Medical Malpractice Lawsuits for Anoxic or Hypoxic Brain Injuries

Sometimes a patient goes into the hospital for a relatively minor surgical procedure, such as a colonoscopy or appendectomy, but instead of the procedure coming out as one would expect, the family is told that their loved one has suffered what is called an anoxic or hypoxic brain injury, which is a severe brain injury caused by a loss of oxygen to the brain.

How could this happen? The truth is, there are many reasons why anoxic brain injuries happen. Sometimes, they happen due to causes beyond anyone’s control. But other times, they are caused by medical malpractice. For example, due to:

• The patient being given too much pain medication

• Failure to properly care for a person who depends on a ventilator for oxygen

• Anesthetics being administered by someone other than a professional anesthesiologist

• The anesthetics suppressing a patient’s breathing to the point that it causes the person not to breathe for a period of time

• The effects of drugs that a patient was administered that stopped their heart from beating for a certain amount of time

• Failure to timely deliver a baby

Symptoms of an Anoxic or Hypoxic Brain Injury

The symptoms and adverse effects of anoxic brain injuries are similar to those of traumatic brain injuries and are often incurable. These symptoms can vary from memory loss or problems with speech to being in a coma or persistent vegetative state. Being in a persistent vegetative state means that a person’s brain only carries on life-sustaining activities, like breathing and regulating the heart, so that the person is alive but can’t control any of their other bodily functions.

A person who suffers a serious brain injury will require extensive medical treatment, and care and may suffer symptoms for the rest of their lives. Therefore, anoxic and hypoxic brain injuries have serious financial and legal implications relating the cost of and liability for the medical treatment and care needed by the person who has suffered the injury.

Cerebral Palsy Caused By Anoxic or Hypoxic Brain Injuries

Many times, babies are not delivered timely and may suffer from a lack of oxygen during the deliver. Children who suffer an anoxic or hypoxic brain injury at birth are often diagnosed with cerebral palsy, a condition that typically requires a lifetime of specialized and expensive medical care.

If you have a child who is not meeting developmental benchmarks, not sitting up, or can’t hold his or her head up, and you had a very stressful delivery, then you need to have an attorney ask the questions that you may have asked yourself in the labor and delivery room when you were concerned about why you were in labor so long, or why the fetal monitoring strip didn’t look good, or why the nurses were running around trying to find the doctor.

During labor and delivery, nurses and other medical personnel monitor your baby with medical devices that collect evidence that can establish that the lack of oxygen your baby suffered was due to medical negligence. But, only an attorney experienced in this area of medical malpractice will be able to obtain this type of evidence.

You need to hire an experienced medical malpractice attorney who specializes in brain injuries to investigate your baby’s medical records to find out if your child may have suffered an anoxic or hypoxic brain injury and what he or she can do to help you receive the compensation that you and your child will require to pay for the lifetime of needs that you may end up having.

For help with finding an attorney in your area who specializes in anoxic brain injury compensation, call us for assistance.