The doctors, nurses, midwives, or other medical professionals present in your delivery room may have failed you at the most critical time of your labor. As a result, your newborn may have gotten severely injured and officially diagnosed with brain damage. You may be utterly devastated at the thought that you will never get to see your infant live a normal life, and similarly that your newborn will never get to experience what that is like. With their life potentially deviating from normalcy with such drasticity, you may consider this a catastrophic injury. Without further ado, please follow along to find out whether your infant’s brain damage constitutes a catastrophic injury and how a proficient New York infant brain damage attorney at Mark L. Bodner, P.C. can help you seek recovery on their behalf.
Is my infant’s brain damage considered a catastrophic injury?
Generally speaking, brain damage is classified as a catastrophic injury. This tracks if your infant’s brain damage has caused them to lose brain function at anything above the brainstem level. Specifically, the brainstem level only regulates sleep-wake cycles and other basic bodily functions (i.e., breathing, heart rate, etc).
With this being true, their condition may be anticipated to severely or permanently impact their health and quality of life. Namely, it may be associated with significant physical, cognitive, emotional, and behavioral changes, all of which may make it more difficult for your infant to navigate life easily or normally in their childhood and adult life.
How much can I recover for my infant’s catastrophic injury?
After understanding the seriousness of your infant’s brain damage diagnosis, you may have every right to work on their behalf and file a medical malpractice claim against the negligent hospital staff who participated in your birth delivery. We understand that no amount of money can reverse or make up for your infant’s situation. But you must consider the long-term care needs your infant will require, and the hefty costs associated with this. This is not to mention the compensation they deserve for their non-economic damages, such as their diminished quality of life, lost enjoyment of life, lost consortium, physical pain and emotional distress, and much more.
Nonetheless, a successful catastrophic injury case in New York State may result in a financial award of hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not millions. Again, this all depends on how well you can prove the severity of your infant’s brain damage and how negatively it may affect their life indefinitely. To claim a fair and accurate amount of damages, it is in your best interest to hire a medical expert, a financial expert, and, of course, an attorney, on your legal team.
Before this gets too much, please seek the guidance and counsel of a talented New York City birth injury attorney from Mark L. Bodner, P.C. We will work to the best of our ability to minimize or eliminate this mess from your immediate worry.