Birth Injury Lawyer

Temporomandibular Joint Disorder, also known as TMJ or TMD, is a painful condition affecting the jaw. The jaw joint, or the place at which the jaw is connected to the skull, contains many nerve endings and can easily be moved out of place. When this occurs, people can experience a variety of symptoms to a variety of degrees. The more common symptoms include pain at the jaw joint, popping or clicking when the jaw is moved, difficulty moving the jaw, and earaches. There are many potential treatments, from anti-inflammatory drugs to dental surgery, but not everyone with this problem finds relief.

TMJ has many potential causes, including genetics and teeth grinding. It can also be caused, or partially caused, by a birth injury. If an infant’s jaw is moved or damaged during birth, he or she may have persistent problems related to TMJ for life.

If your child has been injured by a negligent doctor, contact the birth injury lawyers Williams Kherkher at 866-950-9000.

A Pennsylvania jury awarded the largest medical malpractice verdict in recent history to the family of a boy suffering from injuries sustained during his birth. Due to the mistakes made at his birth, the now 7-year-old boy suffers from Cerebral Palsy, is almost completely blind, and has no use of his hands. He only functions at the level of a 6-to-9 month-old baby and will require 24-hour care for the rest of his life.

The negligent doctor, who was not the mother’s primary obstetrician, directed the mother to a hospital while the baby was in distress, but then failed to show up at the hospital himself until two hours later.  When he did arrive at the hospital, the physician further complicated the situation by unsuccessfully trying to induce labor. When the baby was finally delivered via Cesarean-section four hours later, the irreparable brain damage had been done due to the improper amounts of oxygen he received while in distress in the womb.

If your child has suffered physical or mental complications as a result of a birth injury, contact the birth injury lawyers Williams Kherkher at  866.950.9000.

A Bannock county jury is deliberating a civil case involving a former Pocatello Women’s Correctional Center inmate and the 2004 birth of her son. The plaintiff is suing Prison Health Services, Inc. for medical negligence and for violating her and her son’s eighth amendment rights. The eighth amendment outlaws cruel and unusual punishment and requires adequate medical care for inmates.
When the inmate was seven months pregnant, she complained of severe abdominal pain, but the prison infirmary nurse did not send her to the hospital. Instead, the inmate was kept in an infirmary cell for 11 hours, during which she was in pre-term labor. Still hours later, no ambulance had been called, but the inmate was to be taken to the hospital in a prison van. On the way out to the van, the inmate delivered her baby onto the cold concrete outside the prison. The baby, placenta and umbilical cord were then run-over by the wheelchair carrying the inmate. The guards picked up the baby, placenta and umbilical cord and returned inside the prison.

During this time, the plaintiff is alleging that her son did not receive enough oxygen to his brain and that this caused him to develop Periventricular Leukomalacia or PVL. PVL, a permanent brain injury, is common in premature babies and often leads to Cerebral Palsy and other neurological disorders.

If your child has suffered physical or mental complications as a result of a birth injury, contact the birth injury lawyers of Williams Kherkher at  866.950.9000.

A study published in the most recent issue of Biological Psychiatry discusses a disturbing correlation: the rate of hypoxia (lack of oxygen) during childbirth among people later diagnosed with schizophrenia. Specifically, the study examined the relationship between BDNF, a protein that helps protect neurons (braincells), hypoxia, and later mental problems. Their data suggests that infants with average or high BDNF levels who experience hypoxia are unlikely to develop schizophrenia later in life. However, infants with low BDNF levels who also experience hypoxia during childbirth may have an increased risk of developing the serious mental disorder.  One of the paper’s authors, Dr. Tyrone Cannon, cautions that this is only a preliminary study. However, if the study is repeated with the same results, it may be strong evidence of the importance of maternal health and good nutrition during pregnancy.

If your child has suffered physical or mental complications as a result of a birth injury, contact the hypoxia birth injury attorneys Williams Kherkher at  866.950.9000.

A birth injury lawsuit filed in Law Vegas, Nevada, will be allowed to continue after a long delay, the Nevada Supreme Court decided today. The suit concerns the birth of James Monroe in May 1995. During a C-section the infant’s scalp was accidentally lacerated. Doctors tried to stop the bleeding for over an hour before transferring him to another hospital, where he was treated but later found to have brain damage. The lawsuit was originally dismissed by lower courts because it was filed more than four years after the boy’s birth, missing the statute of limitations. However, the state Supreme Court decided today that because the suit falls under the area of the law imposing a 10 year statute of limitations for brain damage and birth defect. Because the suit was filed before the boy’s 10th birthday, it will be allowed to continue.

If your child was injured by a negligent doctor during childbirth, contact the birth injury lawyers Williams Kherkher at 866.950.9000.