Georgia HIE Birth Injury Lawyers
HIE Birth Injury Attorneys in Georgia
A baby’s birth is supposed to be one of the happiest days of any parent’s life. But what starts as a joyous occasion can quickly become heartbreaking once doctors realize a serious birth injury has occurred.
Expecting families welcome over 125,000 children each year in Georgia. But of those deliveries, some children will unfortunately undergo complications during labor and delivery that permanently impact their future.
Children diagnosed with hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy (HIE) at birth will face numerous risks to their long-term physical and neurological wellbeing. This type of neonatal brain injury can forever alter the way they see, move, think, and speak.
HIE is the most common form of brain damage at birth. But quick thinking and intervention in the delivery room can sometimes prevent it. Doctors and delivery nurses must carefully monitor the mother’s and baby’s status during labor to prevent complications causing oxygen deprivation.
Babies who experience perinatal asphyxia and hypoxia during birth have the highest risk for brain damage like HIE. Medical professionals can make these complications more likely when they miss risk factors or have delayed responses to an emergency.
If you think medical malpractice could be what caused HIE in your child’s birth, it’s worth investigating further. Our Georgia HIE Birth Injury Lawyers will leave no stone unturned when digging into the facts of your case. We are here to help your family seek justice and compensation for preventable injuries by proving medical negligence.
Free Legal Consultation
HIE Birth Injury Lawyers
(888) 987-0005Our Georgia HIE Birth Injury Lawyers are available to meet you in your home or the hospital.
Speak With a Top Rated HIE Injury Lawyer Today
For over 40 years, our Georgia HIE Birth Injury Lawyers have been helping children secure the medical care they deserve.
Our firm’s fierce reputation pressures negligent parties into settling for fair compensation sums. When they refuse to settle, we don’t hesitate to bring the case to court and fight on your family’s behalf. We have gone up against some of the biggest names in the healthcare industry – and won.
We want to give your child access to every available resource to succeed. We understand the type of lifelong care, therapies, medications, and treatment that babies with HIE brain injuries will require. And we believe that families should be able to afford this care without making sacrifices to stay financially afloat.
When you hire our Georgia HIE Birth Injury Lawyers to represent you, you are getting more than just an attorney. For each case, we have a full team of attorneys, nursing advocates, and medical experts working together.
Your team is available to answer your legal and medical questions and give important updates on your case. But our help doesn’t stop there: we do what we can to meet your child’s needs as their case progresses. This means helping schedule specialists’ appointments, obtaining critical medical records, providing transportation, and assisting with day-to-day needs when problems arise.
We provide this help to your family on a contingency fee basis. This means that we will not charge any costs for anything until after we’ve won your case. We never charge families on cases we don’t win; we only receive payment once you do.
The Georgia HIE Birth Injury Lawyers at our firm have a long-running track record of legal victories for our families. Our unmatched results say more about our reputation than words ever could.
Georgia HIE Injury Settlement
A mother in Atlanta, Georgia suffered a serious uterine rupture during delivery after nurses administered too much Pitocin and Cytotec. After failing to conduct a timely emergency C-section procedure, her child went without oxygen for nearly 9 minutes. Our Georgia HIE Birth Injury Lawyers proved that this caused brain damage at birth and had lasting neurological impacts. We were able to secure $4,000,000 for the family to cover costs for speech therapy and other crucial medical care.
What is an HIE Birth Injury?
HIE (short for hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy) is the most common form of neonatal brain injury. It stems from a deficiency in oxygen and blood to the baby’s brain during birth.
- Hypoxic means hypoxia, or having low oxygen levels.
- Ischemic means neonatal ischemia, or lacking sufficient blood flow to the brain. Because oxygen travels primarily through the blood, an ischemic baby will almost always experience hypoxia at the same time.
- Encephalopathy is a general medical term referring to the effects of a brain injury.
HIE is the leading cause of cerebral palsy, a group of neurological conditions that affect muscle movement.
Children with moderate to severe HIE often have cognitive disabilities, vision impairments, seizures, and delayed developmental milestones. According to studies, the condition is still one of the leading causes of neonatal mortality and morbidity worldwide.
How Common are HIE Birth Injuries in Georgia?
