid responsibility in birth injury cases include:
- Medical professional denies doing anything wrong
- Medical professional claims your child’s birth injury was unavoidable
- Medical professional blames you for somehow causing your child’s birth injury
- Medical professional claims your child’s birth injury occurred long after birth
- Medical professional or hospital destroys or conceals evidence of wrongdoing
- Medical professional or hospital’s insurance company denies your claim
The stakes are often very high in birth injury cases. In many cases, a birth injury can affect a child for the rest of his or her life. That’s why it’s important that they receive the financial compensation you deserve to deal with your birth injury for the rest of your life. Birth injury-related expenses can often add up to thousands or even millions of dollars. Medical professionals know this. That’s why they often do everything they can to deny your claim.
They don’t intimidate us. That’s because we have years of experiencing handling tough claims. We know how to negotiate with medical professionals, insurance companies and anyone else who stands in our way. If they refuse to cooperate, we will not hesitate to file a birth injury lawsuit on your behalf.
Get serious about your child’s birth injury. Get Smith & Hassler.
Your case is about more than just money. It’s about holding medical professionals accountable for their actions. We’re proud to do this work and our attorneys would be honored to work with your family.
Put your trust in a Houston birth injury lawyer who puts your family’s needs first. Contact Smith & Hassler, Attorneys at Law. Schedule your free case evaluation right now. You can count on us to go above and beyond for the money that’s rightfully yours.