When medical errors transform the joy of childbirth into a lifetime of medical challenges, Annapolis families need skilled legal representation. A birth injury lawyer serves as your family’s advocate when healthcare providers fail to uphold proper medical standards during pregnancy, labor, or delivery.
At Schochor, Staton, Goldberg and Cardea, P.A., our attorneys blend medical knowledge with vigorous legal representation to secure financial resources for families affected by preventable birth trauma.
We investigate medical records, collaborate with renowned experts, and apply a thorough understanding of Maryland’s unique medical malpractice laws to build persuasive cases for maximum compensation.
Major Types of Birth Injuries in Annapolis
Birth injuries range from temporary conditions to permanent, life-altering disabilities. Understanding the specific nature of your child’s injury helps establish potential liability and compensation needs.
Cerebral Palsy (CP)
Cerebral palsy encompasses a group of permanent movement disorders that affect muscle tone, posture, and motor control. The condition typically results from brain damage during fetal development or birth, often from preventable oxygen deprivation or physical trauma.
Medical negligence frequently contributes to CP development through:
- Failure to Respond to Fetal Distress: Electronic monitoring during labor provides moment-by-moment data about the baby’s condition. When Annapolis healthcare providers misinterpret concerning patterns or delay appropriate intervention, even brief oxygen deprivation can cause permanent brain damage.
- Delayed Cesarean Sections: Undue delay in performing cesarean sections substantially increases the risks of neurological damage. In Anne Arundel County hospitals, preventable delays sometimes occur due to communication breakdowns, staffing shortages, or improper risk assessment.
- Improper Use of Delivery Tools: Forceps and vacuum extractors, while valuable in appropriate situations, require precise application. Misuse can cause direct brain trauma or blood vessel compression that restricts oxygen flow, potentially leading to cerebral palsy.
Brachial Plexus Injuries (Erb’s Palsy)
Brachial plexus injuries affect the network of nerves controlling the shoulders, arms, and hands. Erb’s palsy, the most common form, causes weakness or paralysis in the affected arm, often resulting from excessive force during delivery.
These injuries typically occur during difficult births involving:
- Mismanaged Shoulder Dystocia: This obstetric emergency occurs when the baby’s shoulder becomes lodged behind the mother’s pubic bone after the head emerges. When Annapolis physicians respond with inappropriate pulling or twisting, nerve damage frequently results.
- Excessive Traction During Delivery: Even in deliveries without shoulder dystocia, improper force application can stretch or tear the brachial plexus nerves. Medical standards require careful technique when assisting difficult deliveries—standards sometimes unmet in Anne Arundel medical facilities.
While some brachial plexus injuries resolve naturally, more severe cases require surgery and result in permanent disability.
Hypoxic-Ischemic Encephalopathy (HIE)
HIE refers to brain damage from insufficient oxygen and blood flow during birth. This serious condition can cause seizures, developmental delays, cognitive impairments, cerebral palsy, and other permanent neurological problems.
Preventable causes include:
- Unrecognized Fetal Distress: Proper monitoring should detect signs of oxygen deprivation, allowing medical staff to intervene quickly. When Annapolis healthcare providers miss these warning signs or delay appropriate response, the resulting oxygen deprivation can cause permanent brain damage within minutes.
- Delayed Medical Intervention: Once fetal distress is identified, immediate action becomes necessary. Depending on the specific situation, this may include emergency cesarean delivery, changing the mother’s position, administering oxygen, or other interventions. Delays in implementing these measures frequently lead to preventable brain injuries.
Negligence and Liability in Birth Injury Cases
Medical Negligence and Standard of Care
Medical negligence occurs when healthcare providers fail to deliver care meeting the accepted professional standard—defined as the level of care that a reasonably competent provider with similar training would deliver under comparable circumstances.
Essential Elements to Prove Negligence
Successfully establishing medical negligence in Maryland birth injury cases requires proving four specific elements:
- Duty of Care: The healthcare provider had a professional obligation to deliver appropriate care to the mother and baby. This element is typically straightforward in birth injury cases, as the provider-patient relationship creates this duty automatically.
- Breach of Duty: The provider failed to meet the accepted standard of care—either by doing something incorrectly or failing to do something necessary. This breach requires expert testimony explaining what proper care would have entailed and how the provider’s actions fell short.
- Causation: The provider’s breach directly caused the specific birth injury. This critical element often requires sophisticated medical evidence linking substandard care to particular physical or neurological damage.
- Damages: The birth injury resulted in actual harm requiring compensation. This includes both economic costs (medical expenses, therapy needs) and non-economic impacts (pain, suffering, diminished quality of life).
Potentially Liable Parties
Birth injury claims frequently involve multiple responsible parties:
- Physicians: Obstetricians, family practitioners, maternal-fetal medicine specialists, and neonatologists who provide substandard care may bear primary responsibility for resulting injuries.
- Nurses and Midwives: Labor and delivery nurses play vital roles in monitoring maternal and fetal wellbeing, administering medications, and communicating concerns to physicians. When they fail to meet these responsibilities, they may share liability for birth injuries.
- Hospitals and Birth Centers: Healthcare facilities bear responsibility for maintaining proper equipment, establishing safety protocols, and ensuring adequate staffing. They may face direct liability for organizational failures or vicarious liability for employee negligence under the principle of respondeat superior.
- Medical Device Manufacturers: When defective medical devices—such as malfunctioning fetal monitors, flawed forceps, or dangerous vacuum extractors—contribute to birth injuries, manufacturers may face product liability claims.
Identifying all potentially responsible parties ensures maximum compensation for affected Annapolis families.
