Intracranial Hemorrhage

When you seek medical care during pregnancy, you trust that your medical team will do everything possible to bring your baby into the world safely. Unfortunately, medical errors can be made, and these can result in serious birth injuries. If your baby suffered from intracranial hemorrhage as a result of medical negligence, you should consult the Upstate New York birth injury lawyers at DeFrancisco & Falgiatano about whether you can hold your health care provider accountable in a birth injury lawsuit. These lawsuits can be complicated, and it is important to retain an attorney with experience representing injured babies and their families. We assist children and parents in cities such as Syracuse, Rochester, Albany, and Buffalo.

Intracranial hemorrhage, which is a brain bleed within the brain, can be caused by birth trauma or asphyxia caused by medical negligence. There are different kinds of intracranial bleeding, including subdural hemorrhage, hemorrhagic stroke, subarachnoid hemorrhage, intracerebral hemorrhage, and intraventricular hemorrhage. A subdural hematoma in a newborn may be caused by birth trauma that leads to the rupture of blood vessels in the area between the dura’s surface and the arachnoid membrane. Intraventricular hemorrhage involves bleeding in the ventricular system, and it can be seen when birth trauma or oxygen deprivation has occurred.

You can hold a doctor liable for your baby’s intracranial hemorrhage if you can show that they did not meet the professional standard of care. The professional standard of care depends on the accepted medical standards among those in the same specialty and geographic region as your provider. Usually, it is necessary to present an expert opinion about what the accepted standards of medical care were among obstetricians in Upstate New York, how your doctor deviated, and how the deviation caused intracranial hemorrhage. Your doctor may, for example, deviate from accepted medical practices by improperly using forceps during delivery, thereby causing intracranial hemorrhage.

Sometimes accepted medical practices vary based on a patient’s specific risk factors. Risk factors for intracranial hemorrhage include premature birth, prolonged labor, blood disorders, hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy, cephalopelvic disproportion, macrosomia, abnormal fetal presentation, and abnormal blood pressure changes. When these risk factors are present, health care providers usually monitor the fetus very carefully. If there is fetal distress, and ordinary delivery is not possible, an emergency C-section will be performed to minimize intracranial hemorrhage. If your obstetrician failed to account for abnormal fetal positioning as a reasonable obstetrician in Upstate New York would have done, and intracranial hemorrhage was a result, there may have been medical negligence.

Generally, your infant’s long-term outcome from a brain bleed depends on how severe the brain bleed is and how it is managed. You may be able to recover damages for birth injuries if your attorney can establish your health care provider’s liability. Damages are usually awarded to compensate for economic and non-economic losses. Economic losses include past and future medical care and out-of-pocket costs. When the brain bleed is severe, it may be possible to recover the costs of neurosurgical intervention. Compensation may also be recovered for therapy costs for any impairments arising out of intracranial hemorrhage, such as cerebral palsy, learning disabilities, or developmental delays. If a brain bleed results in a catastrophic brain injury, around-the-clock care may be needed, and the jury may award the cost of this. The amount of non-economic damages can vary dramatically but may include the pain and suffering and loss of enjoyment of life that the jury believes would naturally flow from the severity of the injury. Parents may also be able to recover for their losses arising out of an intracranial hemorrhage.

Intracranial hemorrhage can range from mild to severe. Most families are not financially set up to take care of a baby with a catastrophic injury, such as a brain bleed that causes permanent brain damage or requires neurosurgery. However, it may be possible to recover these damages with the help of seasoned attorneys. If your baby suffered from intracranial hemorrhage as a result of medical negligence in Upstate New York, you should consult the experienced birth injury attorneys at DeFrancisco & Falgiatano. Contact us at 833-200-2000 or via our online form.