Can Medical Malpractice Cause Cerebral Palsy in Newborns?
Medical negligence can directly cause a newborn’s cerebral palsy. Although many cases arise from unavoidable or unknown factors, delivery-room errors such as ignoring fetal distress, delaying an emergency C-section, misusing forceps or a vacuum extractor, or failing to treat maternal infections can deprive a baby’s brain of oxygen or cause head trauma, injuries that may lead to lifelong motor disability.
Hospitals rarely admit mistakes, so parents are left wondering what really happened. We obtain fetal-monitoring strips, delivery notes, and independent medical opinions to uncover whether a preventable error turned a manageable complication into permanent brain damage.
What Birth Injuries or Delivery Mistakes Can Lead to Cerebral Palsy?
Certain delivery-room mistakes deprive a baby’s brain of oxygen or inflict direct trauma, and those preventable injuries can cause cerebral palsy. Below are the errors we see most often, followed by rarer, but equally devastating, events.
Common Negligence-Related Causes
- Failure to monitor fetal distress: Ignoring abnormal heart-rate alarms lets oxygen levels drop for critical minutes.
- Delayed emergency C-section: When distress appears, every minute counts; postponing surgery can mean irreversible brain damage.
- Improper use of forceps or vacuum extractors: Misapplied tools can fracture the skull or cause intracranial bleeding.
- Untreated maternal infections: Missing or mismanaging Group B strep or uterine infections can injure the fetal brain before birth.
Less-Common but Serious Errors
- Umbilical cord prolapse or nuchal cord: Failing to act when the cord slips into the birth canal or wraps the neck cuts off oxygen.
- Placental abruption or uterine rupture: Delayed response to these obstetric emergencies leaves the baby without blood flow.
- Kernicterus from untreated newborn jaundice: Extremely high bilirubin levels can poison brain tissue if phototherapy is withheld.
- Unaddressed neonatal seizures or breathing failure: Lack of prompt NICU care after birth can turn a temporary crisis into lifelong disability.
Any deviation from accepted medical standards that starves a newborn’s brain of oxygen, or causes head trauma, may be malpractice. We flag these red-letter events when reviewing fetal strips, operative notes, and lab records, ensuring negligent providers answer for the harm done.
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How Do I Know if My Child’s Cerebral Palsy Was Caused by a Doctor’s Mistake?
Parents rarely receive a clear answer from the hospital, and medical charts can feel impenetrable. Still, several signs point to possible malpractice: a traumatic delivery with alarms or an emergency code, a long gap before the newborn cried or breathed, NICU admission for seizures or oxygen therapy, or staff who offer vague explanations rather than specifics. Each of these red flags suggests a preventable lapse in care.
Because medical teams seldom admit errors, we dig deeper. We secure fetal-monitor strips, anesthesia logs, nursing notes, and lab results, then work with neonatologists to reconstruct the exact moment brain injury occurred. This forensic review matters: it separates unavoidable complications from mistakes that justice can remedy. By pinning down what should have been done, and when, we build a case that answers your biggest question: Was my child’s lifelong condition preventable?
What Must We Prove to Win a Cerebral Palsy Medical Malpractice Case?
A successful cerebral palsy lawsuit rests on four clear legal elements. First, duty: every obstetrician, nurse, and hospital automatically owes the mother and baby a professional standard of care. Second, breach: the team must have broken that standard, for example, by ignoring fetal-distress alarms or misusing a vacuum extractor. Third, causation: the breach must be the direct reason the baby suffered brain damage that led to cerebral palsy. Finally, damages: the child and family must face measurable harm such as lifelong medical costs, therapy bills, and lost earning capacity.
Maryland adds one crucial step: a lawsuit must include a Certificate of Qualified Expert, an independent physician’s sworn opinion that malpractice occurred. We handle this requirement by collaborating with leading neonatologists who verify which actions fell below accepted medical practice and link those errors to your child’s injury.
Why do these elements matter? They turn heartbreak into accountability. By proving each point, we shift responsibility, and the financial burden, from the family to the negligent provider and their insurer, securing funds for intensive therapy, adaptive equipment, and future care.
What Compensation Can Our Family Receive in a Cerebral Palsy Lawsuit?
A cerebral palsy lawsuit can provide crucial financial support. Maryland law allows families to recover both economic and non-economic losses when negligence causes a child’s lifelong disability.
