Birth Injury Lawyers in Houston, Texas

Medical professionals make mistakes involving childbirth every single day.  These errors can have devastating effects on the newborns, ranging from physical defects to brain injury to developmental problems.  It can be difficult for parents to understand the situation, let alone determine if the doctors or nurses involved were somehow at fault.  We put our trust and the lives of our children in the hands of medical professionals, and they must be held accountable if their mistakes injure our children.

If you believe your child suffered an unnecessary injury at birth as a result of negligent medical treatment, contact a knowledgeable Houston medical malpractice and birth injury lawyer as soon as possible to make sure that the medical professionals responsible are held accountable for their negligence.  You should not be bankrupted by medical bills on top of the emotional trauma that accompanies a birth injury. If a negligent doctor, nurse, or other hospital staff member is responsible for your infant’s injury, a dedicated birth injury lawyer can help you recover for your damages and for your loss.

Types of Birth Injury

Birth injuries generally result either from some sort of physical trauma that occurred before or during the birth or from oxygen deprivation.  There are many different circumstances that can lead to one or another type of birth injury, but birth injury cases typically have one common factor: there was a complication during childbirth, and the medical professionals mishandled or mismanaged the situation, leading to additional injury.

Some of the most common causes of birth injuries include the following:

• Nursing error during delivery, particularly when the doctor is not present
• Failure to diagnose or treat hydrocephalus, whether caused by birth trauma, genetic condition, or infection
• Improper use of forceps or vacuum extractor leading to obstructed blood flow, intrapartum asphyxia, or other hypoxia-related conditions
• Undiagnosed or untreated eclampsia and pre-eclampsia
• Failure in fetal monitoring
• Delayed or untimely c-sections
• Pitocin (induction medication) mistakes
• Detached placenta
• Failure to properly deal with abnormal birth presentation or position, such as a breech or shoulder-first birth
• Umbilical cord prolapse or strangulation
• Overly long delivery
• Vaginal delivery in mothers with small pelvis
• Maternal infections like Streptococcus

Failure to deal with these complications appropriately, or otherwise failing to administer proper care to the mother and infant during and after childbirth, can lead to a host of issues and injuries.  Infants can become hypoxic and suffer brain damage from the loss of oxygen; they can develop Cerebral or Erb’s palsy; they can suffer injury to the brachial plexus or skull; they can experience nerve damage; or they can suffer any number of other conditions as a result of the mistreatment during birth.

Birth Injury vs. Birth Defect

People often confuse and conflate “birth injury” with “birth defect.”  Birth injuries are the types of injuries that are discussed here: physical trauma or other factor injuring an infant either during the pregnancy or birth, or after the birth.  Birth defects are physical or chemical defects that present at birth. Defects are typically inherited genetically or caused by some environmental factor. Generally, there is no lawsuit to be brought in the case of birth defects, unless the defect is caused by an environmental factor like a pharmaceutical product defect or chemical pollution.  Those sorts of defects present a different sort of lawsuit.

Contact Houston Birth Injury Lawyer Charles J. Argento

If negligence by a medical professional injured your child or the child of a loved one, contact the Houston birth injury lawyer Charles J. Argento & Associates immediately at (713) 225-5050 to preserve the evidence and protect your legal rights. Your consultation is free, and bilingual staff is available for Spanish casework when necessary.

Charles J. Argento is a skilled negotiator and respected Houston personal injury lawyer, offering sound legal advice and the aggressive defense of his clients’ legal rights in both the Texas State and Federal courts. We represent clients in Houston as well as the surrounding areas throughout Texas, including the cities of Beaumont, Brownsville, McAllen, Harlingen, the Rio Grande Valley, Orange County and Brazoria.