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Birth Injury Attorney - Cerebral Palsy Attorney
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York
Cerebral palsy is a type of brain damage that can result in severe and incurable mental and physical impairment. Cerebral palsy is often caused not by mere misfortune or a quirk of fate but by something entirely preventable – medical error.
Mistakes committed by health care personnel before, during or immediately after childbirth results in hundreds if not thousands of cases of birth injury and cerebral palsy each year. These young victims suffer permanent injury and often require a lifetime of care. To cope, there is often nowhere for parents of these injured children to turn except to an attorney. Finding a birth injury attorney and filing a lawsuit is often a helpful and justifiable recourse.
Getting a good lawyer to handle your case is critical. If, unfortunately, you are contemplating filing a birth injury or cerebral palsy lawsuit, you want the best attorney possible. Click here to contact a birth injury attorney or to contact a cerebral palsy attorney.
Kline & Specter attorneys have had unsurpassed success in birth injury and cerebral palsy lawsuits. Dozens of cases have concluded in large settlements whose terms are confidential. Others ended in major jury verdicts including the following:
- A record setting $100 million Pennsylvania verdict for a baby who suffered severe brain damage as a result of medical malpractice. The verdict was the largest-ever compensatory damages award in Pennsylvania. (See The Vlasny Case.)
- The firm won a $7.8 million jury verdict for a 4-year-old boy who suffered cerebral palsy due to physician negligence. (See The Briggs Case.)
- In an earlier case, the firm won a $6 million verdict in Indiana County, Pennsylvania, for a child whose cerebral palsy was caused by a doctor’s delay in delivering a baby deemed acutely asphyxiated. (See Chichy.) To read more articles about the firm's victories in birth injury cases, click here.
Kline & Specter, with some 30 attorneys – several of whom are also highly regarded doctors – is the best law firm you could hire for a birth injury or cerebral palsy lawsuit. Among the firm’s attorneys handling birth injury cases is Lisa Dagostino, M.D., J.D., MBE, a partner at Kline & Specter and an award-winning medical researcher. Dr. Dagostino received her undergraduate degree in English Literature from Princeton University. She earned her M.D. at the UMDNJ Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in 1995, where she was later accepted to do her residency training in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Sciences. During her career as a doctor, she helped deliver some 1,500 babies, most of them at a care facility that was a referral center for high-risk pregnancies.
Dr. Dagostino holds dual degrees in law and the medical field of bioethics from the University of Pennsylvania. She continues to do research in bioethics, which includes topics such as medical error. (Read about all of Kline & Specter’s Doctor/Lawyers.)
If your child has cerebral palsy or another birth injury as the result of possible medical malpractice, you may want to contact a birth injury lawyer or contact a cerebral palsy lawyer for a free evaluation of your case.
More about cerebral palsy: Contrary to what many people believe, cerebral palsy is not a disease. It is brain damage caused at around the time of birth or, in some cases, in young children due to head injuries. An estimated 500,000 Americans have cerebral palsy, with at least 4,500 new cases diagnosed annually (and as many as 10,000 according to some reports). Click here to learn more about birth injuries and cerebral palsy, including its causes, risk factors, types of cerebral palsy, associated disorders and information resources. Or visit the following website: www.cerebralpalsy.org
News articles about Kline & Specter birth injury cases.
News
- Women covered by Medicaid were less likely to be injured in childbirth than those with private insurance. Their babies, however, were more likely to experience complications. (Full story)
- An Illinois judge has approved a $12 million settlement between a hospital and a couple whose son suffered severe birth injuries. The hospital staff failed to properly assess the baby to determine that he was positioned for a breech delivery. As a result, the baby did not receive enough oxygen and suffered massive brain damage. (Full story)
- A Wisconsin jury awards more than $11.4 million to the family of a boy who suffered brain injuries from complications during birth. The jury ruled that a certified nurse midwife and registered nurse were responsible for his birth injuries by failing to provide a timely delivery. The certified nurse midwife misread fetal monitoring strips that showed the baby was stressed, and then failed to call the doctor when the delivery was not progressing properly. The child suffers from cerebral palsy and is in need of constant care. (Full story)
- A Florida jury awards the mother of a baby who contracted meningitis from birth injuries $500,000 for her past pain and suffering after his death at age 5. At birth, the boy suffered severe neurological damage from Group Beta streptococcal infection passed on from his mother who had a history of strep. Nurses failed to tell the doctor about her history even though she had told the nursing staff three times that she was infected. As a result, intravenous antibiotics were never given to the mother or the baby, standard procedure when the mother has strep. The boy suffered seizures that caused brain damage, required years of care, and surgery for splayed legs. (Full story)
- An Illinois mother whose daughter suffered a severe brain injury from birth injuries settled her lawsuit with the hospital for $9.75 million. The baby was one week past her due date, and doctors induced labor with the drug Pitocin. The drug, however, was administered too aggressively, causing strong contractions that were too close together. Doctors failed to quickly recognize the stress on the baby and the result was damaged brain tissue from oxygen deprivation. The girl attends class with special-needs students, has limited speech skills and often has angry outbursts of frustration. (Full story)
