Birth Injury Lawyer in Columbia, SC
When a child suffers a birth injury due to a medical provider’s negligence, what should have been a joyous event can quickly turn into a painful, stressful, and tragic one. A birth injury that results in physical or developmental disabilities could require lifelong care and support, and few, if any families are prepared for those challenges at the moment they occur. If your child has suffered a birth injury due to medical negligence in Columbia, S.C., contact an experienced birth injury lawyer from the Law Offices of S. Chris Davis for the qualified legal counsel your family deserves.
Our commitment to families in Columbia is reflected by the fact that attorney Chris Davis has been named a “Top 40 Under 40” lawyer over the past several years by the National Trial Lawyers Association. Chris and his support staff understand – by virtue of representing many families like yours – a significant measure of what you’re going through, and our team is here to help. It is our great privilege to support injury victims and their families as they navigate unquestionably stressful circumstances. Contact us by phone or online for a free case evaluation today. We look forward to hearing your child’s story and to offering you the guidance and professional support that your family needs at this time.
How Our Birth Injury Lawyers Can Help You
If your child has suffered a birth injury, you should be given the time and space to focus on your family. Yet, time is limited to take legal action against the medical professional responsible for what has happened to your baby. Let a birth injury attorney from the Law Offices of S. Chris Davis fight for accountability and compensation you deserve so that you can focus on supporting your family and healing from all the stress that you’re grappling with.
If you choose to work with our firm, you can expect our team to provide you and your family with the support you need during this difficult time by:
- Providing focused, one-on-one attention; you will work directly with attorney Chris Davis, rather than having your case passed off to an assistant or paralegal
- Promptly responding to your calls and emails, day or night, since you cannot always wait to talk to your lawyer
- Thoroughly investigating the circumstances of your child’s birth injury, including securing medical records and other documents that can potentially provide evidence of medical negligence
- Retaining medical experts who can provide the opinion testimony necessary for your case
- Calculating your or your child’s past, ongoing, and future expenses and losses to know what kinds of compensation to demand for your family
- Identifying the parties who can be held accountable for the harm that your child has suffered
- Pursuing maximum financial recovery for your family through a negotiated settlement, but not backing down from taking your case to trial – if needed – to demand the accountability and compensation you and your family deserve
Common Types of Birth Injuries
Examples of common birth injuries that clients of our firm may experience include:
- Caput succedaneum, a swelling of the scalp typically caused by pressure put on the head by the muscles in the uterus and birth canal
- Cephalohematoma, a condition involving a pooling of blood between the scalp and the skull, often caused by use of forceps or vacuum extractors; in some cases, cephalohematoma may progress into a serious medical condition such as jaundice
- Broken bones, particularly the skull, shoulders, and arms
- Bruising and lacerations
- Facial paralysis, which may be caused by improper use of forceps
- Brain injuries, including both traumatic brain injuries as well as acquired brain injuries, or brain injuries that are caused by infection or by a lack of oxygen to the brain
- Brachial plexus injuries, or injuries to the nerve bundles that run through the shoulders into the arms, which may cause weakness, numbness, and paralysis
- Stillbirth and neonatal death
- Cerebral palsy, a brain injury typically caused by insufficient oxygen flow to the brain, which usually results in physical and/or cognitive limitations
- Hypoxic ischemic injury, a general term for brain damage that is caused by lack of oxygen
Common Types of Birth Injuries to Mothers
Birth injuries also refer to physical injuries that mothers may suffer during childbirth. Common maternal birth injuries that our firm seeks compensation for include:
- Tearing of the vaginal walls or of the perineum
- Broken bones, especially broken pubic bones or broken coccyx
- Uterine rupture, typically through a prior cesarean section or abdominal surgical incision
- Uterine inversion, caused when the placenta remains attached to the uterus and pulls it inside out during afterbirth
- Pelvic nerve injuries
- Pelvic organ prolapse
- Post-partum hemorrhage, or excessive bleeding following childbirth
- Infection
Who Could Be Liable for a Birth Injury in Columbia, SC?
Multiple professionals may be involved in treating a mother during pregnancy or attending a delivery. Negligence on the part of one or more of these individuals may result in a birth injury to child or mother. These professionals include:
- Doctors, including the mother’s OB/GYN
- Nurses attending the delivery
- Anesthesiologists, if anesthesia is delivered at any point during delivery
- Nurse anesthetists
- Midwives, if the mother elects to have the delivery performed by a midwife as opposed to a physician
In addition, a hospital or healthcare facility where a delivery is performed may also be held liable for a birth injury that occurs due to some fault on behalf of the negligent party’s employer, or direct liability for retaining medical professionals at high risk of committing a negligent error.
How Do You Prove a Birth Injury Case?
For a birth injury case to be successful, our team will rely on evidence to show that your or your child’s birth injury was caused by a medical provider’s substandard care. Examples of evidence used in birth injury claims include:
- Medical records during your pregnancy and from the delivery
- Doctor/provider notes
- Staffing records
- Witness testimony about what occurred during delivery
- Medical records from your or your child’s subsequent treatment of the birth injury
Most birth injury claims also require proof in the form of expert testimony. Expert testimony involves having an obstetrician (or another provider from the same specialty as the providers you are pursuing your birth injury claim against) provide an opinion that, to a degree of reasonable medical certainty, your providers failed to render care to you and your child in accordance with the accepted standards of care and that failure caused the birth injury suffered by you or your child.
We Demand Maximum Compensation for Families
After you or your child have suffered a birth injury, The Law Offices of S. Chris Davis will fight to secure a fair and full financial recovery for you and your family that may include compensation for:
- Medical treatment and rehabilitation for a birth injury
- Long-term care, including special education services or home health services, when if your child has suffered permanent physical or cognitive impairment from their birth injury
- Loss of wages/income
- Loss of future earnings or earning potential due to permanent disabilities affecting a birth injury victim’s ability to work in gainful employment
- Physical pain and emotional suffering
- Reduced quality of life, including due to disabilities, disfigurement or scarring, loss of childbearing ability, or reduced life expectancy
Statute of Limitations on Birth Injury Claims in South Carolina
Under South Carolina’s statute of limitations, a birth injury lawsuit must be filed within three years of the date that a child’s injury is first discovered, although under no circumstances may a suit be filed more than six years from the date that the child’s injury occurred (i.e., the date of the child’s birth).
However, birth injury claims against public hospitals may be subject to a much shorter statute of limitations. This is just one reason why it is important to speak with a birth injury lawyer promptly about how long you may have to file a lawsuit on behalf of your child who has suffered a birth injury.
Filing a lawsuit after the statute of limitations has passed on your family’s claim may result in your case being dismissed out of court as untimely, which means you will have lost your opportunity to recover compensation for the harm and loss that your child and your family have suffered.
Speak with a Compassionate Birth Injury Lawyer Today
At the Law Offices of S. Chris Davis, we know that we can’t change the fact that your family has suffered significantly due to a medical provider’s negligence. What we can do is seek answers and fair compensation on your behalf. There are many practical issues to consider, like medical care, ongoing treatment, and the stress and strain this event has put on your family. Our goal will be to make sure that you won’t struggle financially to care for your child now and in the future.
Call us or reach out to us online for a confidential, free, no-obligation consultation to discuss your family’s legal options with a compassionate, knowledgeable Columbia birth injury lawyer. If you hire Chris Davis to represent you, he will work on a contingency-fee-basis. This means that you won’t owe our firm a single cent until we recover compensation for you and your child.