How Medical Records Can Strengthen a Cerebral Palsy Lawsuit in Halifax

Has Your Child Developed Cerebral Palsy?

If your child is diagnosed with cerebral palsy and you believe a medical provider’s negligence is the cause, arrange immediately to consult a Halifax cerebral palsy lawyer. Cerebral palsy is not always caused by genetics or unforeseeable circumstances. In fact, in many cases cerebral palsy is caused by the negligence of the doctors and nurses during labour and delivery.

Frequently, the cause of cerebral palsy is a medical provider’s negligence before, during, or shortly after a child’s birth. Three types of medical mistakes are direct causes of cerebral palsy:

1. Oxygen deprivation: If a child’s blood oxygen levels drop during the birth process, significant brain damage may occur and lead to cerebral palsy. Oxygen deprivation can happen in utero if the umbilical cord gets wrapped around a child’s neck during delivery.

2. Brain damage: Physical damage to a child’s brain may cause cerebral palsy. If a doctor misuses forceps, for example, during the birth process, the doctor may apply too much pressure to the child’s head, causing permanent brain damage.

3. Infections during labour: Mother’s need to be aware that an infection during pregnancy or labour can impact their unborn child. If an infection isn’t treated properly, it can cause serious permanent injury to your child. 

4. Use of medications during delivery: Sometimes mothers are overdosed with a drug called oxytocin which is commonly used to speed up labour and delivery. If the effects of oxytocin are not carefully monitored during labour, it can cause serious injury to your baby.

If medical negligence is the reason your child has cerebral palsy, how can you prove it? Can your family recover compensation for your losses and damages? What steps should you take, and when should you contact a Nova Scotia cerebral palsy lawyer?

What is Cerebral Palsy?

Cerebral palsy affects about one in every five hundred Canadians. Experts define cerebral palsy as a “group of disorders” that impair someone’s ability to move and maintain balance. Cerebral palsy is always caused by abnormal brain development or damage to a developing brain.

Cerebral palsy patients have difficulty moving and maintaining their posture. Many struggle with related vision, speech, and hearing problems, seizures, scoliosis, and joint problems, including contractures. Children with cerebral palsy may have ongoing, sporadic pain or epileptic seizures.

Who May Be Held Liable for a Child’s Cerebral Palsy?

Obstetricians usually provide healthcare services to mothers during pregnancy and may be liable if cerebral palsy develops before birth. Doctors, nurses, anesthesiologists, and hospitals may be held liable for brain damage during or after a delivery.

If you and your Halifax cerebral palsy lawyer can prove that one or more of these parties are liable for the medical negligence that caused your child’s cerebral palsy, your family may recover compensation for your additional medical costs and any related losses and damages.

Your cerebral palsy lawsuit may name any of the liable parties as defendants. Medical records are the crucial evidence you may need to establish a link between medical negligence and your child’s cerebral palsy. These records include prenatal, labor, delivery, and postnatal care records.

What Can Medical Records Indicate?

You and your lawyer will need the mother’s prenatal records, which will indicate any health issues the mother had during the pregnancy, such as infections, placental problems, or fetal distress.

You and your lawyer will also need the records of labor and delivery, including the use of medications, fetal heart rate monitoring, and interventions with forceps or vacuum extraction.

Additionally, you and your lawyer will need the child’s postnatal medical records, including any tests, diagnoses, and treatments related to oxygen deprivation or brain injury. Your Nova Scotia cerebral palsy lawyer will take the legal steps necessary to obtain the pertinent medical records.

Can Medical Records Prove Liability or Fault?

Medical records may indicate whether healthcare providers adhered to the accepted professional standard of medical care during pregnancy, labor, and delivery. The records can indicate where medical providers deviated from the accepted standard of care, potentially causing harm.

Medical records can tie specific errors, such as oxygen deprivation, to the development of cerebral palsy. Medical experts can review these records to determine if the care provided failed to meet the accepted standard of care and caused your child’s cerebral palsy.

How Can a Lawyer Help Your Family?

Your cerebral palsy lawyer will compile and scrutinize the medical records to build a strong case on your family’s behalf. A thorough investigation of the medical records:

1. Can help your lawyer build a case to prove that medical negligence caused your child’s cerebral palsy

2. Can help your family recover compensation for your child’s injury and your family’s related losses and damages

Your lawyer may also call on expert medical witnesses to testify or make a statement on your behalf. Most birth injury cases are settled through out-of-court negotiations, but if liability is in dispute or no acceptable settlement amount is offered, your lawyer will take the case to trial.

What Steps Can Parents Take?

Cerebral palsy is usually preventable. When medical negligence causes a child’s cerebral palsy, Nova Scotia law entitles the parents to monetary compensation for their additional medical costs, loss of income, their child’s suffering and pain, and related damages.

Nova Scotia’s statute of limitations for bringing a medical malpractice lawsuit is usually two years from the day you become aware of potential medical negligence, but for a child, the statute of limitations doesn’t start to run until the child reaches 19, the age of majority in Nova Scotia.

But if medical malpractice caused your child’s cerebral palsy, discuss your family’s rights as quickly as possible with a birth injury lawyer who will obtain and review the medical records, speak with witnesses, identify the party or parties with liability, and protect your family’s rights.

McKiggan Hebert Lawyers Will Represent Your Family

How can you find a birth injury lawyer with the experience and skills to win justice on your family’s behalf? The award-winning lawyers at McKiggan Hebert have decades of experience representing and winning justice for families who have children with cerebral palsy.

No amount of money can make cerebral palsy go away, but if you and your lawyer can prove your child was a victim of medical negligence, the law entitles you to compensation that will allow your family to move positively and constructively into the future.

If you proceed with a lawsuit, you will pay no legal fees to McKiggan Hebert Lawyers unless and until we recover the compensation your family needs. Call our Halifax offices at 902-706-2298 to schedule a no-cost case review and evaluation.