The personal injury attorneys from Action Legal Group understand that there are several kinds of injuries that can harm a baby when he or she is born. There is always the risk that the baby can suffer an injury like:

The myriad of potential birth injuries can be further expanded to include conditions like a devastating CP diagnosis. Erb’s palsy is yet another condition that can occur when there is physical injury at the time of delivery and physical symptoms can fall firmly between mild and life-shattering, depending on the severity of the injury suffered.

Erb’s palsy is a nerve disorder that is the result when there is an injury at the time of birth. This condition is one form of brachial plexus palsy that impinges on the function of the nerves that make up the brachial plexus. In the human body, the body your brachial plexus is a group of nerves that start in the spinal cord and form the nerves that allow the shoulder, arm, hands and fingers to function appropriately and feel. In newborns, Erb’s palsy makes itself known in the injured arm in the form of:

In newborns in which the injury is to the upper nerves composing the brachial plexus, the baby may be unable to move the shoulder but can manipulate his or her fingers.

The birth injury attorneys from Action Legal Group recognize that an injury can occur at any period before a baby has been born or in the weeks immediately following birth. Erb’s palsy is likely to happen during delivery and often when a birth becomes complicated, and force must be exerted to speed removal from the birth canal. This apparently medically necessary action can result in the baby’s neck being stretched and the nerves being stretched, and injured In the process. There is roughly four different types of injuries that can impact the proper function of these nerves.

Neurapraxia is a stretching injury that shocks but does not manage to tear the nerve. This type of injury can heal on its own by the time the baby is 3 months old.

Neuroma is a stretching injury that will damage some nerve fibers and potentially result in scar tissue. The newly formed scar tissue can press on any healthy remaining nerve. Some recovery will occur, but the body will not completely heal itself.

A Rupture is a stretching injury that causes the nerve to become torn. The injury does not heal on its own and will require splicing in a donor nerve graft from another nerve in the baby’s body.

An Avulsion occurs when the nerve is completely ripped from the spinal cord. There is no way to repair a nerve that has been torn from the spinal column.

It is important for parents to understand that Erb’s palsy can and should be prevented when a mother receives the correct medical care during delivery. When the baby is breech or the head or body is too big to fit through the mother’s pelvis, a physician who does his or her job well will schedule a C-section.