Who Is Responsible For A Child's Hip Dysplasia?
According to hip dysplasia attorneys, the child's pediatrician is generally responsible. There are guidelines set by the American Academy of Pediatrics which tell a pediatrician how often they should see a child depending on age.
That same group has also specified what tests should be done on those children. This includes abduction and other testing on the hip joints to see if they are forming properly, so it's the pediatrician that is the one who's responsible for making this diagnosis. However, some pediatricians have nurses that see the children instead and they can also be at fault for missing something like this.
The key is for a pediatrician to make the diagnosis, or more importantly, if he or she suspects that there may be a problem, order an x-ray, an ultrasound and then refer the child on to a pediatric surgeon. The pediatrician is just the gatekeeper whose job it is to identify where there may be a problem and then get that child on to a specialist.
In the case of a hip problem, the specialist is a pediatric orthopedic surgeon. If there's any question or any suspicion, the pediatrician should either order the x-ray himself or refer this child on to the surgeon immediately.
Hip Dysplasia Birth Injury Lawsuits: Compensation Can Be Substantial
One of the key compensation issues in a child medical malpractice lawsuit is that a child has many years to live and those hip dysplasia injuries will affect every aspect of their life, so future medical expenses will likely be substantial. A child who is not timely diagnosed with hip dysplasia could have hundreds of thousands of dollars of future medical expenses with all the procedures that will be needed, including hip replacements.
There will also likely be an intense amount of pain that this child will undergo with all these future surgeries. These surgeries are some of the most difficult to perform and some of the most painful for a person to recover from. A child like this is looking at years of pain and suffering. This is a child that had everything to look forward to and the emotional pain of not being able to do the things that normal, healthy children do such as playing outside, playing hopscotch, sports and things of that nature. That's just not possible for this type of child.
Hip dysplasia birth injuries can also have a direct affect upon the child's ability to earn a living in the future as they have difficulty with mobility. Oftentimes, these children have discrepancies in their leg length which makes it impossible to be able to run at any speed.
As they proceed forward in life, all the recreational activities are going to be limited and even when they have a hip replacement even if it works perfectly it's got a finite amount of time which means eventually it will wear out and they'll end up going through the same process they did 20 years earlier. So, the birth injury damages that a child will suffer here are some of the largest you'll see because their entire lives will be affected going forward.
Child Medical Malpractice Lawsuits: Seek Advice From An Experienced Attorney
If your child has hip dysplasia which was not timely diagnosed, contact an experienced hip dysplasia birth injury attorney to discuss whether you might have grounds to file a hip dysplasia birth injury lawsuit so that you and your child can be compensated for your injuries.