The Tragedy of Birth Injury

When something is wrong with a newborn, the first thing that comes to mind is birth injury malpractice.

"Birth injury malpractice is not to be confused with birth defects,
as these are two different things," explained Christopher Mellino, a
Cleveland malpractice lawyer specializing in Cleveland medical
malpractice cases in Ohio. A defect is usually something that happened
before pregnancy or during gestation, causing something to go
drastically wrong with the baby's health and normal development.

A birth injury refers to something that happened during delivery –
say shoulder dystocia – which was a direct result of a botched
delivery. These things should never have happened in the first place.

"Most birth injuries are due to a fault of the physician (or other
medical staff) who were working as a team to deliver the baby," said
Mellino. If something does go wrong and the personnel provide less than
sterling care and skilled medical intervention, the conditions are ripe
for a medical malpractice lawsuit.

"When dealing with a birth injury malpractice lawsuit, there are
usually four elements that need to be present in order to proceed:
proximate cause, injury, breach of duty, and the fact that a duty of
care was owed to the patient," outlined Mellino, a Cleveland
malpractice lawyer specializing in Cleveland medical malpractice cases
in Ohio.

To show duty of care, the attorney needs to prove the doctor owed
the patient a duty to provide reasonable care. "The breach of care
aspect is relatively self-explanatory, in that it means the physician
didn't provide the professional/reasonable care anticipated and
expected," added Mellino.

These two elements must result in an injury or death to show there
was medical malpractice. This leads us to proximate cause, which means
that without the negligent act, the injury would never have occurred.
Or, to put this another way, the harm would not have happened if the
doctor had not made a mistake.

If someone has suffered the trauma of birth injuries, the best thing
to do is to contact an experienced and highly knowledgeable birth
injury lawyer. The attorney will assess the case and advise how to
proceed to justice.

To learn more about Cleveland medical malpractice, Cleveland malpractice lawyer, Cleveland medical malpractice, Cleveland medical malpractice lawyer, visit Christophermellino.com.