While HIE is the most common type of brain injury at birth, the condition is still relatively rare. Recent studies suggest the incidence rate is around 1.7 in every 1000 births in the United States. Using public Georgia state birth rate data, we can estimate that over 200 newborns in Georgia will develop HIE each year.
How Does the Baby Develop an HIE Birth Injury?
HIE injuries occur in two main stages. Here is how an initial dip in oxygenated blood flow can progress into irreversible brain damage at birth:
Stage 1: Hypoxic-Ischemic Insult
Hypoxic-Ischemic Event: An event during pregnancy or delivery stops the flow of oxygenated blood to the baby’s brain. When this happens abruptly (such as with a placental abruption or uterine rupture), it is an acute profound hypoxic event. When it happens over a period of time (such as with placental insufficiency), it is a partial prolonged hypoxic event. Both acute hypoxia and prolonged hypoxia can cause injury to the brain, just at different speeds.
Cellular Shutdown & Initial Injury: After enough time without sufficient oxygen (usually between 2-15 minutes), brain cells start shutting down. The sudden cell death causes rapid inflammation and swelling in the baby’s brain tissue. Lesions (spots of damaged tissue visible on an MRI scan) begin forming on the baby’s basal ganglia and thalamus.
Stage 2: Oxygen Reperfusion Injury
0-6 Hours After Injury: With the baby usually delivered at this point, oxygenated blood resumes flowing to the brain. Doctors call this period the latent phase, or the small window of recovery where therapeutic interventions are most effective. This is the ideal time for neonatal cooling therapy to reduce excess brain swelling.
Oxygen Reperfusion & Secondary Injury: As oxygen rushes back to the brain, the body mistakes the brain tissue inflammation for an infection. As a result, the immune system releases high levels of toxins (called free radicals or reactive oxygen species). These toxins circulate through the brain tissue in search of infection but instead end up damaging surrounding brain cells. Researchers believe this second wave of injury is actually more severe than the initial insult.
What Causes HIE in Newborns?
Hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy is always a result of a reduction in oxygen and blood flow to the brain.
Our cells need oxygen to produce energy. But brain cells require even higher levels of oxygen to maintain neural activities (even before birth). In fact, an adult brain consumes over one fifth of the body’s total energy.
The brain consumes even more energy during fetal development and at birth, which makes steady oxygen flow even more important. When the body fails to meet this high oxygen demand, the baby’s brain cells begin to shut down.
Doctors, nurses, and all other medical professionals in the delivery room must carefully watch for signs of birth asphyxia. Even short periods without oxygen can permanently impair brain function.
What Are Risk Factors for HIE Injuries?
Hypoxia and Ischemia are the sole cause of HIE, but what causes the initial oxygen blockage in the first place?
A number of pregnancy complications and labor complications can restrict fetal blood flow to dangerous levels. While these complications do not guarantee an HIE birth injury, they do raise the baby’s risk for brain damage.
The following complications are risk factors that our Georgia HIE Birth Injury Lawyers commonly see contributing to an HIE diagnosis:
Placental Problems
The mother’s placenta is the main organ responsible for providing blood, oxygen, and nutrients to the baby in the womb. Placental complications during pregnancy or labor can affect this crucial exchange and increase the risk for hypoxia or ischemia.
Placental insufficiency during pregnancy can gradually reduce a child’s oxygen supply over an extended period of time. Over time, this deficiency can deplete the baby’s energy reserves and cause an HIE injury at birth.
The placenta will no longer function if it prematurely detaches from the uterine lining. This medical emergency (known as placental abruption) can deprive the baby of oxygen and cause brain damage within just minutes.
Other placental issues that can potentially cause HIE in infants include placenta previa and vasa previa. Both of these problems can complicate vaginal delivery and increase the baby’s risk for oxygen deprivation during labor.
Umbilical Cord Problems
All oxygenated blood flows from the placenta to the baby through the umbilical cord. Different umbilical cord problems during pregnancy or during labor can block critical nutrients from reaching the baby’s brain.
Knots in the cord or loops wrapped around the baby’s neck (nuchal cord) can pose minor risks to blood flow. However, more serious complications include cord compression and cord prolapse.
Umbilical cord compression occurs when the baby’s body presses against the cord inside the womb, often restricting blood flow. Umbilical cord prolapses are an even more dangerous type of compression where the cord delivers before the baby does. As the baby attempts to exit the birth canal, they squeeze against the cord and restrict oxygen flow almost entirely.
