Birth Injury Lawyer | Erb’s Palsy or Erb Duchenne Palsy Lawsuit
In humans, injury to the neurological and muscular systems can result in significant functional issues with daily tasks. One such condition is Erb’s palsy. It may be challenging to lift an arm or grasp objects if you have Erb’s palsy. It is a birth injury brought on by brachial plexus nerve damage during delivery.
An attorney who specialises in birth injury malpractice may be able to assist you in obtaining compensation if you or a loved one has Erb’s palsy. A variety of losses, including medical costs and pain and suffering damages, may be covered by compensation.
Describe Erb’s Palsy.
A nerve disorder called Erb’s palsy, sometimes called Erb-Duchenne paralysis, results in weakening or loss of muscle function in the shoulder, arm, and hand. It affects the top nerves of the brachial plexus and is the most prevalent type of brachial plexus palsy.
Your shoulders, arms, and hands can feel and move thanks to a network of five nerves called the brachial plexus, which runs from the spine to the arm and hand. When the brachial plexus nerves are strained or ruptured, Erb’s palsy results.
Is Erb’s Palsy a medical error?
Erb-Duchenne paralysis and birth trauma
Shoulder dystocia occurs when a baby’s shoulder becomes entrapped behind the pubic bone of the mother during delivery. Medical professionals frequently blame it for birth problems like Erb’s palsy. The brachial plexus nerves may stretch or tear if a medical professional pulls on the newborn to try to free them.
Erb’s palsy injuries can also result from:
- pulling the baby’s shoulders while giving birth head-first
- During labour or delivery, swivelling the infant’s neck or head
- During a breech delivery, pulling on the baby’s feet could put too much pressure on the baby’s arms.
- shoulder dislocation or a fractured collarbone during labour and delivery
- using vacuum or forceps to deliver
Risk factors for Erb’s palsy
An OB-GYN should discuss shoulder dystocia risk factors with the expectant mother.
Examples of risk factors include maternal obesity or diabetes, an irregular pelvis shape, high infant birth weight, carrying more than one child, getting an epidural or oxytocin during delivery, and having had shoulder dystocia in the past.
Birth injuries like Erb’s palsy could result from failing to recognise these risk factors and take them into consideration during labour. A mistake of this nature would probably be regarded as medical carelessness and could result in liability.
Your Erb’s palsy attorneys will obtain copies of your medical records, carefully investigate whether your doctor addressed these issues during your treatment, and decide whether medical negligence occurred before or during childbirth if you choose to file a claim against the healthcare providers and the facility where you gave birth.
Brachial plexus injury types
With Erb Duchenne Palsy, there are four different Brachial Plexus injuries that can occur. As follows:
- Injury to the brachial plexus
- Accidental Brachial Plexus Neuroma
- Injury from Brachial Plexus Nerve Rupture
- Injury to the Brachial Plexus Nerve Root
Injury to the brachial plexus
Brachial Plexus Neuropraxia is the most typical kind of brachial plexus damage. When the nerves are stretched but not torn, it happens. Symptoms of brachial plexus neuropraxia include stinging or burning. Although it typically goes away on its own, a newborn with neuropraxia may benefit from physical therapy or hydrotherapy.
Accidental Brachial Plexus Neuroma
Neuromas can develop when injured nerves mend and leave scar tissue. Scar tissue puts strain on damaged nerves, preventing them from sending impulses to the arm muscles. Children with neuromas frequently only fully recover in some cases.
Injury from Brachial Plexus Nerve Rupture
When a nerve is injured, the wound cannot recover on its own. Most often, nerve grafting surgery is needed to heal damaged nerves after rupture. A child who experiences a rupture will continue to have some weakness in the shoulder, arm, or hand even after surgery to correct it.
Injury to the Brachial Plexus Nerve Root
Avulsion, the most dangerous type of Brachial Plexus injury, occurs when the nerves are torn from the spinal cord, leaving the victim paralysed and with persistent muscle weakness. Although injured nerves can sometimes be repaired surgically, the spinal cord cannot accept them back.
Treatment for injuries causing Erb’s palsy and Erb’s Duchenne palsy
Treatment for Erb’s palsy injuries is frequently expensive and includes things like surgery, drugs, and continued therapy. These therapies might sometimes take years to complete. We strongly advise you to speak with a knowledgeable attorney for advice on what medical care to prioritise and what might be covered by a lawsuit. An attorney who specialises in Erb’s palsy injuries can assess your situation and determine whether you are entitled to financial support for your child’s medical costs and other damages.
If a full recovery is ever conceivable, nerve healing is a lengthy process that can take a few months to several years.
Physical therapy is the main nonsurgical treatment for Erb’s palsy. In addition to visiting licenced physical therapists, parents and other caregivers must actively assist in ensuring that infants maintain supple joints and strong working muscles. The range of motion in the shoulder, elbow, wrist, and hand can be improved and maintained with the use of particular exercises. Additionally, this can avoid joints getting tight all the time (a condition called joint contracture).
In order to improve arm and hand function, your doctor may recommend nerve surgery if there has been no improvement after the first three to six months of therapy. Although operations such as nerve grafting, nerve transfer, and tendon transfer can aid in nerve restoration, they often don’t restore normal function and are less successful in older newborns.
Can you bring an Erb’s Palsy lawsuit?
Making an injury claim for erb’s palsy
It is important to not undervalue the costs of living with Erb’s palsy on one’s body, mind, and wallet. Many kids with Erb’s palsy will have hand, arm, or shoulder weakness for the rest of their lives. Even worse, the impacted arm could hang awkwardly and seem smaller than the unaffected arm. Age makes this size discrepancy more obvious, which can lead to emotional and social problems.
Medical treatments can be quite expensive, especially if long-term care is also necessary. Examples of such treatments include surgery, physical and occupational therapy, and adaptable devices. As a result, damages in Erb’s palsy cases are frequently sizable.
Additionally, it’s possible that the plaintiff will be entitled to compensation for pain and suffering, emotional anguish, and lost wages. The severity of the injuries, how they have affected the person’s life, the outlook for the future, and the events that led to the injury’s incidence will all play a role in how much an Erb’s palsy claim is worth.
An attorney who specialises in Erb’s palsy can assess your case and provide you with options.
Call Our Erb’s Palsy Attorneys Right Away
Call us right away to speak with a birth injury malpractice lawyer if you think you may be able to make an Erb’s palsy claim. You may also reach us online. There is no obligation if you decide not to pursue your case after the consultation, which is free and confidential.
Additionally, since our Erb’s palsy injury lawyers take cases on a contingency basis, you won’t have to pay anything out of pocket. In other words, there is no cost to you (unless our attorneys successfully recover compensation on your behalf).
We are eager to speak with you.