There is no shortage of risk factors that can lead to an otherwise healthy mother giving birth before her planned due date, and sometimes premature delivery and its physical consequences are simply unavoidable. In other situations, though, the injuries and trauma a child suffers by being born prematurely could have been prevented if their mother’s obstetrician and other healthcare providers had acted more responsibly.
If you believe your newborn was injured unnecessarily because your doctors failed to handle your pregnancy correctly, you may have a claim for medical malpractice. With a DC premature delivery injury lawyer by your side, you could demand fair restitution through a birth injury lawsuit for the harm you, your child, and your whole family suffered.
Even qualified and dedicated medical professionals cannot always prevent a pregnant person from going into labor and giving birth before the standard 36 weeks of gestation. However, all healthcare providers who care for pregnant people or assist with childbirth are expected to know the complicating factors that may increase a mother’s risk of giving birth prematurely.
They should also be aware of common signs of preterm labor like:
Most importantly, though, they must know how and when to act to protect the health of both mother and child when these complications and symptoms manifest.
A doctor who allows either mother or child to suffer physical injury because they failed to identify preterm labor, did not order appropriate treatment for it, or did not perform procedures correctly that were intended to ease the birthing process may have breached the “standard of care” applicable to them. In other words, they may have acted negligently in a way that no other equally qualified physician would have. Establishing this is one of many aspects of a malpractice claim that a DC premature delivery injury attorney could provide assistance with.
Fortunately, the District of Columbia is fairly generous with the amount of time it gives people to file suit over premature delivery injuries and other forms of medical malpractice. Under DC Code § 12-301, injured people have three years after discovering they were hurt through someone else’s misconduct to file suit against that person. This differs from many other states, which require litigation to begin within a certain time after an act of malpractice occurs, rather than when an ensuing injury is discovered.
Claimants will also need to provide written notice to the prospective defendants of their intent to file suit against them. They must do so at least 90 days before filing suit. As an experienced legal professional could further explain, this notice must include enough information for the defendant(s) to understand the basis for the proposed lawsuit and how they should prepare to contest it.
No child deserves to suffer any kind of injury—let alone a permanent and life-altering one—because they and their mother received insufficient care during the birthing process. Unfortunately, this scenario happens more often than you might think in the District of Columbia. If it has impacted your family, you have limited time to enforce your legal right to civil recovery.
You have assistance available to you from a DC premature delivery injury lawyer ready to fight tenaciously on your family’s behalf to get you paid what you deserve. Call today to learn how Price Benowitz could help you.
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