Parents of a baby who has suffered a birth injury may feel overwhelmed and exhausted from the very moment the baby arrives. After all, few people can anticipate something as unexpected or preventable as birth injury, but even fewer can prepare themselves for the emotional, financial, and physical tolls either.
The baby who suffers a birth injury may need extraordinary amounts of medical care at the moment they are born and that care may need to be sustained through days or weeks afterward. This might be to help the child survive or even to reduce the further damages that a birth injury might cause. Then comes the period of time in which the child's diagnosis must be done, the drafting of a Life Care Plan to determine what the child will need in the coming years and decades, and an estimation of what this will cost.
This is often a moment when parents feel as if they are overwhelmed, exhausted, and at their proverbial last straw. Seeing in print that it might take millions of dollars and endless amounts of planning and care to ensure healthcare for a baby can be devastating. This news can make parents feel too tired to even consider a lawsuit or other action. However, this is also a time to remember that it is a birth injury settlement that may just alleviate the worst of the financial burdens and make caring for the child much easier.
Burnout and Fatigue Are Common
Do not feel that it is unusual for parents to feel too tired to persist in any sort of legal claims. Many are just burnt out almost from the start, and this is before they have to get back to their day-to-day work taking care of their family. The typical stresses of daily life are enough for most, but add to it the turmoil caused by birth injury, and it may feel as if no one could have the energy needed.
However, a birth injury settlement is designed to lift many of those burdens. After all, in the hands of an experienced and dedicated birth injury law firm or lawyer, a family of a child harmed in any way by a birth injury may be able to recover damages that pay for:
- Any and all medical expenses in the present, as well as for past and anticipated future costs
- Any and all rehabilitation and therapeutic fees
- Any and all costs for equipment
- All in-home and special education costs
- Any and all lost wages
- Many non-economic damages that can include the loss of companionship, mental anguish, pain and suffering, and more
Depending upon your state and the experience of your attorney, your settlement may range quite widely, but is often far more likely to be larger than what an insurance firm would offer to just get the matter settled. Working with the hospital's insurance carriers and administrators, your birth injury lawyer is going to negotiate the most appropriate settlement possible. This is going to save you the time and emotional strain of entering into a lawsuit and court case, it will allow you to remain with your child and you can have the legal fees as part of the settlement.
Working with an experienced lawyer, you can and should consider a birth injury settlement. It is faster and less expensive than a full-blown lawsuit and it helps you to avoid the worst experiences of the courtroom setting. You are already fatigued and worn down by the situation; allow a lawyer to get you the compensation you deserve and to provide your child and family with a much improved quality of life following a birth injury.
