Erb's Palsy Injury Lawyer

Attorney Michael Grossman Discusses the Birth Injuries Brachial Plexus, Shoulder Dystocia, and Erb’s Palsy

Birth Injuries are a serious medical concern and are unfortunately common. The human birthing process is fraught with potential hazards and something as simple as an impatient or overworked physician that rushes delivery can have lifelong effects on the child.

When such an event causes a serious injury, Texas laws allow for the family of the child to seek financial compensation from the medical professionals responsible for the injuries. Brachial Plexus, Erb’s Palsy, and Shoulder Dystocia are a particular subset of birth injuries that are generally inflected due to excess force being put on the child’s body which can cause significant injuries to sensitive nervous and muscle tissue.

Birth Injury: Brachial Plexus Injuries

Dystocia, or a particularly difficult or arduous labor and delivery, can cause several different types of injuries to the child and the mother. Difficult labor and delivery can be due to many different causes: abnormal positioning of the baby in the womb during delivery; abnormally large babies or relatively small birth canals; or unusual activity in the uterus or womb. Dystocias occur in about 20% of childbirths. In many cases, dystocia ends with an assisted delivery, either with the use of forceps or with an emergency cesarean-section (c-section), rather than a standard vaginal delivery. No matter the birthing method, serious birth injuries can result, usually affecting the brachial plexus nerve bundle. This nerve bundle connects the spine to the shoulder, arm, and hand, and damage to these nerves can result in long-term, permanent disability - despite the fact that these injuries are very often entirely preventable.

Shoulder Dystocia

Shoulder dystocia is a general term for a birth injury affecting the shoulder of the newborn. During a difficult birth, a baby’s shoulder may be caught in the birth canal. This often occurs due to the size of the child or birth canal or to abnormal positioning of the baby. Once the shoulder is stuck, the delivery quickly becomes dangerous - the baby is stuck and the pressure of the birth canal puts significant pressure on the umbilical cord, head, and neck, and can result in serious brain injury due to hypoxia. An obstetrician must quickly act or risk serious brain injury. In this action, an OB must readjust the baby to get it through the birth canal safely. This readjustment has its own risks, namely to the brachial plexus nerve bundle in the baby’s shoulder. If the doctor pulls the head and neck away from the stuck shoulder, the brachial plexus nerves are stretched, bruised, torn, or are severed, depending on the amount of force the doctor uses, either with forceps or via c-section. Often this occurs with an inexperienced, tired, or otherwise negligent doctor.

Erb’s Palsy

When the brachial plexus nerves are severely damaged in childbirth, the resulting condition is known as Erb’s Palsy. This injury is characterized by a significant weakness or loss of movement in the affected arm and shoulder. Because the arm moves minimally, the muscle atrophies, further reducing strength of the arm and shoulder. Newborns often lack spontaneous movement in the affected arm or shoulder, often lack any grip in the affected hand, and often hold the affected arm tightly to the side flexed in a ninety degree angle. Medical personnel should notice these symptoms immediately.

The extent of symptoms is directly dependent on the extent of nerve injury sustained. In cases of Erb’s Palsy, the effects are lifelong and may require extensive physical therapy and adaptive technologies, and may affect not only the sensory nervous system, but the muscular and circulatory systems as well. In other cases, the nerve damage is less severe, but requires multiple surgeries to repair or replace nerves while the child is an infant. Repair of these nerves is rarely perfect and a child may always exhibit disproportionate weakness in the affected shoulder and arm.

If your child has been diagnosed with a brachial nerve injury, shoulder dystocia, or Erb’s Palsy, call Grossman Law Offices at 1-855-326-0000 (toll free) for a full review of your child’s medical records by our medical malpractice and birth injury legal team. At minimum, your child’s preventable injuries could cost your family hundreds of thousands of dollars - your family and your child deserve compensation for the birth injuries sustained as a result of a doctor’s negligence. Our birth injury attorneys are highly experienced in cases like yours - contact us today.