New York Injury Talk Blog

Group B Strep (GBS) is a bacteria carried by as many as one in every four women of childbearing age, according to Group B Strep International. In many women, the bacteria cause few or no symptoms. However, if the woman becomes pregnant, the GBS bacteria in her body may infect the developing fetus, causing serious harm.

During pregnancy, mothers should get tested for GBS if they have had frequent or recurring vaginal or urinary tract infections, develop a high fever, or feel little or no fetal movement after 20 weeks. After the baby is born, parents should monitor the child closely for signs such as fever, listlessness, difficulty breathing, high-pitched crying or shrieking that does not stop, or an inability to pay attention to their surroundings or move their arms and legs normally. Since some infants contract GBS while being born, it’s important to watch for signs of the condition even after birth.

GBS also increases the chances of a pre-term birth, miscarriage, or stillbirth, so it’s helpful to be tested early in the pregnancy. If GBS is found, both pregnant mothers and post-birth infants can be treated with antibiotics. Early treatment gives the best chances of the child’s full recovery.

At Wingate, Russotti, Shapiro, & Halperin, our experienced New York birth injury attorneys are dedicated to fighting on behalf of mothers, children, and families injured by prenatal infections. Over the years, we've developed time-tested legal resources and real-world courtroom experience that we rely on to help us build the best possible case for each client. For a free and confidential telephone consultation, call our office today at (212) 222-4336.

Facial nerve palsy is a condition in which the patient loses the ability to voluntarily control the muscles in their face. It may be caused by birth trauma if improper pressure is put on the seventh cranial nerve, also known as the facial nerve, before or during delivery, according to the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

A difficult delivery may result in facial nerve palsy, especially if forceps are used. Some cases of facial nerve palsy also involve the use of epidural anesthesia or medications to induce labor, but these medications do not usually cause facial nerve palsy, according to the NIH.

Symptoms of facial nerve palsy include an eyelid that may not close, a mouth that does not turn down evenly on either side, or a complete lack of movement on one side of the face. Typically, the muscle weakness or paralysis is easiest to see when the baby is crying. A physician can usually diagnose facial nerve palsy with a physical exam, but in some cases, doctors will order a nerve conduction study to figure out exactly which nerve is damaged.

Many infants born with facial nerve palsy heal on their own. In some cases, however, the facial nerve may be irreparably damaged and the facial muscles may become paralyzed. These children often need specialized therapy to help them maximize the use of their facial nerves and muscles.

If you suspect a birth injury caused your child’s facial nerve palsy, please don’t hesitate to contact the experienced New York birth injury attorneys at Wingate, Russotti & Shapiro. We will examine your case carefully and help you get the compensation you and your child deserve. To schedule a free and confidential consultation, call 212-986-7353 today.

The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) defines cerebral palsy as a neurological disorder that affects children starting in infancy or early childhood. When a child is injured during delivery, they may develop cerebral palsy as a result of the injury. Some children who catch a bacterial infection during or after delivery may also have cerebral palsy if the infection damages their brain. Although cerebral palsy does not worsen over time, the impediments it does cause can change the course of a family’s life.

In cerebral palsy, damage to the parts of the brain that control motor function result in impaired body movement or poor muscle coordination. The body’s muscles and nerves are usually healthy; the problem is in the part of the brain that sends messages to the muscles and nerves to create movement. In most cases, cerebral palsy can be diagnosed by the time the child is three years old, when it becomes clear the child isn’t moving normally. No two persons with cerebral palsy have exactly the same impairments, but some common symptoms include a lack of muscle coordination, muscles that are too tight or too loose, dragging one foot or leg while walking, or walking on the toes.

There is no cure for cerebral palsy. People with cerebral palsy may benefit from specific therapies to treat their symptoms and medications to help control muscle spasms. Treatment for cerebral palsy can be expensive, as therapy can be life-long.

If your child suffers from cerebral palsy and you believe a doctor’s negligence could be to blame, please don’t hesitate to contact the experienced New York cerebral palsy lawyers at Wingate, Russotti & Shapiro, LLP. Our attorneys take on a select number of cases in order to devote to each client the full attention they deserve. For a free and confidential case evaluation, please call our office today.

The Piedmont Medical Center has been instructed recently by a York County jury to pay damages due to hospital negligence amounting to over $4 million to a South Carolina couple, The Charlotte Observer reported in an article. The couple, Robin and Brice Wilson, had lost their infant daughter during her birth due to a brain injury.

Sierra Wilson had been born in 2003 at the hospital but lack of oxygen caused her to suffer a critical brain injury and she died of complications from cerebral palsy within a few months, the article said. The Wilsons had stated in their lawsuit that the hospital failed to note the child needed emergency intervention because a nurse trainee assigned to the expectant mother misread fetal heart monitoring data. Hospital officials reportedly defended their actions in the care that had been provided to the Wilsons and are now evaluating their legal options.

Unfortunately birth injuries caused by medical negligence are extremely common in the United States. Medical facilities of all types, small, large and well established are all, for a variety of reasons, prone to causing injury accidents and fatalities due to misdiagnoses, failure to diagnose or not taking immediate and corrective measures. It is estimated that in New York alone more than 3% of those admitted to hospitals will be seriously injured because of negligence of some type.

The New York Hospital Negligence Lawyers at Wingate, Russotti & Shapiro, L.L.P specialize in assisting victims who believe they have been seriously injured or families who have lost a loved one because of negligence on the part of a medical facility. Our New York Medical Malpractice attorneys are assigned only a specific number of cases so they can focus on best serving our clients. If you’d like to better understand your legal rights and options in your hospital negligence or birth injury case, please contact our office and we’ll be happy to set up a comprehensive initial consultation for you, at no charge.

