New York Birth Injury Attorney Helps Find Justice in Erb’s Palsy Cases

Among the many cases an experienced New York birth injury attorney handles are those involving Erb’s Palsy. A case recently filed in South Carolina demonstrates how medical negligence might have resulted in Erb’s Palsy.

A mother in South Carolina was found during prenatal exams to exhibit polyhydramnios—or excessive amniotic fluid around the baby. At a later examination, the medical staff saw a “need for labor precautions”. When the mother was admitted to the facility for labor, the doctor administered Pitocin to induce labor. The mother manifested hypertonic contractions, and the baby was found to have an excessively accelerated heart rate. Throughout the labor, higher dosages of Pitocin were administered, and the mother was never presented with the option of a C-section.

Subsequently, the child was delivered vaginally using a vacuum device, and with the doctor performing traumatic maneuvers meant to rotate the baby. The baby was born with bruises around the right shoulder, as well as a lack of respiration and responsiveness. The child’s right arm also exhibited little to no movement. When the baby was brought to the hospital’s emergency department a few days later, he was finally diagnosed with Erb’s Palsy, a type of brachial plexus injury which affects the nerves in the shoulder and leads to paralysis of the arm and hand.

Brachial plexus injuries usually occur in difficult deliveries, caused by different factors like a large baby, breech presentation, or prolonged labor. Such injuries may also happen when a delivery grows complicated enough that the assisting person needs to deliver the baby promptly—usually by exerting some force to pull the infant from the birth canal. If the force is too excessive, the medical professional may stretch one side of the baby’s neck and subsequently damage nearby nerves.

Erb’s Palsy experts say the condition may be prevented with a C-section birth and good pre-natal care. Additionally, the experts extol the importance of informing parents of possible risk factors which could lead to labor difficulties well before a crisis takes place, so that the parents could make an informed decision on childbirth options. In cases where no sufficient options or information were presented to parents, and the baby develops Erb’s Palsy after birth, parents should seek the help of  a skilled birth injury attorney from New York firms like the Law Offices of Joseph Lichtenstein to get justice for a possible medical malpractice.

(Source: Parents Demand Justice For Child’s Brachial Plexus Injuries, Injury Lawyer News, February 18, 2015)