Serious complications like cord prolapse or multiple nuchal cord loops can require an emergency C-section to avoid severe perinatal hypoxia.
Abnormal Blood Pressure
An expecting mother’s body increases blood volume by nearly 50% during pregnancy to support placental blood flow to her baby. Her heart pumps harder because of this, which is why many women develop hypertensive disorders like preeclampsia during pregnancy.
Preeclampsia is a condition causing high blood pressure and narrowing of the mother’s blood vessels. When left unmonitored, it can reduce placental blood flow over time and put the baby at risk for ischemia.
Blood Clots During Pregnancy
During pregnancy, an expecting mother’s body produces higher levels of blood-clotting proteins like fibrinogen in preparation for delivery. This, along with other factors like increased pressure on the pelvic veins, increases her risk for developing blood clots.
Clotting, particularly within the placenta, can block the passage of oxygenated blood from travelling to the baby. This puts them at a higher risk for hypoxia and ischemia, which can cause HIE birth injuries.
Maternal Infections
Maternal infections like group b strep or chorioamnionitis can easily transfer to the baby during labor. If the child contracts a fetal or neonatal infection from their mother, it can trigger widespread bodily inflammation. This inflammation can restrict oxygen delivery to the baby’s brain and increase the risk of injuries like HIE.
Additionally, maternal infections can result in fever for both the mother and her baby. This higher internal temperature increases oxygen demand and lowers the baby’s tolerance to labor, increasing their risk for oxygen deprivation.
Prolonged or Arrested Labor
Labor contractions naturally constrict placental blood and oxygen flow as the uterus pushes the baby out. The baby can withstand short periods of reduced oxygenation during labor. However, labor that surpasses 18 hours or stops progressing altogether can become dangerous.
Labor Inducing Medications
Labor-Inducing Medications like Pitocin and Cytotec can induce contractions that more tightly constrict placental blood flow. Doctors will typically prescribe these medications to mothers with weak contractions or when their labor fails to begin or progress.
But too high of a dosage can result in contractions that are too frequent and overly powerful. This labor complication (called uterine hyperstimulation) can dangerously restrict fetal oxygenation and increase the baby’s risk of an HIE injury.
Uterine Rupture
A uterine rupture is a dangerous labor complication where one or more layers of the uterine lining begin to tear. This can abruptly cut off all oxygen flow to the baby during labor, greatly increasing their risk for HIE injuries.
Shoulder Dystocia
Shoulder dystocia occurs when the child’s head exits the birth canal, but their shoulders remain stuck inside. The longer the baby remains lodged behind the mother’s pubic bone, the greater their risk becomes for birth asphyxia. Prolonged cases of shoulder dystocia can cut off blood circulation to the baby’s head and potentially cause brain damage.
Neonatal Head Injuries
Injuries to a baby’s head during birth can physically damage their brain tissue. These injuries can lead to inflammation that restricts essential blood flow to their brain. When severe enough, birth trauma to the head can disrupt cerebral perfusion enough to result in an HIE injury.
Common head injuries that cause this inflammation can include skull fractures, intracranial hemorrhages, or cephalohematoma. These injuries are more likely in difficult deliveries or when doctors misuse delivery instruments like forceps and vacuum extractors.
Preterm Birth
Babies with a premature birth usually have not had enough time for their organs to fully develop. An underdeveloped brain and/or blood vessels can make the baby less capable of managing a restricted oxygen supply. This will increase their vulnerability to brain injuries like HIE if they experience a hypoxic-ischemic event during labor.
It’s important to note that these complications will not always confirm that a child sustained brain damage at birth. However, these risk factors have great potential to cause hypoxia and ischemia during pregnancy or during labor.
Medical professionals can lower the child’s risk by taking preventative action during pregnancy or quickly intervening when labor complications occur. If they failed to take proper action, our Georgia HIE Birth Injury Lawyers are prepared to hold them accountable.
What Are Symptoms of an HIE Birth Injury?