Economic Damages – money for measurable costs:
- Medical treatment, surgeries, and medications: Therapy, equipment, and physician visits can reach hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars over a lifetime.
- Rehabilitation and therapy: Ongoing physical, occupational, and speech therapy sessions.
- Educational and care expenses: Special education services, in-home nursing, and home or vehicle modifications.
- Lost earning potential: Compensation for the child’s reduced ability to work as an adult.
Non-Economic Damages – compensation for intangible harm:
- Pain and suffering and loss of quality of life for the child.
- Emotional distress felt by parents and siblings. (Maryland caps these amounts, but every verdict still accounts for the limit.)
We work with life-care planners and economists to project the full cost of care, then negotiate or litigate for a settlement that secures the child’s future. By shifting the financial burden from the family to the negligent provider, we ensure therapy continues, homes are adapted, and parents can focus on their child, not on mounting bills.
How Long Do We Have to File a Cerebral Palsy Lawsuit in Maryland?
Maryland gives injured children more time than adults, but the clock still matters. A child with cerebral palsy generally has until the 21st birthday, age 18 plus three years, to file a malpractice claim. Parents’ own claims for medical bills or lost income follow a shorter rule: they must sue within five years of the negligent act or three years after discovering it, whichever comes first.
Waiting can harm a case. Medical records fade, witnesses move, and memories blur, making proof harder to secure. We urge families to act quickly so we can gather complete charts, fetal-monitor strips, and expert opinions while evidence is fresh.
Even if years have passed, exceptions sometimes apply, especially when a hospital concealed the error. A free consultation lets us confirm the exact deadline for your family and file before it closes.
How Can a Wheaton Cerebral Palsy Lawyer Help Our Family?
A dedicated cerebral palsy lawyer guides families through every legal step while protecting their child’s future. We start with a free, no-obligation consultation, listening to your story, answering questions, and giving an honest opinion about whether malpractice likely occurred.
If you choose to move forward, we:
- Investigate aggressively: Obtain fetal-monitor strips, delivery notes, NICU records, and internal hospital reviews; then consult top neonatologists and obstetric experts to pinpoint exactly where the standard of care broke down.
- Build a rock-solid case: Prepare the mandatory Maryland Certificate of Qualified Expert, calculate lifetime costs with economists and life-care planners, and draft pleadings that place liability squarely on the negligent providers.
- Handle all negotiations: Deal directly with hospital insurers, press for fair settlements, and, when necessary, try the case before a Montgomery County jury, our reputation as relentless litigators often prompts quicker, higher offers.
- Cover every cost up front: Because we work on contingency, your family pays nothing unless we secure compensation.
- Provide ongoing support: From arranging interpreters at therapy appointments to meeting you at home in Wheaton or a coffee shop off Georgia Avenue, we make the legal process as stress-free as possible so you can focus on your child.
Our local knowledge of Montgomery County courts and medical experts, paired with decades of birth-injury results, means we can move swiftly, press hard, and maximize the funds that safeguard your child’s care for life.
Why Choose Schochor, Staton, Goldberg and Cardea, P.A. for Your Cerebral Palsy Case?
The Wheaton cerebral palsy attorneys, Jonathan Schochor and Kerry Staton, have over 35 years of combined experience handling birth injury and medical malpractice cases in Maryland. They have successfully resolved hundreds of birth injury claims, securing millions of dollars in compensation to cover lifelong medical care and therapy.
We pair the resources of a major Maryland practice with the personalized attention of a dedicated team. Our attorneys have earned recognition such as Super Lawyers and Top 100 Trial Lawyers, and every client has direct access to their legal counsel.
Our team knows Wheaton and Montgomery County courts inside and out. We are committed to treating families like our own, guiding them through every step with compassion and resolve. Contact us today for a free consultation to see how Jonathan Schochor, Kerry Staton, and our team can fight for your child’s future.
Speak with a Cerebral Palsy Lawyer in Wheaton Today
Time is critical when pursuing justice and securing your child’s future. We offer a free, no-obligation consultation to review your child’s medical records and explain your rights under Maryland law.
Call (410) 234-1000 any time, day or night, or contact us online to schedule your appointment. We can meet you in Wheaton, at our Baltimore office at 1211 St Paul St, or in the comfort of your home, whatever works best for your family.
You don’t face this alone. Our attorneys handle the legal burden so you can focus on caring for your child. Let Jonathan Schochor, Kerry Staton, and our dedicated team fight for the compensation and accountability your family deserves.
