The Lifelong Cost of Raising a Child with Erb’s Palsy

Raising a child with a serious birth defect can come with several challenges, many of which have a hefty price tag. As a parent, you want to provide your child with the very best care possible, whether that means employing the best babysitter, decorating their nursery with their favorite things, or seeking top-tier medical care. For parents of children with Erb’s palsy, one of these issues may ring truer than the others.

Children with Erb’s palsy usually require more attention in their formative years, and in some cases that extra care may also continue into their adolescence and adulthood. The damaging effects of Erb’s palsy can require multiple surgeries, medications, physical therapy, and other types of ongoing care. The financial burden of these extra costs can be extremely high, especially if a parent needs to alter his or her career to care for the child.

If your child developed Erb’s palsy due to someone else’s negligence or error, make sure you understand the lifelong expenses you could face.

Understanding Erb’s Palsy

Erb’s palsy is a condition affecting the brachial plexus nerves, which often occurs as the result of a shoulder injury during or after birth. These types of birth injuries are often caused by negligent doctors, nurses, or medical facilities, which is why the hospitals responsible for these mistakes are often liable for the resulting damages.

If your child suffered a birth injury that led to the development of Erb’s palsy, you have every right to pursue legal action against the liable party. However, when pursuing legal action, it’s absolutely crucial to determine how much your child’s condition will cost you in order to ascertain how much compensation you need from the responsible party.

The Expenses

Each case of Erb’s palsy varies depending on the type of injury the child suffered and the extent to which their nerves were damaged. In some cases, the nerves might heal in their own time. However, children with severe cases of Erb’s palsy could experience permanent loss of feeling in one or both arms, decreased mobility, lack of muscular growth, and partial or total paralysis of the arm. In these cases, the child may require ongoing care to help alleviate the symptoms and restore function and mobility to the affected arm.

Some of the costs associated with Erb’s palsy include:

• Ongoing physical therapy to help strengthen the arm
• Restorative surgeries to repair the nerve damage
• Occupational therapy as the child grows older
• Psychological care to help with any other issues the child develops as the result of Erb’s palsy
• Loss of wages—either for missed work while the parents needed to tend to the child or because one parent needed to become the child’s full-time caretaker
• Transportation costs to and from medical appointments
• Home or automobile modifications to support the child
• Assistive devices
• Damages for emotional pain or physical trauma

In order to determine how much it will cost to care for your child, you first have to consider how many of these treatments your child is likely to require. Speak with your child’s doctor, and with your personal injury attorney, and determine the severity of your child’s case, that way you can evaluate the potential monetary cost.

Seeking Compensation from the Liable Party

Dealing with an Erb’s palsy diagnosis can be challenging, but the ongoing care and time required to support a child with Erb’s palsy is far greater. Finding adequate support as a parent is absolutely crucial during this time, especially if you are already facing hefty medical bills for your child’s treatment.

Our experienced birth injury attorneys at Goodman Acker understand the types of difficulties you’re facing, and we want to help. We know how hard it is to see your child face serious setbacks and physical challenges, which is why we want to help you obtain the compensation necessary to support your child for the foreseeable future.

To find out what your Erb’s palsy birth injury case might be worth, contact Goodman Acker P.C. and speak with one of our personal injury lawyers.