The instant a birth injury occurs, your family’s path changes forever. For Dundalk parents watching their newborn struggle through treatments that should never have been necessary, each day brings a painful mixture of worry, anger, and unanswered questions. 

Behind the medical terminology and hospital explanations often lies an uncomfortable truth: your child’s suffering might have been completely preventable. A Dundalk birth injury attorney does far more than file paperwork. They become your family’s voice when medical institutions refuse to accept responsibility. 

At Schochor, Staton, Goldberg and Cardea, P.A., our attorneys have helped countless Maryland families transform heartbreak into action, securing the financial resources necessary for their children’s brightest possible futures.

Common Causes of Birth Injuries Leading to Claims

The common causes of birth injuries in Dundalk include:

Medical Negligence During Childbirth

When healthcare providers fail to follow established medical protocols during labor and delivery, newborns suffer preventable harm that often results in permanent disabilities.

  • Failure to Monitor Fetal Distress: Labor and delivery staff must vigilantly monitor fetal heart rates and other vital signs to detect early warning signals of oxygen deprivation. When physicians or nurses misread monitoring strips or delay responding to concerning patterns, babies may experience hypoxic injuries leading to cerebral palsy, developmental delays, or intellectual impairments.
  • Improper Use of Delivery Instruments: When deliveries become challenging, physicians sometimes use tools or devices. Forceps applied with excessive force may fracture an infant’s skull, damage facial nerves, or cause intracranial bleeding. Vacuum extractors used incorrectly can result in scalp injuries, dangerous bleeding beneath the skull, or permanent nerve damage.
  • Delayed Emergency Cesarean Sections: When complications threaten a baby’s oxygen supply, immediate surgical intervention often prevents permanent brain injury. Medical research demonstrates that babies delivered with undue delay after the decision for an emergency C-section face substantially higher risks of neurological damage. These unnecessary delays typically occur when hospital staff fails to recognize urgent situations, communication breakdowns occur between nurses and physicians, or facilities lack adequate surgical resources.
  • Medication and Anesthesia Errors: Proper medication dosing during labor requires precision and careful monitoring. Common medication mistakes include incorrect Pitocin administration, causing excessive contractions that restrict fetal oxygen, improper epidural placement leading to maternal blood pressure drops affecting fetal well-being, and anesthesia errors during cesarean deliveries affecting newborn respiratory function.

These typically stem from procedural shortcuts, communication failures, or inadequate patient monitoring during critical periods.

External Accidents Affecting Mother and Unborn Child

Birth injuries sometimes result from external causes beyond traditional medical negligence:

  • Car Accidents Involving Pregnant Mothers: Vehicle collisions involving pregnant women can cause placental separation, premature labor, or direct trauma to the developing baby. Even seemingly minor accidents require immediate medical evaluation, as injuries may not be immediately apparent but can cause significant fetal harm.
  • Exposure to Harmful Substances: Pregnant women exposed to toxic chemicals, unsafe medications, or defective products may suffer adverse effects that harm their unborn children. In Dundalk’s industrial areas, workplace exposures occasionally contribute to birth complications or congenital conditions.

These cases may involve claims against employers who failed to provide adequate protective equipment, manufacturers of dangerous products, or property owners who neglected to warn about hazardous conditions affecting pregnant women.

Hospital and Provider Liability

Birth injury claims often involve multiple responsible parties:

  • Hospital Negligence: Healthcare facilities serving Dundalk residents may bear direct responsibility for systemic failures contributing to birth injuries, including insufficient staffing in labor units, inadequate training of medical personnel, outdated safety procedures, or faulty equipment maintenance. When hospitals create conditions that increase injury risks, they share liability for resulting harm.
  • Vicarious Liability of Hospitals: Under Maryland law, hospitals generally bear responsibility for the negligent actions of their employees, including nurses, technicians, and residents. This principle ensures that injured families can seek compensation from institutions with substantial resources rather than solely from individual providers who may lack adequate insurance coverage.

Understanding Negligence in Dundalk Birth Injury Cases

Establishing Duty of Care

All birth injury claims begin by showing that healthcare providers owed a duty to both mother and baby. When a doctor-patient relationship exists, providers must deliver care meeting accepted medical standards. This obligation covers all aspects of maternal and neonatal care, from prenatal monitoring through delivery and immediate newborn care.

Breach of Duty

After establishing duty, birth injury claims must demonstrate that providers delivered substandard care through inappropriate actions or critical omissions. Maryland law requires healthcare professionals to provide treatment that meets the level expected of reasonably skilled practitioners with similar training under comparable circumstances.

Birth injury attorneys work with medical experts to identify precisely how care deviated from accepted practices, often comparing actual treatment against clinical guidelines published by major medical organizations or hospital protocols. 

Causation

Successful claims must establish a direct link between the provider’s negligence and the resulting birth injury. This causal connection requires addressing defense arguments that injuries stemmed from unavoidable complications, genetic factors, or other causes unrelated to the care provided.

