Birth injuries can cause devastating, lifelong physical and emotional challenges for both infants and their families. Injured victims and their families must also cope with medical expenses, ongoing care needs, and overwhelming stress.
If your child suffered a preventable birth injury in Pittsburgh, the experienced birth injury attorneys at Pribanic & Pribanic are here to help. Our dedicated legal team understands medical negligence and how to handle birth trauma cases.
We provide compassionate guidance and aggressive representation to secure the compensation your family deserves. Our Pittsburgh birth injury lawyers will also support you through every step of the recovery and legal process. Call us today to ensure you receive the compensation and support you deserve.
Table of contents
- Birth Injury Lawyers in Pittsburgh, PA: Key Takeaways
- Why Choose Our Pittsburgh Birth Injury Attorney?
- Compensation for a Birth Injuury
- What a Pittsburgh Birth Injury Lawyer Does
- Fighting the Insurance Company
- What to Do After a Birth Injury
- Get Legal Support From Our Birth Injury Attorneys
- Birth Injury Frequently Asked Questions
Birth Injury Lawyers in Pittsburgh, PA: Key Takeaways
- Choose our Pittsburgh birth injury attorneys at Pribanic & Pribanic for experienced, compassionate legal guidance.
- Recover compensation for medical expenses, lost income, and lifelong care needs.
- Our Pittsburgh birth injury lawyers can investigate incidents and protect your rights.
- We fight insurance companies to maximize your settlement and prevent low offers.
- Consult a birth injury attorney to ensure timely filing under Pennsylvania law.
- A birth injury attorney can represent you in court, negotiate settlements, and handle complex paperwork.
- Call a birth injury lawyer to protect your family’s future.
Why Choose Our Pittsburgh Birth Injury Attorney?
When facing the aftermath of a birth injury, selecting the right legal representation can secure your family’s future. Here are the attributes that set us apart from the rest:
- Experience: Our birth injury lawyers have over 100 years of combined experience, which gives us the confidence to fight for your rights. We have also represented approximately 2,000 clients, giving us deeper insights into birth injury claims.
- Location: We are conveniently located at 513 Court Place, Pittsburgh, PA 15219, a few blocks from City Co Federal Credit Union.
Compensation for a Birth Injuury
When a preventable birth injury occurs, families often face overwhelming physical, emotional, and financial hardships. A successful birth injury claim can help you recover the compensation needed to support your child’s ongoing treatment, secure their future, and hold negligent medical providers accountable.
Here are the damages you can recover in a birth injury claim:
Medical Expenses
Medical costs are often the most substantial damages in a birth injury case. These may include hospitalization, surgeries, medications, imaging, NICU care, mobility equipment, and ongoing treatments.
Many children with birth injuries such as cerebral palsy or hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE) require long-term or lifetime medical support. Compensation helps ensure your child receives the specialized care needed without creating unbearable financial pressure on your family.
Lost Income
A birth injury can affect not only the child’s future ability to work but also the parent’s ability to maintain stable employment. Many parents need to reduce work hours or leave their jobs entirely to care for their injured child.
Compensation for lost income covers wages the parent loses, as well as future earning capacity if the child’s disability prevents them from pursuing a career later in life.
Out-of-Pocket Expenses
Families often incur out-of-pocket costs while caring for a child with a birth injury. These expenses may include:
- Transportation to medical appointments
- Home nursing supplies
- Mobility devices
- Special dietary needs
- Childcare support
- Home modifications
- Educational support services
These costs can add up quickly and cause financial disruption. You can pursue compensation for these losses so families are not forced to pay for expenses caused by medical negligence.
Pain and Suffering
Birth injuries frequently cause substantial pain for the child, from surgical procedures to physical limitations, muscle tightness, or neurological impairment. Pain and suffering damages compensate for the physical discomfort and long-term challenges the child endures.
These damages recognize that the birth injury affects the child’s daily comfort and well-being.
