What Pregnant Women Injured In Florida Car Accidents Need To Know

You were vulnerable, you were wronged, and you have rights. Our law firm helps pregnant women who were injured in Florida car accidents achieve justice for themselves and their unborn children!

Being involved in a Florida car accident that wasn’t your fault can be scary, but it can be terrifying when you are pregnant. If the crash caused serious injuries to you or your baby, or tragically caused you to lose your baby, you deserve justice for the pain, suffering, fear, grief, and expenses that the accident caused. The Florida Law Group’s compassionate attorneys can advocate for you and guide you to the closure and maximum compensation you need to move forward. Pregnant women injured in Florida car accidents can call our firm today to schedule a free consultation and learn more about their legal options.

Here are a few important things that you need to know if you were pregnant at the time of your car accident:

*Note: the following information may be difficult for pregnant women who have suffered trauma or loss caused by a car accident to read. Our goal is not to be insensitive with any of the language we use, but rather to present the facts as straightforward and simply as possible in order to equip pregnant accident victims with the knowledge they need to make the best legal choices.

Pregnant women injured in Florida car accidents have a high risk of developing serious complications, regardless of what type of crash it was.

You’re not alone if you’ve been injured in a car accident while pregnant. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), motor vehicle collisions are a leading cause of death and injury for pregnant women and are the leading cause of traumatic fetal death. The statistics are staggering; a study by the University of Michigan estimates about 170,000 car crashes in the US every year involve pregnant women, and 116,000 of these result in injury to the mom-to-be or to the fetus. Tragically, between 2 – 14 unborn children die every single day in the US from injuries or complications that developed as a result of a car crash.

Even minor car accidents can be extremely dangerous for pregnant women and their unborn children – the force of the impact and the jostling involved, as well as the emotional and mental stress the mother experiences, can lead to pregnancy complications such as:

• Placental abruption

  Suffering abdominal trauma during a car crash can lead to placental abruption, where the placenta partially or completely separates from the uterine wall prematurely. This condition is irreversible, and can lead to uncontrolled bleeding, premature delivery, or serious harm/death of both the mother and the fetus. One source suggests that this complication occurs in about 5% of low-impact auto accidents where pregnant women were involved and between 30-50% of high-impact auto accidents where pregnant women were involved.

• Shaken baby syndrome

  The force of a car accident can cause the baby’s brain to rattle; its brain may strike one side of the skull and bounce back to hit the other, which is known as a coup-contrecoup injury (or commonly as “shaken baby syndrome”). This can lead to serious nerve damage, loss of brain function, or even brain death.

• Maternal shock

  If pregnant women injured in Florida car accidents lose a lot of blood, their body may go into hypovolemic shock, which carries extreme risk for the baby; the fetal mortality rate when this occurs is over 80%.

• Uterine rupture

  Uterine rupture is not common, but can occur in car accidents where the airbag deploys and impacts the pregnant woman’s abdomen, or if the pregnant woman was not secured by a seatbelt and impacts the dashboard or steering wheel. During uterine rupture, the walls of the uterus tear and the baby loses oxygen. This is potentially the most dangerous complication that could occur; delivery must occur immediately to avoid injury or death.

• Preeclampsia

  The increased stress and tension of a car accident can cause pregnant women to develop preeclampsia, a high blood pressure disorder that can lead to seizures, organ damage, placental abruption, preterm delivery, and more.

• Preterm labor/premature birth

  Any type of car accident can cause a pregnant woman to go into labor prematurely or lead to a complication that requires inducing a premature delivery. Premature infants have a whole host of health risks and will require a NICU stay; they may not be able to survive, depending on how developed they were when delivered.

• Miscarriage

  If the pregnancy was in the early stages, or if any of the above complications did occur, a miscarriage could happen that could result in the death of the unborn baby. An estimated 3,000 pregnancies are lost every year to car crashes.

• As well as many other “typical” car accident injuries that can directly affect the mother, such as whiplash, broken bones, lacerations, burns, spinal cord injuries, concussion, and more.

Wearing a seatbelt correctly and receiving medical attention immediately after an accident can decrease your and your baby’s personal risk level, but the severity of an accident and the resulting injuries are mostly outside of your control. However, you do control what happens next, which leads us to our next thing you should know….

You can file a claim for maximum compensation.

If you or your baby was harmed in a Florida car accident that wasn’t your fault, you should not have to suffer – physically, emotionally, or financially – without compensation. No amount of money can make up for being injured or losing your pregnancy, if that was the tragic outcome, but it can help ease the monetary burdens you are facing during this time and ensure that you are able to afford the best medical care possible without going into debt for an accident that someone else’s carelessness caused.

Pregnant women injured in Florida car accidents can file legal claims against the insurance company of the driver responsible for the collision to recover damages related to their medical costs (ambulatory transport, imaging tests like ultrasounds and CT scans, surgeries like an emergency C-section or a type of fetal surgery, hospitalization, medications, delivery of the baby, NICU stay, long-term expenses associated with birth defects like occupational therapy, etc., and more), to lost wages that they weren’t able to earn while recovering from the accident, to non-economic damages designed to compensate them for the emotional toll the accident took on them and their families. All of these damages could add up to hundreds of thousands of dollars depending on the specific circumstances of your case.

Having a lawyer increases your chances of achieving justice for you and your unborn child.

Even if the accident was clearly not your fault and even if it was clear that you and your unborn child suffered greatly as a result, insurance companies are focused on protecting their bottom line rather than your best interests. They will do everything in their power to avoid paying you the full amount your injuries are worth. If you are recovering from your own car accident injuries and preparing for birth, taking care of a premature baby that was born early as a result of that car accident, or mourning the loss of a pregnancy as a result of the car accident, you don’t have the energy or the time to fight the insurance company on your own. You need an experienced law firm on your side – compassionate legal professionals who can stand up for your rights and work to recover a sizable settlement on your behalf. That’s where The Florida Law Group comes in.

We have won over $1 billion dollars for injured accident victims across the state of Florida since 1984, and we have over 100 years of combined experience on our team! Our award-winning lawyers treat every client like family. If you have been injured while pregnant in a car crash that was caused by another driver’s negligence, contact one of our 11 Florida office locations today to schedule a free consultation. We can help pregnant women injured in Florida car accidents understand what next steps to take, and we will never charge you legal fees until we have won your case! Call now.