Even before birth, symptoms of HIE and oxygen deprivation will be visible to healthcare providers. After the baby arrives, even more information on their status will become apparent. During cases, our Georgia HIE Birth Injury Lawyers evaluate whether doctors and delivery nurses properly recognized the following signs:
Fetal Distress
Non-reassuring fetal heart rates will likely be the first sign that the child underwent a hypoxic event during labor. This is because fetal heart rate patterns indicate when a baby isn’t receiving enough oxygen. Patterns that medical professionals should immediately recognize as concerning include:
- Late decelerations after a contraction
- Minimal to no change (variability) in heart rate
- A baseline heart rate under 100 beats per minute (fetal bradycardia)
- A baseline heart rate over 160 beats per minute (fetal tachycardia)
Doctors and nurses should carefully monitor the baby’s heartbeat so they know when to intervene with an emergency c-section delivery.
Neonatal Seizures
HIE Birth injuries can trigger abnormal electrical signals in the brain, causing neurons to fire uncontrollably. This can result in uncontrollable convulsions, rhythmic eye movements, and pauses in breathing. Neonatal seizures can be life-threatening and require quick administration of medications and further monitoring in the neonatal intensive care unit.
Acidemia at Birth
The lack of oxygen from fetal hypoxia causes the baby’s cells to create excess lactic acid when producing energy. Over time, lactic acid buildup can lower the baby’s blood pH to more acidic and dangerous levels.
A blood pH is below 7.20 at birth almost always indicates that the baby underwent oxygen deprivation during labor. Research supports severe fetal acidosis being a key symptom of HIE injuries in neonates.
Weak Physical Appearance After Birth
Medical professionals should carefully examine the baby’s appearance upon delivery. Signs of an HIE injury or other brain damage at birth can include:
- Shallow breathing or no breathing at all
- Irregular heartbeat (fetal bradycardia or tachycardia)
- Blueish tint around their lips and face
- Fatigue
- Floppy, weak muscle tone (hypotonia)
- Arched back
- Poor reflexes
- Loss of consciousness
A newborn with two or more of these physical symptoms should undergo testing for possible brain injuries like HIE.
The window of opportunity to treat an HIE birth injury is already small. Missing obvious signs of an HIE injury can delay a timely diagnosis and eliminate the potential to reduce its effects. A Georgia HIE Birth Injury Lawyer can help identify when delayed action caused or worsened your child’s brain damage.
How Are HIE Birth Injuries Diagnosed?
Medical professionals use a combination of physical signs and diagnostic exams to accurately detect HIE injuries. The following tests and guides are the most common tools for assessing the extent of a baby’s HIE brain damage:
APGAR Scoring
All babies receive an APGAR score at birth to evaluate whether they need further medical intervention. Medical professionals will assess a baby across 5 measurable categories and assign each one a score between 0-2.
Babies with HIE birth injuries will score low in all APGAR categories, particularly in the respiration and pulse sections. Overall scores between 0-5 after 10 minutes are a sign of moderate to severe HIE. Doctors often use the APGAR score as the first indicator of a baby needing further testing for brain damage.
SARNAT Exam
While similar to the APGAR test, the SARNAT exam has a more specific focus on characteristics of neonatal brain injuries. Medical professionals evaluate the baby using a set of criteria aligning with common HIE symptoms like seizures and muscle tone.
What Are the Stages of HIE?
The SARNAT scale breaks the baby’s HIE injury into three stages of severity based on symptoms at birth:
- Stage I (Mild): the newborn’s HIE injuries are minimal and will likely have no noticeable lasting impacts on their life
- Stage II (Moderate): the newborn shows signs of significant injury from HIE that will require further intervention
- Stage III (Severe): the newborn has sustained serious HIE injuries that will strongly affect their development and capabilities in life
Umbilical Cord Blood Gas Testing
When a baby undergoes severe oxygen deprivation during birth, there will be markers of it in their blood. An umbilical cord blood gas test can measure the pH level and base deficit within the baby’s blood. Low pH levels and high base deficits indicate fetal acidosis, which occurs when the baby doesn’t receive enough oxygen.
Blood gas tests that come back positive for acidosis should push medical professionals to conduct further testing. When a baby exhibits signs of acidemia during birth, their healthcare providers should always check for potential brain injuries.
Brain Imaging Scans
Neuroimaging scans are the most definitive method a medical professional can use to detect HIE birth injuries. The most common test for neonates is Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scanning because of its high accuracy and non-invasive nature. Electroencephalogram (EEG) testing measures the brain’s electrical activity and can also help doctors spot abnormal signals that indicate brain damage.
