Birth Injuries – Erb’s Palsy

Annually, roughly 5,000 infants are born in the United States that suffer from Erb’s Palsy. Erb’s Palsy, also known as brachial plexus palsy, is a form of paralysis that affects the shoulder, arm and hand. Often this is a result of nerves that connect the baby’s arm, shoulder and hand to the spinal cord being damaged or injured during delivery. For example, the baby’s shoulder may become caught in the mother’s pelvic bone, which is called shoulder dystocia.

The good news is that 80 per cent of babies born with erb’s palsy recover within a few weeks without any surgical intervention. For the remainder of the babies, surgery can correct some of the nerve damage and they can regain normal use of their shoulder and arms. If surgery is necessary, doctor’s recommend it be undertaken between the ages of 5 and 12 months, when the surgery seems to be most effective.

Although erb’s palsy can arise in normal delivery situations, in some cases the cause may have been a result of medical malpractice. If the baby was subjected to excessive trauma or traction during labor and delivery, this could have caused the stretching or rupturing of the nerves. There are well known risk factors that the doctor may have ignored or mid-judged that may have cased erb’s palsy in the infant, such as excessive force during delivery and failure to properly manage shoulder dystocia. In these cases injury to the infant could easily have been prevented.