Emotional Anguish
Emotional distress affects both the child and the parents. Parents often experience depression, anxiety, guilt, or trauma after witnessing their child’s suffering or receiving a life-changing diagnosis.
Children may also struggle emotionally as they grow older and face challenges related to mobility, independence, or cognitive limitations. Compensation for emotional anguish acknowledges the psychological burden caused by medical negligence.
Loss of Enjoyment of Life
Many birth injuries impact a child’s ability to engage fully in daily activities, play, school, social interaction, or future life experiences. Loss of enjoyment of life damages compensate for how the injury diminishes the child’s ability to participate in activities others enjoy.
These damages also reflect the limitations families face due to caregiving responsibilities, lost opportunities, and developmental challenges.
Loss of Consortium
Loss of consortium refers to the loss of the relationship, companionship, and emotional support that family members experience due to a child’s injuries. For example, a severe birth injury may prevent a child from forming typical parent-child bonds.
The birth injury can prevent the child from engaging in family activities or developing emotional connections that would have occurred if the negligence had not happened. These damages compensate for the profound relational loss suffered by the family.
Permanent Disability
If a birth injury results in a permanent disability such as cerebral palsy, paralysis, or severe cognitive impairment, the financial and emotional impact can last a lifetime. Compensation for permanent disability may cover:
- Long-term medical care
- Assisted living services
- Specialized education
- Home-care support
- Child’s decreased earning potential
These damages ensure the child has access to the lifelong support they need to live as independently and comfortably as possible.
Punitive Damages
A judge can award you punitive damages in a case where the healthcare provider’s conduct was especially reckless, intentional, or grossly negligent. Unlike other damages that compensate families, punitive damages are meant to punish the wrongdoer and deter similar behavior in the future.
While not available in every birth injury case, they may be pursued when medical staff acted with extreme disregard for patient safety.
What a Pittsburgh Birth Injury Lawyer Does
When medical negligence causes harm during pregnancy, labor, or delivery, families deserve justice and compensation. Our Pittsburgh birth injury lawyer can provide legal guidance, investigate medical malpractice claims and fight for the resources families need to care for injured children throughout their lives.
Our birth injury lawyers can represent you if you or a loved one suffered harm in the following incidents:
Delayed or Improper Response to Fetal Distress
When medical providers fail to respond promptly to signs of fetal distress, such as abnormal heart rate patterns or oxygen deprivation, the baby can suffer life-altering harm. Our birth injury lawyers can investigate monitoring records, consult medical experts, and determine whether negligence occurred.
Misuse of Delivery Tools
Improper use of forceps, vacuum extractors, or other delivery instruments can cause skull fractures, nerve damage, or brain injuries. Our birth injury attorneys can examine delivery room procedures, evaluate whether tools were used correctly, and gather evidence to prove improper technique.
Delayed Cesarean Section
Delaying a necessary C-section can expose the baby to prolonged distress, oxygen loss, or physical trauma. Our birth injury lawyers can review medical timelines, staff decisions, and hospital protocols to determine whether the delay violated the standard of care.
We can work aggressively to protect your right to compensation when timely intervention could have prevented the injury.
Medication or Anesthesia Errors
Medication mistakes during labor, such as improper dosing or incorrect administration of anesthesia, can harm the mother or child. Our birth injury attorneys can analyze medical records and consult with pharmacology and obstetric experts to identify potential errors.
Our birth injury lawyers can also represent you if you or your child suffers any of the following injuries:
- Cerebral palsy
- Brachial plexus injuries
- Erb’s palsy
- Hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE)
- Shoulder dystocia injuries
- Skull fractures
- Facial nerve injuries
- Spinal cord injuries
Fighting the Insurance Company
When a birth injury occurs due to medical negligence, the healthcare provider's insurance company is the primary source of compensation. Even so, these insurers prioritize minimizing payouts, which can hinder your right to fair compensation.
