Pediatric Infant Injury Liability and Lawsuits

Pediatric injuries can occur during pregnancy, during labor, and after birth.  The various doctors that deal with pediatric injuries and complications are obstetricians, neonatologists, and pediatricians.  Due to their specific nature, all of these areas require highly-specialized knowledge.

Causes of Injuries from Pediatric Care

There are a variety of injuries that can result from negligent obstetrician and pediatric care. 

• Wrongful birth claims (injury arises from the parents never being given the option to terminate the pregnancy of an infant with birth defects)
• Faulty genetic counseling or failure to diagnose abnormalities on the ultrasound
• Improper treatment
• Failure to diagnose
• Injection-related injuries
• Radiation burns
• Lack of informed consent
• Anesthesia-related injuries
• Failure to refer
• Wrongful death (injury arises where a viable fetus is aborted due to erroneous testing)
• Failure to diagnose and treat intestinal obstruction
• Failure to diagnose and treat jaundice  
• Pediatric brain injuries that result from negligent use of forceps or negligent handling of the infant’s neck as it is leaving the birth canal 

Liability of Pediatricians and Doctors

Medical malpractice cases in the realm of pediatric injury will focus on the doctor’s failure to meet a professional standard of care.  The plaintiff will have to prove via the preponderance of evidence standard whether or not the doctor breached this standard of care.  The standard is usually that the doctor must employ the degree of skill and knowledge possessed by a reasonably competent physician in the same or similar circumstances.  Since pediatricians, neonatologists, and obstetricians are deemed to be specialists, they actually can be held to the minimum-accepted standards of their specialty, which is a higher standard of care than is imposed on doctors that don’t practice in these areas.

Along with the higher standard of care, the additional theories of strict product liability and res ipsa loquitur apply in certain pediatric injury cases.  Under strict product liability, the defects in medicine prescribed and medical equipment used can result in doctor liability.  Res ipsa loquitur occurs when the injury suffered is the type that can’t occur unless someone was negligent, or in other words, that the defendant was the cause of the injury and that the injury was in no way the plaintiff’s fault.

Filing a Medical Malpractice Claim and Lawsuit

Filing a claim will involve alleging that the doctor owed a standard of care to the patient, and that the standard of care was breached by a negligent action or a failure to act.  Once this is established, the plaintiff must then show that the breach of duty caused the plaintiff injury and damages arose as a result.  The various damages that are available in the realm of pediatric medicine are those that are available in any medical malpractice case and include the following

• Physical pain and suffering
• Mental suffering and emotional distress
• Loss of time/earnings and impairment of earning capacity
• Medical expenses
• Loss of enjoyment of life
• Injury related expenses
• Loss of consortium

How a Lawyer can Help

Pediatric injuries are especially hard to deal with, due to the fragile nature of new life.  It is imperative that you have a well-seasoned attorney by your side when you face having to file a lawsuit as a result of negligence by those you trusted to take care of you and your child.   Medical malpractice is very detailed and involved and only an attorney with training can ensure that you don’t miss one step along the way to recovering damages.