These tests help medical professionals determine the precise location, severity, and expected long-term effects of a baby’s HIE injury.
A timely diagnosis is crucial for treating any form of brain injury. Doctors and nurses must never delay ordering or performing these tests when there is evidence of a potential hypoxic-ischemic event. If you feel that medical professionals needlessly delayed your child’s HIE diagnosis, consider contacting a Georgia HIE Birth Injury Lawyer.
What Are the Complications of HIE?
HIE birth injuries often leave children with life-altering complications. Some of the most common disabilities that our Georgia HIE Birth Injury Lawyers see in our clients include:
Epilepsy
Babies with severe HIE injuries at birth are at high risk of developing epilepsy during childhood. This is a condition where abnormal electrical activity in the brain causes recurring seizures. According to the National Epilepsy Foundation, more than 110,000 Georgians have an epilepsy diagnosis.
Sensory Impairments
We use our brains to control and process all sensory output. When children experience an HIE injury at birth, it can damage crucial neural pathways and sensory receptors.
The most common sensory damage from HIE injuries is hearing loss and vision impairments.
Delayed Developmental Milestones
The effects of an HIE injury at birth can slowly appear as the child gets older. While each person is different, there are common developmental milestones that most babies will hit by a certain age. These can include the baby’s first smile, crawling, or taking their first steps. Children with HIE are more likely to miss these milestones or hit them at a much later age than normal.
Other common missed milestones include social and emotional delays, speech impairments, or the lack of speech altogether. A child with HIE birth injuries may also have difficulties controlling their emotions or a hesitation to interact with others.
Cerebral Palsy
HIE brain injuries are the leading cause of cerebral palsy worldwide. Cerebral palsy is a group of neurological disorders affecting muscle movement, tone, coordination, speech, vision, hearing, and cognitive abilities.
Children with cerebral palsy often feel chronic pain from uncontrollable muscle spasms. Their spasticity may result in paralysis or jerky, involuntary movements. Swallowing disorders and speech impairments like dysarthria or dysphagia are also common with a cerebral palsy diagnosis.
Doctors usually wait until the child’s first year or two of life to diagnose cerebral palsy. But symptoms like developmental delays and feeding problems can appear before then. Medical professionals should carefully monitor children with HIE for any emerging symptoms of cerebral palsy to ensure timely treatment.
What is the Life Expectancy of a Baby with HIE?
A child with a mild or even moderate case of HIE will typically have an average life expectancy. However, severe HIE birth injuries can come with cerebral palsy symptoms that do have the potential to shorten life expectancy.
Conditions like epilepsy, hemiplegia, or severe respiratory issues can wear down a child’s body faster.
But proper treatment and intervention can ensure that children who survive HIE birth injuries will live long and healthy lives.
How Are HIE Birth Injuries Treated?
All injuries to the brain come with the risk of causing irreversible damage and lifelong complications. However, healthcare providers can begin employing HIE treatment strategies for babies with HIE almost immediately after they are born.
HIE Injury Treatments After Birth
The period right after the baby’s delivery is the most opportune time for reducing the long-term effects of HIE. Depending on the newborn’s status, healthcare providers should start the following treatments as soon after birth as possible:
Neonatal Cooling Therapy
Therapeutic hypothermia (or neonatal brain cooling) is the most widely known and effective treatment for minimizing an HIE injury’s effects.
Medical professionals use thermal regulating machines and other tools to manually lower the baby’s internal temperature to 92.3 degrees Fahrenheit. This lower temperature stops swelling and slows the cellular metabolism that causes the second wave of HIE injury after birth.
It is important for the cooling process to begin within six hours after the baby’s birth. Waiting too long can reduce the treatment’s effectiveness as oxygen reperfusion injury will have already set in.
Antiseizure Medications & EEG Monitoring
One study estimates that up to 60% of HIE Birth Injury victims will experience seizures at birth. Doctors and nurses can mitigate the risk of further damage by administering preventative antiseizure medications. They should also use tools like an EEG machine to monitor electrical activity in the brain after birth.
Supplemental Oxygen
Children who have suffered hypoxia at birth may have breathing difficulties that persist after delivery. If the baby isn’t breathing, medical professionals will need to perform neonatal resuscitation to quickly restore oxygen flow.