Here’s how a birth injury attorney can help:
Compiling Strong Evidence
A skilled birth injury attorney can build a strong claim by gathering comprehensive medical records, birth charts, and fetal monitoring strips. They can collaborate with medical experts to demonstrate how the provider deviated from the accepted standard of care.
The undeniable evidence makes it difficult for insurers to dispute liability or minimize the severity of injuries.
Aggressive Negotiation Tactics
An experienced birth injury lawyer understands the strategies employed by insurance companies, including lowball settlement offers and delay tactics. An experienced birth injury lawyer can counter these approaches by presenting detailed damage calculations that account for lifetime medical care, therapy costs, lost earning capacity, and pain and suffering.
They can also evaluate the merits of all settlement offers and advise you whether to accept or push for a higher value.
Representation in Court
If negotiations with insurance companies fail, a birth injury attorney can move your case to court to maximize your recovery. The court process allows a birth injury lawyer to present evidence, challenge defenses, and argue for damages under judicial oversight. In court, birth injury attorneys can:
- File lawsuits and manage court paperwork
- Present medical evidence and expert testimony
- Cross-examine opposing witnesses
- Negotiate settlements under judicial supervision
- Advocate for punitive and compensatory damages
- Protect your child’s legal rights throughout the trial process
What to Do After a Birth Injury
Although experiencing a birth injury is overwhelming, your actions after a birth injury can enhance your wellness and protect your legal rights. Here’s what you should do after a birth injury incident:
Seek Immediate Medical Attention
You should seek immediate medical attention after suffering harm in a healthcare institution. Some injuries, such as internal bleeding, nerve damage, or brain trauma, may not be immediately visible but can worsen without prompt care.
Early medical evaluation ensures your child receives necessary treatment. A healthcare provider will also create a thorough documentation of the injury, including medical records, test results, and physician notes.
The medical documentation is the foundation of a strong legal claim. A birth injury attorney can use the documentation to prove negligence and secure the compensation needed for your child’s ongoing care and recovery.
Consult a Birth Injury Attorney
You should also consult a birth injury lawyer after you or your loved one has suffered harm due to the action of a negligent healthcare provider. They can provide legal advice and support in the aftermath of the injury.
A birth injury attorney can investigate the incident by reviewing medical records, delivery room procedures, and hospital protocols to determine the cause of the injury. They can also consult experts to identify negligence and determine liability.
A birth injury attorney also ensures your claim complies with Pennsylvania’s personal injury statute of limitations, which generally gives two years from the date of injury. They can file the necessary paperwork on time to protect your right to seek compensation.
Get Legal Support From Our Birth Injury Attorneys
You’re likely to face financial strain if you or a loved one has suffered a birth injury due to someone else’s negligence. While you may be entitled to compensation, you must face the insurers who may reject your claim or make a low settlement offer that doesn’t cover your losses.
Our birth injury lawyers at Pribanic & Pribanic have years of experience fighting for the rights of injured victims. You can, therefore, count on us to handle the legal aspects of your claim as you focus on recovery. Contact at (412) 281-8844 to arrange your free consultation.
Birth Injury Frequently Asked Questions
How Much Compensation for Birth Injury?
Birth injury compensation varies widely based on factors like the injury's severity and permanence, required lifetime medical care, suffering endured, and quality of life impact. Each case is unique, with settlements reflecting the specific circumstances, long-term needs, and demonstrated negligence involved.
Can You Sue a Hospital for Traumatic Birth?
Yes, you can sue a hospital for a traumatic birth if your child suffered severe injuries, if liability is disputed, or if gross negligence occurred. A birth injury attorney can help prove negligence and pursue compensation on your behalf.
How Much Does a Birth Injury Lawyer Charge?
Most birth injury lawyers work on contingency, typically charging 25-40% of the settlement or verdict. The percentage depends on the case's difficulty, trial requirements, associated costs, jurisdiction, and the timing of settlement. You pay nothing unless compensation is recovered.