According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), a baby is born with a birth defect every four-and-a-half minutes in the United States. If your baby suffered a birth defect, your doctor may have been negligent in checking for issues during your pregnancy or delivery.
One of our firm’s birth injury lawyers can help you determine whether the doctor failed in their duties. If you and your lawyer determine a failure in duty did occur, your lawyer can help you seek to hold the doctor accountable and recover compensation. We can tell you whether we think you have a case during a free consultation.
Checking for a Failure to Diagnose Birth Defects
You may suspect or be convinced your doctor failed in their duties. However, this may not be the case, so you should know how to recognize a failure to diagnose birth defects, such as by evaluating the medical records made during your pregnancy. There’s more you can do, too.
You may be feeling many strong emotions right now, and you may want to take action. To hold the doctor accountable and recover compensation, you’ll have to prove to their insurance company or a court that the doctor failed to diagnose your baby with a preventable birth defect.
To do this, you should request and check copies of the medical records the doctor (and any other relevant medical professionals) made during your pregnancy. These records may contain details and issues you can point out to prove your case, such as the details of and any issues with the screening tests you received. A lawyer from our firm can help you check the records.
A medical professional performed screening tests while your baby was still in utero. These tests are necessary to detect any health problems a mother or a baby may have, such as a baby’s birth defect. You may have received tests such as:
- Ultrasound
- Anomaly ultrasound
- Maternal blood screen
- Maternal serum screen
Recognizing a Failure to Diagnose for Birth Defects
When you check the records for each screening test, you should know what to look for. Here’s what you should look for in each record:
- The record for your ultrasound: Look for any increase in the amount of fluid behind your baby’s neck. If there is an increase, this could indicate a heart defect or chromosomal disorder.
- The record for your anomaly ultrasound: Look for any potential complications, such as the size of your baby. Also look for any signs of birth defects and health issues.
- The record for your maternal blood screen: Look for abnormal protein levels. Abnormally low or high levels could indicate a chromosomal disorder.
- The record for your maternal serum screen: Look for any risk of your baby being born with a birth defect, such as Down syndrome.
You may have difficulty interpreting your records and recognizing any issues. You can leave these things to a lawyer from our firm.
Confirming a Failure to Diagnose for Birth Defects
If you notice any issues in your records and believe your doctor failed to diagnose your baby’s birth defect, the next step is to confirm the failure to diagnose occurred. You may find your confirmation in the medical records during and after your childbirth. These records may confirm your baby was born with a birth defect that was preventable or treatable, which could confirm your doctor failed to diagnose the defect.
Proving a Failure to Diagnose for Birth Defects
To hold the doctor accountable and recover compensation, you’ll have to prove to their insurer or a court that the failure to diagnose occurred. Your medical records may not be quite enough to prove this.
In addition to showing the evidence in your medical records, you’ll also have to show how:
- The doctor failed in their responsibility to keep your baby from harm
- This failure caused harm to your baby
- You and your baby suffered damages as a result
To succeed with legal action, you’ll have to prove negligence in your case, which requires showing strong evidence of the points above.
How a Lawyer From Our Firm Will Help You With Your Case
You don’t have to handle your case alone. Family can support you and participate in your legal claim or lawsuit, and one of our firm’s lawyers can take over each task in your case, including handling the insurer and communicating your family’s damages to them, such as your child’s pain and suffering and your medical bills.
Also, not only will your lawyer evaluate your medical records for you, but they will also help you corroborate your evidence with witness or expert testimonies to prove the doctor was negligent in your case. If your lawyer has to take your case to court to obtain your due damages, they won’t hesitate to do so.
Additionally, if you want to file a lawsuit, your lawyer will help you meet the filing deadline for a medical malpractice suit in Maryland. This deadline is five years from the date of an incident or three years from the date of the discovery of malpractice, according to Md. Cts. & Jud. Proc. § 5-109.
Contact Brown & Barron for a Free Consultation
A child is very vulnerable during pregnancy and childbirth, so a doctor must be vigilant in checking for any defects. If your doctor failed to diagnose a defect, you may be able to hold them accountable and recover compensation, but you may struggle to do these things on your own. With a medical malpractice lawyer from Brown & Barron on your team, you won’t have to worry about anything regarding your case.
In a consultation with one of our team members, we’ll tell you more about how we can help you. You won’t pay us anything for your consultation, and you won’t pay your attorney unless they recover compensation for you. Contact Brown & Barron today for your free consultation.