There may be nothing more devastating to a parent than the realization that your child has been a victim of pediatric malpractice. Whether it is a birth injury or a medication, surgical, or other error later in their childhood, these types of medical malpractice can change your child’s life substantially and potentially permanently. This trauma does not just affect your child; it also affects you, any other children you have, and even your extended family. While taking legal action quickly is essential, it is often discussed. However, your family also needs emotional support to process and move beyond this heartbreaking time in your lives. At Firecrest Injury Law, we believe in helping you find both the legal and emotional resources you need in the wake of trauma. Call our Albuquerque office at (505) 218-9949 to schedule a consultation with one of our pediatric medical negligence attorneys and learn more about your legal rights and options, and emotional resources for recovery.
The Impact of Pediatric Malpractice
To someone who has never experienced it, pediatric malpractice only affects the injured child. To a parent whose child has been harmed by a healthcare provider’s negligence, the provider’s actions did not just physically harm their child. Those actions traumatized their child and their entire family, shattering their trust in the medical community and alerting them to the fragility of their child and their family. Medical negligence when the patient is a child can have catastrophic impacts on the entire family.
Financial Strain
One of the most obvious and often worrisome impacts of pediatric malpractice on the family is the financial strain. Medical bills, ongoing treatment, and the potential loss of income as one or both parents take time off work or quit jobs entirely to care for the child can quickly add up to a mountain of medical debt. Worse, this debt is not the result of some illness that no one had any control over, such as cancer, but is the result of a healthcare provider being negligent in their duties to the child. Families often want the healthcare provider held liable for this debt, but that entails going through the legal process, which is another impact on the family.
Legal Process
Navigating the legal system is complex, no matter the reason. In cases of pediatric medical negligence, it is also emotionally draining, as the family is forced to relive the trauma to tell their story to attorneys, expert witnesses, judges, and juries. In addition to that, it takes a long time to navigate the process of negotiation and settlement and/or going to trial, so it is easy to see how a family may feel too overwhelmed to even consider taking legal action. However, this legal action is essential. Not only does it hold the provider accountable and give the family financial relief if they are successful in their claim, but it also ensures others are aware of the provider’s negligence so that other patients and their families can be alert to potential red flags or even avoid the provider altogether.
Emotional Toll
Watching a child go through the trauma of being medically harmed by a healthcare provider they all trusted can cause profound emotional distress. Knowing that a provider was careless with their child’s health can cause both the parents and the child to mistrust other healthcare providers and Western medicine as a whole. This emotional distress can also lead to anxiety, depression, or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) for the family.
Long-Term Effects
Medical malpractice can lead to long-term physical and emotional health problems for the child and their family. If the family is left to feel alone and unsupported, this can deepen these effects and create significant issues for all family members, which can bleed out into their education, work, and other personal relationships, causing them to feel even more isolated and frustrated. Seeking support early and finding others who have been in similar circumstances or are empathetic to what the family is going through can help reduce these feelings and help the family begin to deal with what happened to them.
Child Specific Trauma
While medical malpractice can have a profound effect on anyone who suffers from the experience, pediatric malpractice may have a unique effect on children. Depending on the age at which the child suffers the negligence, it can affect their development, sow a deep distrust of the healthcare community, and affect their overall well-being. In cases where the child is too young to fully remember the trauma, they may still have distinct, uncomfortable feelings about healthcare professionals that influence how they handle medical issues, potentially leading to someone who does not take proper care of their health because they have an unexplainable but very real unease and lack of trust in healthcare providers.
Emotional Support Resources for Families of Pediatric Malpractice Victims
When a child and their family have experienced medical negligence, it is a unique kind of trauma. Most people trust healthcare providers, and when someone expresses their lack of trust and shares their story, they may be ignored or told well-intentioned but hurtful statements such as “mistakes happen,” “no one is perfect,” or “it couldn’t have been that bad.” Families who have experienced malpractice need safe emotional support where they will feel validated and not have their experience shamed or diminished. There are many resources that children and their families can turn to for this support.
Family and Friends
Supportive loved ones can provide a safe space for open communication about what happened. Family and friends can allow the child and their family to express their emotions freely and offer practical help and support, such as offering transportation to appointments, support groups, or therapy sessions, caring for the child or other children in the family, or preparing meals. This kind of practical support can ease some of the stress the family feels due to the malpractice, which can help them feel emotionally supported.
Support Groups
Families must remember that they are not alone in what they have experienced. Other families have also experienced pediatric medical malpractice. Connecting with these other families through support groups can offer a sense of community and shared understanding.
Mental Health Professionals
Families dealing with medical malpractice often feel grief, anxiety, and other emotional challenges that they are not sure how to process. Psychiatrists, psychologists, therapists, and counselors can all provide specialized support that may help these families process these feelings and adjust to life after the trauma they have experienced. Families can seek assistance as a family, individually, or both.
