You will often find serious injuries at birth to be worth millions in compensation rather than the hundreds of thousands. At first glance the figures can seem inflated and unreasonable, but this is not the case when you delve into why settlements reach such high figures.
Life changing Circumstances
Recently, a young boy born with brain injuries following negligent actions of hospital staff was awarded £11 million in compensation. This may seem a lot, but in actuality that money would require to stretch over an entire lifetime including costs for care and further medical treatment.
In the case of the injured baby, the medical professionals dealing with the birth should have noticed a slowed beating of its heart and performed a caesarean section rather than a natural birth. The result was irreversible brain injuries which affect the child’s cognitive functions. If a caesarean had been performed the child would likely have suffered no injury at all. This single mistake has cost the boy and his family untold time, anguish and extra effort just to give him a normal life. Those types of life changes are not easily made.
Post Serious Injury
Following any serious injury, irrelevant of age, there is often a difficult task of resolving the obstacles presented by the injury. In some cases this could be anything from mobility problems from lost use of limbs in cases of amputation or spinal injury to cognitive problems stemming from brain injuries. These differ from standard personal injury cases as the help required afterwards is usually extensive if not life long.
It is common to see serious injury cases handled by what is known as a “crisis team”, who are brought together by solicitors like Scott Rees & Co. A team of specialists relating to the injury would meet and decide what help is needed in the short, medium and long term for both the victim and their family. That care team will be employed to ensure the ongoing stability of life, care and finances for the victim and family.
Serious injury cases are often very complicated and can affect the family of the affected person emotionally for a prolonged period as well as physically in the years following. Often families need to provide care of their own which can mean changing or leaving jobs, restructuring the household budget or giving up their time to make their family member’s life as best they can despite the circumstances. A crisis team will be tasked with easing that burden as best they can and calculating the full cost of care over a lifetime (which could easily run into millions).
A Quality Life
Often with serious injury cases it is impossible for the victim to return to life exactly as it was beforehand. With injuries at birth it means the baby harmed will never experience life as originally possible, making the correct estimate towards the provision of care essential.
The aim of a legal firm like Scott Rees & Co in any serious injury case is to assess and employ our knowledge to help the injured person and their family live as close to a normal life without financial, physical or emotional worry as possible. Every child deserves to be on equal footing regardless of how they started their life. Following injuries at birth, any care required to help through early years and into adulthood must be accounted for; whenever you, a friend or family member make a serious injury claim for birth injuries, this is what the solicitor involved will be striving to achieve.
If you believe yourself, a friend, family member or colleague has suffered as a result of a serious injury during the birth of their child, please call on 0800 092 2896 or visit our contact page to speak to an adviser and start your first steps to ensuring the affected child has all available assistance to help them live comfortably, whatever the cost.