If your child suffered birth injuries caused by negligent healthcare or avoidable mistakes in the delivery room, you should never have to pay a cent for their additional care. In Arkansas, parents of injured babies who were victims of medical malpractice should be entitled to file a lawsuit to cover the cost of their child’s ongoing care needs. This should include coverage for many areas of medical care, physical therapy, and occupational therapy. For more information on how your child could benefit from occupational therapy after a birth injury and how to sue to have these costs covered, call Fayetteville medical malpractice lawyer and Arkansas birth injury attorney Ken Kieklak today for a free legal consultation on your potential case.
How Does Occupational Therapy Help with Birth Injuries?
Babies facing birth injuries often have developmental and physical disabilities that make their lives challenging. Not only are these challenges present in their early lives, but as they get older, the challenges they face change and shift and may require advanced occupational therapy (OT) and physical therapy (PT) to help them live a normal life
Physical therapy is usually used to treat physical movement limitations and abilities, such as helping your child walk better or maintain strength in their arms, hands, or other extremities affected by cerebral palsy, muscle weakness, nerve damage, brain injury, crushed skull injuries, brachial plexus injuries, forceps injuries, or other birth injuries and disabilities. Occupational therapy focuses on movement and physical abilities related to day-to-day activities. Working with an occupational therapist can be vital for helping a child with their arm bent toward their body or severe muscle weakness learn how to hold a spoon and feed themselves or to later learn how to hold a pencil despite their disability. As a parent, you will expect your child will need to learn tasks like dressing themselves or feeding themselves anyway, but an occupational therapist may be necessary to help your child learn these tasks with the limitations caused by a birth injury.
Suing for the Cost of OT for Birth Injury Victims
Since this kind of care and treatment is so vital, it should be included alongside the other damages you can claim in a lawsuit. When your child faces avoidable birth injuries caused by their doctor’s mistakes in the delivery room or in the aftermath of their birth, you may be able to file a lawsuit on their behalf. This lawsuit can cover the cost of current and future damages related to medical care, lost wages, pain and suffering, and other harms your child and your family will face because of the birth injury – which should include the cost of OT.
When claiming damages for medical expenses, you can broadly claim damages for any care costs – not just medical treatment by a physician. This means that, while the cost of any additional surgeries, prescriptions, or doctor’s visits should be covered, any prescribed PT or OT should also be covered. These therapies are just as important – if not more important – to your child’s ongoing recovery and day-to-day issues, and getting this care is vital for your child’s success.
These damages should be included as part of your lawsuit if they arise in your child’s case. Especially with degenerative disorders that get worse over time, additional occupational therapy and physical therapy may be needed later in life, and these future costs should also be projected and included as part of your lawsuit. Your attorney should be able to claim these damages, though it may require introducing testimony from a financial expert to help project these future costs. Your attorney can guide you through this process and help advise you on what your claim should be worth.
Getting Compensation for Occupational Therapy for Birth Injuries
As mentioned, the cost of occupational therapy should be included alongside other care costs if you file a lawsuit for your child’s birth injuries. However, before you can get these damages, you must prove your case in court. The process of filing a lawsuit for birth injuries is often complex, and proving your case typically requires you to prove your case to a jury by introducing testimony from a medical expert. This testimony will help show the jury that your child’s healthcare fell below the applicable standard of care, which your expert will testify to.
To get compensation, you must also prove the cost of your care needs. Producing medical bills and financial records is typically the best way to show the jury what this care cost you, economically. You can also claim damages for your child’s pain and suffering and other intangible harms related to the injury. As mentioned, a financial expert may be used to project these costs into the future, as necessary. With occupational therapy and physical therapy, these future damages may be vital to helping keep your child on a path to success through their childhood and even into adulthood.
Always talk to an Arkansas personal injury lawyer for help learning more about what your case is worth. Many medical malpractice lawsuits filed against negligent physicians are defended by experienced medical malpractice insurance companies and their attorneys. These parties may wish to reduce the cost of a payout and limit damages, so you should never rely on their valuation of the case.
Call Our Fayetteville Birth Injury Attorneys for Help Claiming Compensation for Occupational Therapy
If your child suffered birth injuries that required intensive medical care, occupational therapy, physical therapy, and other care needs, contact Fayetteville AR personal injury lawyer Ken Kieklak, Attorney at Law, today. Our Fayetteville personal injury attorney represents injury victims and their families and works to get them the compensation they need to cover these costs and other damages related to their injury. For a free consultation on your case, call us today at (479) 439-1843.