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Has Your Child Been Diagnosed With Cerebral Palsy?
Does your child struggle with cerebral palsy? If medical malpractice is the reason a child in Nova Scotia has cerebral palsy, parents have the right to recover compensation, but it’s not awarded automatically. You’ll need the advice and services of a Halifax birth injury lawyer.
Brain damage as a result of cerebral palsy is permanent. The symptoms of cerebral palsy vary from patient to patient. There is no cure, but therapy and medications can manage a patient’s symptoms and somewhat improve a patient’s day-to-day quality of life.
In Canada, cerebral palsy affects about one out of every five hundred persons. When and how does medical malpractice cause cerebral palsy? What steps can parents take? When should a parent contact a Nova Scotia birth injury lawyer for the legal help your family may need?
What Are the Signs of Cerebral Palsy?
Cerebral palsy disorders are motor disabilities. The term identifies a group of disorders that impact someone’s ability to move, control muscles, or maintain posture and balance. The usual triggers for cerebral palsy are damage to a developing brain or abnormal brain development.
Many people living with cerebral palsy struggle with vision, speech, and hearing difficulties; seizures; intellectual disabilities, including sporadic memory loss; spinal problems, including scoliosis; and joint difficulties, such as contractures.
Many children with cerebral palsy experience ongoing, sporadic pain, and one in four who suffer from cerebral palsy also suffer epileptic seizures.
What Causes Cerebral Palsy?
A lack of oxygen during the birthing process may cause cerebral palsy if the delivery room personnel fail to identify oxygen deprivation. Expectant mothers may have untreated conditions – such as bacterial meningitis – that also cause a newborn to develop cerebral palsy.
Cerebral palsy is frequently preventable. If a medical provider does not accurately diagnose the conditions or prevent the injuries that cause cerebral palsy, that medical provider may be negligent, and parents may sue for medical malpractice.
What Are Your Family’s Options for Compensation?
The parents of a child with cerebral palsy have several options for compensation. Government programs such as the Disability Tax Credit, Child Disability Benefit, and Assistive Devices Program can provide financial support to many families who are dealing with cerebral palsy.
When medical negligence is the reason a child has cerebral palsy, Nova Scotia law entitles the family to pursue a medical malpractice lawsuit. When parents can prove a birth injury claim, they may recover compensation for medical costs, personal pain, suffering, and related damages.
Lawyers in Nova Scotia handle birth injury cases on a contingent fee basis, so a lawyer’s payment depends on representing a birth injury claim successfully. You will pay no lawyer’s fee until and unless your birth injury lawyer recovers compensation on your family’s behalf.
When Should Families Speak to a Birth Injury Lawyer?
If medical malpractice caused your child’s cerebral palsy, discuss your case immediately with a Nova Scotia birth injury lawyer. If you bring a lawsuit, your lawyer will review the medical records, speak with witnesses, consult medical experts, and identify the liable party or parties.
The delivery room doctor may not be the only liable party in a birth injury case. One of a lawyer’s tasks in these cases is to identify the potentially liable parties. Parents may seek compensation from any or all of the parties with liability for their child’s birth injury – an obstetrician, nurse, anesthesiologist, clinic, pharmaceutical company, or hospital, for example.
In Nova Scotia, if your newborn has cerebral palsy because of medical malpractice, a Halifax birth injury lawyer will provide a no-cost, no-obligation review and evaluation of the case. You’ll receive personalized legal advice regarding your family’s rights and options.
What Will Your Lawyer Have to Prove?
During pregnancy and labour, obstetricians and delivery personnel must be ready for any potential emergency. Cerebral palsy may be caused by:
- deprivation of oxygen to the child
- the improper use of forceps or excessive force
- inadequate prenatal fetal monitoring
- the failure to order and perform a necessary cesarean section
Cerebral palsy patients usually require lifelong treatment and care, so the parents of children with cerebral palsy must retain a birth lawyer who knows how to prove medical malpractice occurred and how to fight effectively for the maximum available compensation.
If your child was victimized by medical malpractice that resulted in cerebral palsy, and if you and your birth injury lawyer can prove it, the court will find in your favor, and you may recover compensation for your child’s pending and future medical costs and your family’s related losses.
What’s the Deadline for Taking Legal Action?
In medical malpractice cases with adult victims, the statute of limitations for initiating a lawsuit is two years from the day you become aware of medical negligence. For a child, the statute of limitations period doesn’t begin until the child reaches the age of majority (19 in Nova Scotia).
When a child is disabled, the statute of limitations may be extended or, in some cases, entirely dropped. If your youngster has cerebral palsy caused by medical malpractice, it is probably not too late to take legal action and recover compensation.
Don’t wait two years to discuss the case with a lawyer. Evidence can deteriorate or disappear. The recollections of witnesses fade. When you learn your child has cerebral palsy, schedule a meeting immediately with a birth injury lawyer at McKiggan Hebert Lawyers.
Let McKiggan Hebert Lawyers Represent Your Family
How can you find a lawyer who will win justice for your child with cerebral palsy? The award-winning lawyers at McKiggan Hebert have decades of experience working for the families of children with birth injuries.
No amount of money can change your child’s condition, but if your lawyer can prove your child’s cerebral palsy was a consequence of medical negligence, you may recover compensation for your child’s current and future medical expenses and your related losses and damages.
Call McKiggan Hebert Lawyers in Halifax at 902-706-2298 to schedule a free, no-obligation case evaluation. If you choose McKiggan Hebert and proceed with a medical malpractice lawsuit, you will owe no lawyer’s fee unless and until we recover your family’s compensation.
