Healthcare providers throughout Brooklyn and all of New York are expected to provide a basic minimum level of competent, professional care. When providers fall short, it is often possible to hold them accountable for the damage done. However, you’ll need to prove the following elements of medical negligence:

• The provider had a duty of care: Every provider has a duty to provide the accepted professional standard of care, which is the level of care a reasonably prudent professional with the same training and experience would have provided under the same circumstances.
• The provider breached the duty of care: If a provider makes mistakes that a reasonable provider would not, those errors constitute medical negligence and give rise to legal liability.
• The breach of the duty directly caused injury: You must prove the deviation from the accepted standard was the direct cause of the infant’s HIE or other birth injuries.
• The breach resulted in compensable harm: Finally, you must show that the negligence resulted in compensable damages. These include both economic and non-economic impacts, such as medical bills, lost earning capacity, pain and suffering, and more.

Not all cases of HIE are preventable. However, medical negligence is a frequent cause of the condition. Common medical errors that may cause HIE include misinterpreting the fetal heart rate tracings, the failure to monitor for signs of fetal distress, a delayed C-section, the improper use of delivery devices, the mismanagement of labor complications, and the failure to promptly order cooling treatment or other early interventions.

An experienced Brooklyn hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy lawyer at The Sanders Law Firm can help you gather the evidence you need to prove these elements of malpractice and hold your provider accountable.