If you have a child, then you’ll presumably hope the infant doesn’t have any serious medical conditions. You can eat healthy, exercise, and do everything else possible to ensure a healthy birth. However, that doesn’t necessarily mean the child won’t have to deal with an abnormality.
For instance, about 1 out of 1,000 infants has spina bifida, and you’ll also sometimes see infants with other spine-related birth defects. You may also have a situation where the doctor does something improper and injures a baby’s spine.
In this article, we’ll talk about what the medical community has to say about spinal birth defects.
What Does the Term “Spinal Birth Defect” Mean?
The term spinal birth defect means any injury or irregularity of the spine that a baby has at birth. You might also hear a medical professional use a term like “congenital spine abnormality” instead.
If a child has a spine-related birth defect, then often, you can point to spina bifida as the cause. However, you might also run into a condition like tethered spinal cord. The baby might have abnormal spinal alignment as well.
Do Many Spine-Related Birth Defects Have Natural Causes?
If you have a baby, and they have a spine-related birth defect, it’s probably because of one of two things. In most instances, there’s an abnormality that occurred within the womb, meaning that you can’t blame external causes. You might also rarely have a situation where a doctor delivered the baby in an unusual way, and they harmed the infant’s spine.
Assuming the doctor didn’t harm the child, the medical community usually won’t know what caused the abnormality. They might theorize that a genetic factor caused it, though they could point to some environmental factors as well.
If the medical community feels that an environmental factor caused the abnormality, then the individuals you consult might bring up exposure to toxins. Maternal diabetes may cause an unusual spinal condition in the baby as well. Antiepileptic medication might cause spinal cord damage in a child, so you must use it very carefully during your pregnancy.
What Can You Do if Your Baby Has a Natural Spinal Cord Defect?
If your baby comes out with a natural spinal cord defect, meaning one that you don’t think the doctor or any other member of the hospital staff caused, then you’ll need to speak to specialists about what you can do about it. No two spinal cord conditions will look exactly alike. You might see one that hampers the child’s growth or natural movement a little bit, or they may have a condition that impacts them considerably more.
In some instances, a child who gets a little older can wear a back brace that might adjust their posture. They may also do exercises that can help them straighten their spine. Surgical options sometimes exist as well.
These days, doctors and the medical community at large know more about irregular conditions of the spine than ever before. If there’s no exercise or posture-correcting device that might help the afflicted individual as they get older, then sometimes they can use a wheelchair or move around with help from a cane or walker.
Since no two individuals and back conditions will look identical, it often becomes necessary to see doctors with expertise in back abnormalities so they can recommend the best path forward.
What if a Doctor Causes a Spinal Birth Defect?
If you believe that a doctor caused a spinal birth defect in your child, you will probably want to sue them. That’s likely a medical malpractice situation, so you can hire a personal injury lawyer and go after the responsible party in court.
In a courtroom setting, if you want to collect some money on your child’s behalf, you will probably need to establish that a duty of care existed, and the doctor or some other member of the medical staff didn’t give your child that care. If you can call some expert witnesses to the stand who can testify that the doctor did something obviously wrong, then you will likely force a settlement offer.
It’s always possible that the doctor or anyone else you deem responsible will try to contest the matter and force a jury’s verdict. It’s their reputation on the line, so maybe they don’t want to admit wrongdoing. If that happens, though, and the jury finds in your favor, they might award you a much larger sum in damages.