Lawyers
A pediatric malpractice attorney, like those at Erin Marshall La,w may not be the first thing someone thinks of when seeking emotional support. However, attorneys who specialize in medical negligence are compassionate and have a deep understanding of the trauma these victims and their families have suffered. These attorneys are often prepared to offer the legal guidance the families need to file their claim while also providing an empathetic ear to the emotional heartache they also need to express.
Financial Assistance
Families who have experienced pediatric medical malpractice know that money does not make everything right. However, it can provide the financial resources that allow those families to seek emotional support, practical support, and other support resources that make life more bearable. While holding the healthcare provider liable is one important reason to file a claim, the settlement or judgment the family may receive is just as crucial for the family.
Advocacy Groups
Advocacy groups offer a variety of information and services to help children and families who have experienced medical trauma. The National Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN) offers information regarding child responses to trauma and additional resources that families may find helpful. Local organizations advocate for improved healthcare practices and changes to avoid the most common causes of pediatric medical negligence. Joining groups like All Faiths Children’s Advocacy Center may provide children and families with the mental and behavioral health services they need and also provide an outlet through which they can offer support to others.
Trauma-Informed Pediatric Medical Providers
A child who has suffered medical negligence will likely need ongoing medical care. However, they are also just as likely to be distrustful of medical professionals as a result of the trauma. Parents can ensure their child gets the medical care they need while also ensuring they are emotionally supported by seeking out trauma-informed pediatric medical providers. These providers recognize, respond to, and strive to minimize the impact this trauma has on the child and family. Their approach identifies the effect this trauma has on the physical, mental, and emotional health of the child and their family and attempts to minimize the potential for re-traumatization during medical care.
Three places families in New Mexico can start when seeking trauma-informed pediatric medical providers include:
- ACTION Childhood Trauma Clinic at UNM Health Sciences Center
- The Trauma Treatment Center
- University of New Mexico Pediatric Emergency Department
Finding Resources Locally and Beyond
Another issue that often arises after a family has dealt with medical negligence is feelings of isolation and helplessness. Having never experienced this before, families are uncertain where to look for help or how to ask for it. Fortunately, there are many ways they can look for the support they need.
- Community-Based Organizations: Many local organizations offer support groups, counseling, and other support resources for families who have experienced trauma, often at no charge.
- Annual Family Conferences: There are many conferences or events around the country that focus on supporting families who have experienced medical trauma. These events and conferences may be in-person or virtual.
- Hospitals and Clinics: Hospitals and clinics may have trauma-informed staff and may also offer emotional support, such as support groups or mental health services.
- Online Directories: There are online directories that can lead families to local and online resources, such as in-person or virtual support groups, mental health services, and other support.
- Local Community Centers: Local community centers often offer a variety of support groups. Though these groups may not be specific to medical trauma, they are typically free and can still be of great benefit to families if they are struggling to find other resources.
- Schools: The child’s school can also often be an excellent resource for emotional support. Not only can they often provide recommendations or referrals to support services, but once made aware of the child’s experience, teachers and counselors can often offer support for the child at school.
Creating a Supportive Environment At Home for the Whole Family
While external support from family, friends, groups, or professionals is vital, creating a supportive environment at home is also essential. The home should be the family’s sanctuary, and their safe space to be themselves and speak freely about their experience without fear or reluctance.
Encourage Open Communication
From parents to children, every member of the family should be encouraged to communicate openly about how they feel or what they think about what happened. Even small children who were not the victims may have feelings about the events that took place, and parents should encourage them to express themselves as much as possible based on their age and verbal and emotional abilities. Parents can seek assistance from professionals regarding behaviors they might expect from both the child who was subjected to medical malpractice and their siblings, and how best to deal with those behaviors to ensure communication is truly open.
Validate Everyone’s Feelings
Families should ensure that everyone’s feelings are validated. Even if the feelings expressed seem “too much” or “too little,” families should remember that everyone responds to trauma differently, and whatever an individual is feeling is normal. In some instances, feelings expressed may clash with decisions being made. For example, the child or one of the parents may not want to file a claim. In these instances, it is still important to validate the feelings even if the decision being made goes against those feelings.
Maintain as Many Routines as Possible
After a child has suffered pediatric medical malpractice, they will likely need ongoing care either temporarily or permanently. This can include doctors’ appointments, therapies, and other care that must be scheduled. This care can disrupt the normal routines the family has, causing even more distress. Therefore, it is crucial that families maintain as many of their routines as they can. The familiarity of routines and schedules can help everyone feel more secure and confident about what is going on around them.
Offer Children Choices
After a child has experienced medical trauma, they are likely to feel like nothing is within their control. Depending on their age, this may even be true. While parents cannot allow their children to have complete control over everything, they can offer the child choices over some things. Consider allowing the child to have choices regarding the clothes they wear each day, food choices at meals, which toy to take in the car, or which park to go to. Allow them choices when it comes to medical care, in particular, such as which arm to check their blood pressure on or what book to read before a procedure. This can help rebuild trust in the medical community, as well as reduce anxiety and stress, promote emotional regulation, and help to begin normalizing the experience of getting medical care again after a traumatic experience.