Babies with shallow breathing and a weak pulse may need supplemental oxygen treatment through an assisted ventilation machine.
HIE Birth Injury Treatments During Childhood
During the early childhood years, it no longer becomes realistic to try reversing or reducing brain damage from HIE. At this age, doctors shift their treatment strategies toward managing existing symptoms rather than curing them. Proven effective treatment methods for children with HIE birth injuries can include:
Physical Therapy
Brain injuries often cause neurological damage that impacts muscle movement and control. Many children who suffered an HIE birth injury have stiff muscles and a very limited range of motion. Physical therapy introduces targeted exercises that can help these children improve their flexibility and overcome immobility problems.
Occupational Therapy
Occupational therapy gives children practice in performing routine, everyday tasks needed for daily living. This includes activities like holding utensils, writing, brushing hair, brushing teeth, putting on clothes, or tying shoes. Over time, repeated practice of these tasks will help children with HIE develop a greater sense of independence.
Speech Therapy
HIE brain injuries can cause neurological speech impairments that give children difficulties with eating, swallowing, and speaking. Speech therapy can introduce swallowing techniques, tongue placements, and articulation exercises that will improve their speaking skills.
Over time, working with a speech therapist can allow children with HIE to feel more independent and socially confident.
Assistive Equipment & Devices
Many children with moderate to severe HIE have accompanying cerebral palsy symptoms that impair how they move and communicate.
These children may use assistive equipment and devices like wheelchairs, walkers, and adaptive furniture for more comfort and easier access. If their symptoms prevent them from speaking clearly, they may rely on adaptive communication devices when interacting with others.
Georgia’s Babies Can’t Wait Program
Babies Can’t Wait (BCW) is Georgia’s statewide inter-agency service delivery system for infants and toddlers with developmental delays or disabilities. Led by a multidisciplinary team of pediatric specialists and therapists, the program offers a wide variety of services. These include free evaluations, referrals, resources, trainings, and support to families in need.
Children aged 3 years and younger who have an official diagnosis from a licensed specialist are eligible for these benefits. Use the link below to see if your child’s conditions meet eligibility standards.
Can a HIE Birth Injury Be Cured?
In general, doctors are not able to completely cure a child of their HIE injuries. While symptoms of HIE are highly treatable, most children go on to have at least some degree of permanent disability. Moderate to severe cases will likely require regular HIE treatment and intervention throughout childhood.
But children who have mild cases of HIE typically don’t end up with long-term disabilities. This is especially true of babies who get early intervention at birth like neonatal cooling.
Did Medical Malpractice Cause My Child’s HIE Birth Injury?
Hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy is not a genetic condition or random occurrence. There are clear signs during labor and delivery (and sometimes even before) when a baby is experiencing oxygen deprivation. If healthcare providers pick up on these signs in time, they have the potential to prevent irreversible neonatal brain damage.
Medical professionals can be legally liable for a child’s injuries when they make avoidable mistakes. Critical errors that violate the standard of care include:
- Failing to properly monitor the mother’s blood pressure during delivery
- Failing to carefully monitor fetal heart rates and respond to signs of fetal distress
- Missing a placental complication like placental insufficiency or an umbilical cord problem like nuchal cord or cord compression
- Missing or failing to sufficiently treat a maternal infection, such as group b strep or chorioamnionitis
- Failing to intervene during a prolonged or arrested labor
- Delaying an emergency C-section, prolonging oxygen deprivation
- Administering too much of labor inducing medications and failing to quickly turn down the dosage
- Using excessive force with delivery instruments like forceps and vacuum extractors and causing a neonatal head injury
- Failing to conduct proper neuroimaging tests or umbilical cord blood gas testing after birth to confirm a case of HIE
- Failing to start therapeutic hypothermia treatment after an HIE birth injury
- Downplaying the extent of a child’s HIE birth injury to their parents and family
Learning your child has hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy will be devastating for any parent. But it can be even more devastating to learn that their injuries were preventable.
If you believe your child suffered from preventable brain damage at birth, you may have options available to recover compensation. Contacting a Georgia HIE Birth Injury Lawyer can give you insight into whether or not you should pursue legal action.
How Long Do You Have to File an HIE Birth Injury Case in Georgia?
