Beyond carefully monitoring both mother and child during childbirth, neonatal medical professionals have a duty to ensure a newborn baby remains healthy. All concerning complications must be promptly addressed in the hours and days after birth, making it vital that healthcare providers caring for infants are aware of the symptoms that may indicate anemia.
Failure by a medical professional to diagnose anemia in a newborn can have devastating and even fatal repercussions, as the experienced malpractice attorneys at Berkowitz Hanna know all too well. If you believe your care provider’s misconduct led to your baby’s avoidable suffering, discussing a possible Shelton infant anemia misdiagnosis lawsuit with a qualified legal professional can be crucial to getting the compensation you deserve.
In addition to biological causes, there are several ways a newborn may develop anemia. For example, if an infant needs treatment in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), frequent blood draws for testing may result in the baby becoming anemic as their body cannot replace the lost blood quickly enough. Other common causes of infant anemia include incompatibility between mother and child’s blood types, genetic disorders or infections, premature birth, and physiologic anemia that stems from a baby’s inability to effectively produce red blood cells as they continue to grow.
While every person is different, anemia often produces symptoms in infants such as jaundice, abnormally pale skin, difficulty and/or excessive fatigue while feeding, unusually rapid breathing and/or heart rate, and overall sluggishness. Proactive blood testing in response to symptoms like these can be vital to quickly diagnosing infant anemia and taking appropriate action to address it. However, if a doctor in Shelton recklessly or carelessly misdiagnoses infant anemia, they may be subject to civil litigation over any physical harm that the infant suffers as a result.
The fact that a doctor did not identify and promptly treat an infant’s anemia does not always justify a civil lawsuit by itself. Rather than the traditional standard of negligence that applies to other personal injury claims, infant anemia misdiagnosis lawsuits in Shelton are generally built around a standard of care. This refers to the level of care and consideration that an equally qualified physician should have provided under similar circumstances.
This approach to civil liability cuts medical professionals a little more slack than someone with a different occupation might get following an accident, since even the most dedicated doctors may make mistakes if they are working under hectic and stressful conditions. On the other hand, if a healthcare provider misses signs of infant anemia under circumstances where a reasonable doctor would have acted differently, financial recovery is possible.
Anemia in infants can be an exceptionally dangerous condition, especially for babies born prematurely. Unfortunately, achieving a positive result from a civil claim against a doctor who negligently failed to identify this condition can be tricky without guidance from seasoned legal counsel.
Working with a knowledgeable malpractice lawyer can be vital to effectively pursuing a Shelton infant anemia misdiagnosis lawsuit. Call us at Berkowitz Hanna today to set up your free consultation.
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