TN Opioid Babies Are a Growing Problem
The number of TN opioid babies is climbing. Each year more than 1,000 babies are diagnosed with Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome (NAS), a type of postnatal drug withdrawal. After delivery, they’re suddenly cut off from the drugs they’ve grown to depend on in the womb.
At first, their life starts painfully. Initially, symptoms of NAS include extreme irritability, seizures, projectile vomiting, sweating, refusing to feed, slow weight gain, blotchy skin, and more. These symptoms last until the affected infant has detoxed from all of the drugs in its system.
Unfortunately, even after detox, their battle with NAS has just begun.
NAS affects children long after birth.
The long-term effects of children born with NAS are devastating. Hearing disabilities, brain disorders, language delays, developmental problems, seizures, and psychiatric illness may await children born drug-dependent.
Recently, as reported by Nashville Public Radio, a study published in the Pediatrics journal focused on educational disabilities among children born with neonatal abstinence syndrome. According to the authors, the results of this study “revealed that children with a history of NAS were significantly more likely to have a subsequent educational disability.”
Using data from TennCare on 7,000 babies born with NAS, researchers paired that with their education records. They found that about one in seven children born with NAS required special classroom services for developmental delays and difficulty with language, compared to one in 10 children not exposed to drugs before birth.
Sadly, this problem is not getting better. In the last fifteen years, the rate of infants born with NAS has quadrupled. Alarmingly, the number of TN opioid babies is higher than in other parts of the country.
If your child had NAS, call us right away.
If your child, or a child you know, was born with NAS, we want to speak with you right away. We are offering a free legal consultation for the families of TN opioid babies. We have a plan to seek financial compensation for you and your family from the opioid manufacturers who played a major role in this health crisis that is plaguing children in Tennessee and the entire nation.
In fact, treatment for the first year of NAS alone is estimated to cost $62,000. And this is on top of the emotional and developmental damage families sustain from NAS. This is a burden we believe no family should have to bear.
Contact us online today or call 901-327-1212 to speak in person with lawyers who can get you the justice you deserve. The call is absolutely free, and we are only paid if we win your case.