Medical experts analyze records, monitoring data, and diagnostic results to trace the sequence of events leading to injury, identifying where proper care would have prevented harm. This evidence creates the foundation for establishing that negligence directly caused the child’s condition.

Damages

Birth injury claims must document the actual harm suffered and its financial implications. Attorneys work with medical specialists, life care planners, and economic experts to calculate the full extent of current costs and future needs, including medical expenses, therapeutic interventions, specialized education, necessary equipment, and diminished earning capacity.

Maryland law requires a certificate from a qualified medical expert confirming that care violated professional standards and caused the injury. This certificate must accompany the initial claim filed with Maryland’s Health Care Alternative Dispute Resolution Office.

Types of Damages Available in Dundalk Birth Injury Cases

Economic Damages

Economic damages address quantifiable financial losses resulting from birth injuries:

  • Medical Costs: Birth injuries typically require extensive healthcare interventions, from immediate intensive care to years of specialized treatment. Economic damages cover both expenses already incurred and those anticipated throughout the child’s lifetime, including specialized therapy, surgical procedures, medical equipment, and ongoing treatments.
  • Lost Income and Future Earning Capacity: Birth injuries affect family finances beyond direct medical costs. Parents often reduce work hours or leave employment entirely to provide necessary care. Additionally, children with permanent disabilities face limited earning potential as adults. Economic damages address these financial realities, helping families maintain stability despite extraordinary challenges.
  • Funeral Expenses in Wrongful Death Cases: When birth injuries prove fatal, Maryland law permits recovery of funeral and burial expenses as part of economic damages in wrongful death actions. These claims acknowledge the financial burden that compounds emotional suffering when families lose a child to preventable medical errors.

Non-Economic Damages

Non-economic damages address genuine suffering caused by birth injuries:

Pain, Suffering, and Diminished Quality of Life

Birth injuries often cause physical pain through both initial trauma and subsequent medical procedures. Beyond physical discomfort, these injuries frequently result in emotional distress, psychological trauma, and limited life experiences for both child and family.

Non-economic damages recognize these genuine harms, providing compensation for physical pain, emotional suffering, loss of normal childhood experiences, and diminished quality of life. While Maryland caps these damages (approximately $905,000 in 2025), they remain an important component of just compensation.

Filing a Birth Injury Claim in Dundalk

Statute of Limitations

Maryland establishes firm deadlines for filing medical malpractice and wrongful death claims. Under Maryland law, medical malpractice claims must generally be filed within five years from when the injury occurred or three years from when it was reasonably discovered, whichever comes first.

For children under age 11, Maryland extends the deadline until their 11th birthday, recognizing that some neurological injuries become apparent only as developmental delays emerge. Wrongful death actions arising from birth injuries must typically be filed within three years of death.

Generally, missing these deadlines results in the permanent dismissal of valid claims, regardless of their merit. This makes early consultation with a Dundalk birth injury attorney vital to preserving legal rights.

Initial Consultation and Case Investigation

The path to compensation begins with thorough evaluation and investigation. Consulting an attorney soon after suspecting medical negligence preserves crucial evidence and ensures compliance with legal deadlines. 

Early involvement allows attorneys to obtain unaltered medical records, interview witnesses while memories remain fresh, and secure expert reviews within required timeframes.

Comprehensive case investigation involves collecting prenatal records, labor and delivery documentation, fetal monitoring data, and subsequent treatment notes. These records undergo review by qualified medical experts who can identify departures from the standard of care and establish causation.

Why Work With an Experienced Dundalk Birth Injury Lawyer?

Maximizing Compensation

Professional legal representation significantly impacts compensation amounts. Experienced birth injury attorneys work with life care planners, economists, and medical specialists to ensure settlement demands address the full financial impact of injuries, not just immediate or obvious costs.

Proving Negligence Effectively

Building persuasive birth injury cases requires specialized knowledge and connections with respected medical experts across relevant specialties. These experts help translate technical and medical information into clear explanations of how negligence occurred and directly caused injuries.

Protecting Families from Insurance Tactics

Insurance companies representing healthcare providers use various strategies to minimize liability, including offering early settlements far below actual claim value, challenging causation by suggesting genetic factors and shifting blame between multiple providers. Experienced attorneys recognize and counter these approaches, protecting vulnerable families from accepting inadequate compensation.

Local Legal Knowledge

Attorneys with specific experience in Maryland birth injury cases bring valuable insights regarding judicial tendencies in Baltimore County and Baltimore City courts, successful arguments in similar cases, and jury expectations in the region. This location-specific knowledge creates the strongest possible advocacy for Dundalk families.

Contact a Dundalk Birth Injury Lawyer Today

If your child suffered injury during birth at any Baltimore medical facility, reach out to us for a free consultation. Our attorneys will evaluate your potential claim and explain your legal options without obligation.

We handle birth injury cases on a contingency basis—you pay nothing unless we secure compensation for your family. Contact us today to speak with an attorney who will fight tirelessly for your child’s future.