newborn baby being examined and treated by doctorsThe birth of a child is always life-changing, but when your baby has suffered an injury at birth due to the negligence of a doctor or nurse, the extent of those changes can be impossible to predict. Your medical malpractice lawyer will work with a life-care expert to help you design a customized plan to assist with your child’s limitations for as long as you require and to determine how much it will cost to provide adequate care over the years.

What Is a Certified Life Care Planner?

A life-care expert, or certified life-care planner, is a registered medical professional specializing in case management. While most nurses and physicians attend to short-term injuries or injuries with clear-cut treatments and outcomes, a life-care expert designs plans to last for the entirety of a patient’s life.

A life-care expert can be a critical asset in catastrophic personal injury cases. When you file a personal injury lawsuit, your attorney will work to recover the damages you need to regain financial stability. This money is often used for hospital bills, physical rehabilitation, or emotional pain and suffering. But somebody who suffers a catastrophic injury that prevents them from living an ordinary life may need assistance for a very long time. A life-care expert can work with your attorney to calculate the costs involved.

Life-care experts thus provide an invaluable service for people who need support for the remainder of their lives.

Why You May Need a Life Care Planning Expert in a Birth Injury Case

Any serious accident has the potential to be crippling. However, birth injuries can be especially devastating. Birth injuries occur when an infant sustains an injury during or after delivery. Many birth injuries are the result of oxygen deprivation or physical trauma. Although some birth injuries can be overcome through intensive treatment or immediate correction, many have a permanent impact on an infant’s health and ability to lead an independent, healthy life.

Life-care planners can help evaluate your baby’s potential road to recovery. A life-care planner will tell you what to expect if a recovery is deemed unlikely.

How a Life-Care Expert Can Help You Recover

A life-changing birth injury has a profound impact on the baby and their parents. Depending on the severity of your child’s injury, they may never be able to live independently or reach the same physical and cognitive milestones as their peers.

When you file a personal injury complaint, your attorney will work with a life-care expert to figure out exactly how much money you will need to take care of your child—both while you are alive and after you have passed away.

Finding the Right Life-Care Planner

When you are looking at a lifetime’s worth of health care expenses, emotional pain, and physical suffering, you must find the right expert for your case. Some life-care planners have more experience with certain kinds of accidents than others. After all, catastrophic injury cases—and birth injury cases in particular—can be incredibly complex. You will want to consult an expert who is very familiar with your child’s injury, its potential outcomes, and the best ways to accommodate any permanent disabilities they may experience.  

Your personal injury attorney will help you find the right life-care planner: someone experienced, knowledgeable, and familiar with situations like yours. Once your attorney has found the best expert for your case, we can collaborate with your life-care planner to calculate long-term treatment costs. We will use these calculations to make a claim for an insurance settlement or jury award.

Contact Us Today

Birth injuries are catastrophic for children and families. If your child was hurt because of someone else’s negligence, you should not have to shoulder the responsibility of enhanced care alone. Contact us today to schedule your initial consultation.