Mental Retardation

Children who are hurt during the childbirth process often have to deal with long-term medical consequences. Birth injuries can be difficult to detect because they may not become evident for weeks, months, or even years after the child’s birth. In some cases, they can lead to serious conditions such as mental retardation or cerebral palsy. At Lebowitz & Mzhen Personal Injury Lawyers, our birth injury lawyers have many years of experience helping people in the Baltimore area pursue medical malpractice claims, and we can help you as well. We can investigate the circumstances surrounding your child’s birth and identify whether a health care provider may have been negligent during the process.

Medical malpractice, which is broadly defined as a careless action by a health care provider that harms a patient, can occur in a variety of ways. For example, a physician may fail to diagnose a medical condition, hospital staff may fail to provide adequate treatment for a known medical condition, or an anesthesiologist may provide the wrong dose of anesthesia.

In the state of Maryland, a health care provider such as a physician or nurse is required to meet the level of care that a professional in his or her area of expertise would use to treat a patient in a similar situation. In order to have a valid medical malpractice case, four requirements must be met. The appropriate duty of care must be shown, the way in which the defendant violated it must be identified, a causal connection must link the defendant’s breach to the victim’s harm, and quantifiable damages must have resulted from it.

In Maryland, the Health Care Malpractice Claims statute requires that prior to filing a lawsuit, an individual must first file with the Director of the Maryland Health Care Alternative Dispute Resolution Office. The plaintiff must also submit a certificate from a qualified expert stating that the defendant breached the relevant standards of health care and that this led to the victim’s injury, disability, or death.

People affected by medical malpractice can file a lawsuit for past, present, and future damages. If a plaintiff prevails in this type of claim, he or she may be able to recover both economic and non-economic damages, such as hospital bills, therapy expenses, lost income and benefits, pain and suffering, future medical care, and loss of quality of life. Children who suffer from mental retardation or cerebral palsy often require life-long care, and thus money for their long-term needs may be put into a trust to ensure the child has access to such care in the future.

With two decades of experience behind us, the medical malpractice attorneys at Lebowitz & Mzhen have helped Baltimore residents and other individuals in Maryland and Washington, D.C. pursue the compensation they deserve for their harm, and we can help you too. Our firm handles all types of birth injury cases. For more information, call us toll-free at (800) 654-1949 or at (410) 654-3600. Alternatively, you can also contact us online.