A statute of limitations (SOL) sets a time limit on how long an injured person has to file a lawsuit. Statutes of limitations vary based on the type of case and the state in which you filed it. For instance, the deadline for birth injury claims typically differs from other claims like fraud, contract disputes, and debt collection.
Georgia Code: Title 9; Chapter 3 - Limitations of Actions; Article 4 - Limitations for Malpractice Actions
For adults, the statute of limitations in a medical malpractice lawsuit is 2 years from the date of the negligence. For children, the statute of limitations is slightly different. You must file a birth injury lawsuit for your child no later than the day they turn 7 years old.
Generally, the clock starts ticking on the date the injury occurred. However, there are exceptions to this rule. Some states (including Georgia) have something called the discovery rule. This means the statute of limitations starts after a person discovers or reasonably should have discovered an injury.
Depending on who you’re suing, you may need to file your claim under the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA). In FTCA cases, claimants must go through certain administrative procedures before filing a lawsuit. The time period in which you must give "notice" may be shorter in some cases. Examples include if the negligent party was a local or state government hospital, or if the doctors are government employees.
The court will typically dismiss your case if you file it outside the statute of limitations. However, certain exceptions exist to the rules when the injured party is a child. Determining when a statute of limitations begins and ends can be tricky. If you're considering pursuing compensation for a birth injury, contact our Georgia HIE Birth Injury Lawyers as soon as possible.
How Can Our Georgia HIE Birth Injury Attorneys Help?
Parents of children with HIE injuries witness firsthand the ways this severe brain injury affects their lives. The diagnosis often leaves them desperate to know how it happened and if better medical care could have prevented it. To help find the answer to those questions and more, our Georgia HIE Birth Injury Lawyers are available today.
We can consult with families, legal experts, and medical specialists to recover life-changing financial compensation for these injuries. We help families set up a trust to set aside this compensation for:
- Medical treatments and therapies
- Assistive equipment like wheelchairs, modified vehicles, and home modifications
- Medications to treat related conditions like seizures or muscle spasms
- In-home caregivers and medical attendants
Our Process
Our team of specialized HIE Birth Injury Lawyers in Georgia utilize a tried-and-true case review process to assess your claim.
We start by learning more about you and your child. We will gather medical records like fetal heart rate strips to determine what happened before, during, and after your delivery. We will look into important details like:
- The kinds of medications administered during labor
- How long labor lasted
- How long it took medical professionals to order and conduct an emergency C-section
- How quickly healthcare providers started neonatal cooling after birth
We call in skilled medical experts like pediatric neurologists and neonatologists. They will review your records to determine whether medical errors could have contributed to your child’s HIE injury. If we make a recovery, we will hold responsible parties accountable in an HIE birth injury medical malpractice lawsuit.
At no point in our legal intake or litigation process will you need to pay anything. The medical review of your case and the consultation are free. If we win your case, we will only ever charge an agreed-upon percentage outlined in an attorney-client retainer contract. We do not pursue any medical malpractice cases unless we fully believe we can win.
The sooner you reach out, the sooner our Georgia HIE Birth Injury Lawyers can start building your case.
Contact us today to schedule your free consultation by calling our toll-free line at (888) 987-0005. You can also reach us by filling out our online request form.
National Birth Injury Law
Our National Birth Injury Attorneys, nurses, and support staff understand that parents of children with birth injuries feel overwhelmed. So, every client has the attention and support of a team of trained, compassionate professionals. But we don’t just offer compassion.
We offer a process to help you discover whether your child’s birth injury, HIE, cerebral palsy or brain injury at birth was caused by medical malpractice.
Call our offices today at (888) 987-0005 for experienced assistance in a free consultation.
Quick Links
Testimonials
- Lyric C. I feel like our voice was heard in a sense of what can possibly go wrong in a delivery and finding us answers. I feel with our settlement, we are now in a comfortable position to provide for our son.
- Lyssa L. They are not just people that say “hey let's get you money and let's go” The law firm was very thorough with us. It was awesome. I don't want to cry, because I think about and it's amazing that they were able to help me and that we were able to help my son and get the story out there.
- Jay C. Throughout the process, one thing was clear to us, the ultimate interest of our child was the utmost concern of Max and his team and as parents navigating a situation like that, that was refreshing to know we had them firmly on our side. I highly recommend them.