Lake Worth Fetal Distress Negligence Lawyers Advocating for Clients Injured by Medical Negligence in Broward and Palm Beach Counties
Modern medical advances allow doctors and medical professionals to monitor a fetus carefully both throughout a pregnancy and during the labor and delivery process. This monitoring can be crucial to detecting any problems that occur prior to birth and, in many cases, gives your medical team an opportunity to prevent any fetal injuries that might occur prior to birth or during the delivery itself. When your medical team fails to recognize or act upon signs that the fetus is not developing properly or is in distress, that failure may cause your child to suffer injuries that may have been entirely preventable with appropriate fetal care and monitoring. Contact our Florida fetal injury lawyers today for a free initial consultation.
At Gonzalez & Cartwright, P.A., our experienced medical malpractice lawyers understand how devastating it can be to receive news that your child suffered an injury before birth. When that injury was caused by a medical professional’s failure to properly monitor the fetus for signs of distress, or failure to respond appropriately to signs of fetal distress, you may be entitled to financial compensation because of that individual’s negligence. If you have questions about pre-birth injuries sustained by your child or the treatment that you received during pregnancy or labor, contact our offices today to discuss your situation with our experienced bilingual attorneys.
Warning Signs Pointing to Fetal Distress
Although no medical monitoring is 100 percent accurate, a number of signs exist that would point a competent medical professional to believe that a fetus is in distress and at risk of pre-birth injury. Some of those signs include:
- Low oxygen levels,
- Erratic heartbeat, including either abnormally high or low fetal heart rate,
- A fetus that has not attained proper weight based on gestation period,
- Problems with the umbilical cord, including umbilical cord depression,
- The fetal position prior to delivery,
- Labor that does not progress properly,
- Maternal infections,
- Hypertension,
- Neonatal sepsis.
When any of these signs of distress are present, a trained medical professional should respond accordingly—whether by ensuring the mother has sufficient oxygen, providing appropriate medications or even performing a C-section if necessary, especially if your pregnancy was considered high-risk. High-risk pregnancies generally include situations where:
- The mother is over age 35,
- Multiple fetuses are involved,
- Pre-eclampsia has been detected,
- The mother has some sort of illness that could impact the pregnancy,
- Amniotic fluid levels are low.
Improper Fetal Monitoring Can Result in Serious Pre-Birth Injuries
When a high-risk pregnancy is involved, your doctor should take additional steps to provide more frequent and detailed fetal monitoring. However, fetal injuries can occur in any pregnancy where your medical team was negligent in performing their duties. Failure to take appropriate steps when fetal distress is detected can have disastrous consequences for the unborn child, and can cause:
- Hypoxia, or brain damage resulting from oxygen deprivation,
- Cerebral palsy,
- Spina bifida,
- Organ damage,
- Paralysis,
- Stillbirth.
These types of fetal injuries can result in the need for lifelong care for your child, beginning at the moment when the child is born.
Gonzalez & Cartwright’s Florida Fetal Injury Lawyers Provide Compassionate Support While Fighting for Clients’ Right to Compensation for Fetal Injuries
At Gonzalez & Cartwright, P.A., we understand the difficulties and uncertainties that you are facing if your child suffered a pre-birth injury. You may be uncertain what type of ongoing care your child will require in order to live the fullest life possible despite those fetal injuries. Fetal injuries can be extremely complicated to treat throughout your child’s life, and we can fight to ensure you receive the compensation you need to cover the costs of ongoing care, including costs for:
- Ongoing medical care,
- Physical therapy,
- Specialists’ care,
- Necessary medical devices,
- In-home modifications necessary to accommodate a disability
- In-home health care,
- Treatment in a medical facility,
- Lost future earning capacity,
- Pain and suffering.
Call Our Florida Fetal Injury Lawyers Today to Schedule a Free Initial Consultation
If your child suffered a pre-birth injury in Broward County, Palm Beach County or elsewhere in Florida, our skilled birth injury lawyers are here to help ensure you receive the compensation you deserve to help you move forward. We understand how intimidating it can be to bring legal action against your hospital or team of medical professionals, especially if English is not your first language. Our fully bilingual attorneys are here to help you navigate the legal system here in Florida whether you speak English or Spanish, so call today, or fill out this secure online contact form, to schedule a free initial consultation with one of our fetal injury lawyers.
Frequently Asked Questions About Fetal Injuries in Florida
Any number of medical professionals may be responsible for your child’s fetal injuries, and our lawyers will conduct a full investigation to determine whether the negligent actions of a member of your medical team caused those injuries. Examples of parties who may be responsible include gynecologists, nurses, EMTs, and emergency room staff, laboratories responsible for providing test results, pharmacists, anesthesiologists, hospitals and clinics.
Claims for compensation for fetal injuries are medical malpractice lawsuits, and several different time frames apply under Florida law. Generally, the statute of limitations for filing a fetal injury claim is two years from the date you knew or should have known, that it was reasonable that the injury was caused by malpractice. Unless the medical professional committed some sort of fraud or misrepresented the facts, there is a firm four-year deadline for filing a claim even if you did not know that your child’s injuries were caused by malpractice. While there is an extended deadline for children, this deadline may not apply if you reasonably should have known about the injury within the general two-year period. We can provide more detailed information as to how these general time limits may apply in your specific case.