The British press is full of reports today about a young girl there who plans to travel to China for stem-cell treatment of her cerebral palsy. Shonia Tahiliani is eight, but she can’t walk or sit upright and can’t speak, even though she understands two languages. Her parents are raising 18,000 British pounds -- more than $35,000 -- to send her to Tiantan Puhua Neurosurgical Hospital in Beijing for stem cell injections. These stem cell injections are the only known treatment for cerebral palsy (CP), which until recently was thought to be untreatable. The news comes on the heels of an announcement from the hospital that their treatment of another European CP sufferer, 19-year-old Gabor Bocskai from Hungary, has been wildly successful. The stem cell therapy has allowed Bocskai to abandon his wheelchair for a walker, after a lifetime of thinking he’d never walk at all. It has also improved his speech, vision, handwriting and mental clarity.

These events are very exciting because they may vastly improve the lives of Cerebral Palsy sufferers, some of whom we’ve had the privilege of representing here at Wingate, Russotti & Shapiro. Cerebral palsy is always caused by brain damage, due to an illness or injury in utero, oxygen deprivation during birth and occasionally a serious illness or traumatic brain injury after birth. It’s a lifelong impairment -- victims are unable to fully control how they move, which causes problems with major life skills like walking, fine motor skills like writing with a pencil, speaking and eating. It also causes seizures, mental impairment, and partial blindness or deafness.

The article doesn’t say how Shonia Tahiliani contracted CP, but here in the U.S., about twenty percent of children with CP acquire it because of a birth injury, according to United Cerebral Palsy. That’s one-fifth of the 764, 000 CP sufferers in the U.S. -- more than 150,000 people who’d be perfectly healthy if it weren’t for someone else’s mistake. They will need lifelong medical care, and many will need lifelong assistance with daily tasks. As you can imagine, this can be quite expensive, nearly unreachable for an ordinary family like the Tahilianis -- as is the Chinese stem cell therapy. We’re proud to have won millions for children who have CP due to a birth injury. Money won’t solve their problems, but it can get them the care they’ll need throughout their lives.

Here's a welcome break from the usual round of medical jargon about Erb's palsy: injurednewborn.com, a site set up by Francine Litz, the mother of a daughter with a birth injury to her brachial plexus. (In short, obstetric brachial plexus injuries leave children with one arm weakened or useless, often dangling limply with the hand turned backwards. It sometimes clears up on its own, but is often a lifelong disability that requires multiple surgeries and physical therapy. The injury is almost always caused by too much pulling by doctors during birth.) Injurednewborn.com is written by a mother, not a doctor, making it more accessible to the families who suffer this disability. Litz is angry and thorough, offering extensive advice for parents of babies with brachial plexus injuries as well as advice for expectant women on how they can avoid brachial plexus injuries and other birth injuries. (She also touches on injuries the mother can sustain due to medical malpractice during a birth.) She's obviously done her research; she mentions some of the common maneuvers that doctors should try when faced with shoulder dystocia, the obstetric emergency that commonly causes brachial plexus injuries, as well as more drastic strategies like performing a C-section or breaking the mother's pelvis.

Litz also points visitors to her site to this slideshow of children who have brachial plexus injuries and information about the condition.

Neonatal herpes, either type I or II, is a serious viral infection of the infant which needs immediate hospitalization and treatment. Herpes virus type I is marked by the eruption of vesicle lesions on the lips or nostrils, versus herpes virus type II which has lesions located on the genitalia. If localized neonatal herpes is left untreated, the virus may become disseminated into a virulent and fatal form. Thus, time is of the essence in the diagnosis and treatment of the localized herpes, to prevent infecting fulminating spread. Without immediate treatment, the mortality rate is over 80%, and the infants that do survive have significant permanent neurologic damages.

Overall, two (2) out of 1000 mothers have positive herpes simplex cultures at delivery, even though they have no clinical symptoms. According to the literature, there is a shedding of the virus for approximately three (3) weeks during a maternal infection outbreak. Transmission of neonatal herpes requires direct contact between the mother and infant. In the majority of cases, the infection is transmitted during labor and delivery. However, there is also known infant exposure post-delivery, if either parent has a cold sore or herpes outbreak (type I).

Neonatal herpes usually presents during the second week of life, but as late as four weeks. The first signs of the localized infection include clusters of discrete vesicles on the skin, mucosal ulcers or white lesions in the mouth, eye or ocular lesions, and lesions in the genital area. In some cases, infants present with no topical lesions, but with irritability, seizures, fevers, bulging fontanel and poor feeding. Thus, the physician needs to obtain a complete history and physical of the infant to identify possible herpes simplex virus infection. Once there is a differential diagnosis of neonatal herpes, decisive action must be taken promptly to make a correct diagnosis and intervene with treatment. The physician should perform a spinal tap for viral and bacterial cultures, blood for HSV serology, and wound cultures of the topical lesions. At the time of work-up, the infant must be immediately started with antiviral medication (intravenous Acyclovir) to prevent further spreading of the disease. Over a seven day period, intravenous Acyclovir 45mg/kg/day is usually effective in treating an infant’s localized infection. If the spinal tap culture or blood cultures turn positive, Acyclovir treatment is recommended for (21) twenty one days.

The good news is that if diagnosed early and treatment is started immediately a good outcome is likely.

For more information on this or other birth complications, please contact the New York Birth Injury Lawyers at our law firm.