There is no shortage of potential birth complications that can pose a serious risk of harm to a pregnant mother or her child. It is crucial for obstetricians and other doctors providing care to expecting mothers to be aware of those complications and proactively mitigate them as much as possible. Importantly, doctors should meet this standard of care not just with instantly life-threatening complications, but also with conditions like jaundice, which generally cannot cause long-term harm unless they are mismanaged by medical professionals.
If your baby sustained serious injury because their doctor failed to properly diagnose and treat jaundice immediately after birth, you may have grounds for legal action, which a skilled North Miami jaundice injury lawyer can help you pursue. From beginning to end of your legal proceedings, our dedicated birth injury attorneys at Kaire & Heffernan will ensure your claim for compensation is as strong as possible while also helping you avoid procedural obstacles along the way.
Jaundice stems from a buildup of a yellow pigment called bilirubin in the bloodstream, which is produced when red blood cells naturally decay and break down after circulating through the body. Normally, filtering bilirubin out of the blood is one of the many important functions performed by the liver. However, because babies produce more bilirubin than adults and because infant livers sometimes take some time to start functioning properly, it is not uncommon for newborns—particularly those born pre-term—to experience mild jaundice in the days and weeks after birth.
Most of the time, jaundice results in the skin and the whites of the eye taking on a temporary yellow tint, and the condition will clear up on its own with no lingering effects. If doctors fail to identify and closely monitor infant jaundice, though, bilirubin may build up inside the infant’s brain in a condition called acute bilirubin encephalopathy, which can cause life-threatening brain damage in the form of a syndrome called kernicterus. As our North Miami jaundice injury attorneys can further explain, the majority of infant jaundice lawsuits are based on injuries stemming from kernicterus caused by doctors’ failure to properly address mild jaundice.
The financial value of a jaundice injury lawsuit will vary drastically from case to case, since that value depends entirely on what specific forms of harm a particular infant will experience as a direct result of their unique condition. That said, examples of compensable damages, which often play a role in cases of this nature include:
Our jaundice malpractice lawyers in North Miami will provide custom-tailored guidance about what losses your lawsuit should account for during a private initial consultation.
A newborn infant being diagnosed with jaundice is not something anyone who loves that baby should panic enough, but it is something a baby’s doctors should pay close attention to in case it gets significantly worse than normal. A failure to provide that basic standard of care for a newborn can serve as grounds for legal action against the physicians who were supposed to meet that standard, if their misconduct was the main and direct cause of that infant suffering otherwise preventable harm.
Of course, knowing you have grounds to file suit for malpractice is one thing, and actually obtaining fair compensation through this kind of claim can be another entirely. Call today to get the assistance you deserve from our capable and compassionate North Miami jaundice injury lawyers at Kaire & Heffernan.
(305) 876-6001