Provide Comfort to Everyone
The child who experienced the medical negligence will need reassurance that what happened was not their fault and that it will not happen again. Parents may need reassurance that it was not their fault, either, as many will blame themselves for choosing that healthcare provider or for not recognizing that something was not right when the negligence happened. Siblings may be scared at seeing what happened and need reassurance that this will not happen to them.
Building Resilience in Pediatric Malpractice Victims and Their Families
Resilience is the ability to recover from or adjust to misfortune or change, and while it is important to instill in everyone, it can be particularly important to work on building resilience after medical trauma. Families may need to seek outside support from mental health professionals or others to begin building resilience in the wake of pediatric medical malpractice.
Focus on Safety and Security
A focus on making the child feel safe and secure should be a priority. Foster a strong bond and connection, including physical closeness, as children can find the extra snuggles, hugs, and cuddles comforting. Offer them choices when possible, and keep the lines of communication open. Adults should be a calm and reassuring presence for the child while also making sure they have an outlet for their own emotions so that they can also feel safe and recover from what happened.
Promote Self-Care
Engage in and promote self-care. Eating regular healthy meals, getting adequate sleep, performing basic hygiene like bathing and brushing teeth, and engaging in enjoyable activities are all necessary parts of life, but many people withdraw from some or all of these actions in the wake of trauma. By prioritizing self-care this way, the family begins getting back into the usual routines of life without overwhelming anyone with demands.
Seek Support for All Family Members
As parents, many adults will focus their attention on getting their child support. This is a natural response, and the child should be a priority since they are the one who physically and emotionally experienced the medical malpractice. However, parents and siblings may have witnessed the malpractice, and even if they did not witness it, they will often still have an emotional reaction. Parents should ensure that all family members, including themselves, get the support they need.
Connect With Support Groups
Support groups can be an excellent source of emotional support, but they can also be a resource for building resilience. Members of support groups have varying experience with medical trauma, from being new to the group and having recently experienced the trauma to being many years past when it happened and having found a new normal in life. These different experiences allow for a wealth of ideas and advice for parents and families to try and see what works for them. This also gives them hope and a real-life example that life does go on and things can get better for them.
Celebrate Small Victories
Of particular importance for the child, families should celebrate the small wins. These might be active steps the child takes, such as going into a medical professional’s office or finally opening up to a therapist after several weeks of refusing to speak. However, they can also be things such as an uninterrupted night’s sleep with no anxiety or flashbacks, or being able to recognize and name emotions as they arise. Choosing to engage in self-care when they were previously avoiding it is also a small win. Look for these and make them a big deal.
Key Considerations About Pediatric Malpractice
While seeking emotional support is critical, there are some additional legal considerations that families must keep in mind as they navigate the balance between healing and pursuing a legal claim.
Time Is of the Essence
NMSA 1978 § 41-5-13 (2024) provides individuals with three years from the date the medical malpractice occurred to file a claim. While it does extend the time for minors until one year from and after the age of majority to file their claim (in other words, children have until their 19th birthday to file a claim), the longer the family waits, the more difficult their claim may be to prove. Over time, evidence can be lost or destroyed, witness memories may not be as clear regarding what happened, and the healthcare provider’s insurance company or attorney may argue that the malpractice could not have been “that bad” if the family waited so long to file.
Evidence Is Crucial
In any medical negligence case, evidence is crucial to proving the negligence. Medical records, photos, videos, witness testimony, and other evidence will be needed. Families will want to start building their claim quickly, as some forms of evidence, such as witness testimony, are better collected soon after the malpractice, while memories are fresh and not dulled by time, and witnesses have not moved on to other jobs or residences and may be more difficult to find.
Focus on Recovery
The family should focus their attention on recovery. However, with time limits on filing their claim and ensuring evidence is prepared, many families feel forced to split their attention or to choose between recovery and their legal claim. This is why an attorney is recommended, though not required. An attorney can handle the majority of the legal claim on behalf of the family, such as managing deadlines, gathering evidence, and negotiating a settlement with the insurance company or healthcare provider. This allows the family to focus on recovery while the attorney keeps them updated on how the legal claim is progressing, easing stress and anxiety for the family.
How a New Mexico Pediatric Malpractice Attorney Can Assist You
In an ideal world, no child or their family would suffer pediatric malpractice. Unfortunately, we do not live in a perfect world. Once your child has been injured at the hands of a healthcare provider, an attorney can assist families with holding that provider financially liable for the trauma they have caused. An experienced medical malpractice attorney with Firecrest Injury Law may be able to assist you with filing your claim, gathering evidence, negotiating a settlement, and representing you in court if it comes to that. We may also be able to guide you toward emotional support resources. Call (505) 218-9949 to schedule an appointment in our Albuquerque office and learn more about your legal rights and options from one of our compassionate and understanding attorneys.
