If your child should end up with Cerebral Palsy following a medical mistake made, then financial compensation is due. Hiring a lawyer specializing in Cerebral Palsy cases will ensure that the maximum possible is received for the distress caused and the financial burden that will result from the extra care and support your child is going to need throughout its life. Albeit a shorter life than might otherwise have been enjoyed. You cannot put a price on the peace of mind that this will provide, although everything must have its price. A Cerebral Palsy lawyer will ensure that, as parents, you receive what you are entitled to because of the mistake made during your child’s birth.
Importance of Financial Assistance
Managing Cerebral Palsy will require long-term care and become a significant financial burden over time. It will eat into the family budget. So, it is important that if there is money due because of medical negligence that it is claimed. You may not think that you need the money right now but you will, in the future, wish you had claimed it. You never know when your financial situation might change. It may seem like a hassle to pursue such a claim, but you are doing it for your child as much as for your family budget in the short or long term.
Is it About More than Money?
In truth it is. You are not only claiming monetary compensation for financial reasons, but you are also claiming it to send a message to medical institutions and individuals involved that mistakes are preventable. If there was no penalty for making them, then how likely is it that they will change the way that they work? The answer is less likely because they will just work in the ways that they always have without someone pointing out the error of their ways and using financial penalties as a device for achieving better future care for other families. We know some of the reasons why an error might have occurred, such as short staffing and lack of training, but there are no excuses for practices that endanger health when that is the very thing that hospitals and doctors are there to help with.
What is My Basis for Claiming?
In most cases, where there is a claim for Cerebral Palsy as a birthing injury, there will be a lack of oxygen at birth due to medical mistakes that have been made. This equates to 20 percent of Cerebral Palsy cases overall. There will not be a claim where no mistakes were made. It is for a lawyer to prove that mistakes were made which starved the baby of oxygen during the birthing process. It may have been one mistake made or a combination of several, but one mistake is enough to have caused an injury to your baby. Evidence will need to be gathered by a professional lawyer to provide it, and the case will need to be a strong one as nobody will tend to admit blame for it, and the truth may be buried within medical notes until it can be unearthed through the legal process and in court.
In terms of the amount of compensation, it will relate to the extra care a child suffering from cerebral palsy will require. This is in terms of your loss of income from devoting extra time to caring for your loved one, and the additional assistance you may require from outside sources, which will often need to be paid for out of the family budget.
So, How Can a Lawyer Help Me?
Well, first, you will want to hire a lawyer who specializes in Cerebral Palsy cases because they know the condition inside out and how it affects families. They will know all they can claim for when it comes to the impact it will have on a family’s life and budget. You want someone fighting your corner who can secure the highest sum of money for which you are entitled. Yes, it will be a fight because it is not easy taking on medical institutions and their professionals. After all, they will have the best lawyers on their side. However, you can hire a good lawyer, too, that specializes in those difficult cases and ones that relate to your situation.
In conclusion, much of the financial assistance for Cerebral Palsy, where there has been medical negligence, will come from what specialist lawyers have been able to obtain for families. It is something to pursue to ensure financial security for all concerned.