Every year, thousands of children sustain brain injuries of varying severity. These injuries may result from any number of incidents, including car accidents, playground accidents, falls, childbirth, non-fatal drowning, blunt force trauma, and exposure to toxic substances.
Though children’s brain injuries often occur through no one’s fault, others may result from someone’s negligence, medical malpractice, or exposure to a defective product. If your child has sustained a brain injury and you suspect that someone’s negligence, medical malpractice, or a defective product was the cause of your child’s injury, you may be entitled to compensation for the damages your child has suffered. Child and brain injury attorney Jeffrey Killino has extensive experience with all types of child injury cases, including those arising out of children’s brain injuries caused by someone’s negligence or a defective product. Contact attorney Killino at 877-875-2927 for a no-cost assessment of your case and more information about your legal options.
Legal Liability for Children’s Brain Injuries
Children’s injuries often result from the negligence of childcare agencies or their employees, mistakes made during childbirth or surgery, or exposure to defective products. Liability for these injuries may depend on the medical malpractice, negligence, and product liability laws of the state in which a legal action seeking damages for such injuries is filed.
Brain Injuries Caused by Car and Other Motor Vehicle Accidents
Children may sustain brain injuries in car accidents. This can occur as a result of the direct impact of a child’s head with the interior of a car, an excessive jarring of the child’s brain inside the child’s skull, or the inhalation of toxic fumes released in the aftermath of a vehicle crash.
The negligence of one or more drivers may cause a traffic accident and a child’s resulting brain injury. A driver’s failure to obey traffic laws or rules of the road may be considered negligence per se and result in the driver’s liability for damages suffered by a child if it is determined that the driver’s negligence was a cause of the child’s brain injury.
Children’s brain injuries may also be found to have been caused by a defect in one or more of the vehicles involved in a traffic accident. The manufacturer and others in the chain of such a vehicle’s distribution may be found liable in a product liability action for a child’s brain injury that is determined to have been caused by the vehicle’s defect.
Brain Injuries Caused by Other Negligence
In addition to the negligence of drivers, the negligence of child caregivers, coaches, teachers, landowners, and a great many other individuals or entities may cause brain injury to a child. Falls that result in a blow to a child’s head or severe shaking of a child’s brain inside the child’s skull may result in brain injury and liability of a landowner, for instance, who negligently failed to remove a dangerous condition that caused the child’s fall.
Landowners may also be found liable under most states’ negligence laws, for non-fatal drowning accidents that lead to a child’s brain injury. Homeowners who fail to erect fencing adequate to prevent children’s access to a pool may be held liable for a child’s brain injury that is determined to have been caused by a non-fatal drowning accident that occurred in the homeowner’s pool.
Babysitters, nannies, and daycare center employees may also be found liable for a child’s brain injury that is determined to have been caused by the caregiver’s negligence. A daycare employee or babysitter’s failure to supervise a young child while the child is playing on playground equipment, for instance, may lead to the caregiver’s liability for a child’s brain injury that is found to have occurred as a result of the caregiver’s negligent supervision. Daycare centers and babysitter or nanny agencies that employ caregivers may also be found liable for brain injuries sustained by children as a result of caregivers’ negligence. The employers may be held indirectly liable for injuries caused by the negligence of their employees and directly liable for any contributing negligence of their own.
Brain Injuries Caused by Defective Products
Children’s brain injuries may also be caused by defective products. A television that too easily tips over and falls on a child may cause serious brain injury to the child. If the product is found to be defective as a result of the tipping hazard it poses, the manufacturer and others in the chain of the television’s distribution may be found liable for the child’s brain injury if it is determined that the brain injury was caused by the television’s defect. Children’s products, including cribs, highchairs, strollers, and toys may also be found to be defective and to have caused a child’s brain injury. Highchairs and strollers with inadequate restraints, for instance, may cause a child to slip down and suffer a cut-off of oxygen from strangulation on a part of the highchair or stroller. Toys with parts small enough to be swallowed may cause a child to choke and sustain an asphyxiation brain injury. Under most states’ product liability laws, the manufacturers, designers, assemblers, suppliers, and retailers of such products may be held strictly liable for children’s brain injuries found to have been caused by product defects.
Contact Us
If your child has sustained a brain injury through someone’s negligence or a defective product, brain injury attorney Jeffrey Killino can help you obtain justice for your child Contact The Killino Firm at 877-875-2927 for expert assistance with your case.
