The moment a birth injury occurs, time stops for parents. What should be a joyful celebration transforms into a frightening journey of medical terminology, unanswered questions, and growing fears about your child’s future. For Bel Air South families facing this reality, the emotional heartache and financial strain create an unbearable weight that no family should carry alone.
At Schochor, Staton, Goldberg and Cardea, P.A., our attorneys help uncover exactly what went wrong during childbirth, identify responsible parties, and secure the financial resources necessary for your child’s care.
Understanding Catastrophic Birth Injuries
Catastrophic birth injuries alter the trajectory of a child’s life, often requiring lifelong medical intervention, specialized equipment, and continuous therapy. These injuries occur during pregnancy, labor, or delivery when medical professionals fail to follow established protocols or respond appropriately to complications.
Brain Injuries: Oxygen deprivation during birth, even for brief periods, can cause hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE), leading to cerebral palsy, intellectual disabilities, seizure disorders, or developmental delays. According to research published in the Journal of Perinatal Medicine, these injuries often result from unrecognized fetal distress, delayed interventions, or mismanaged maternal conditions.
Nerve Damage: Excessive force or improper delivery techniques can damage the delicate nerve network controlling arm and shoulder movement (brachial plexus). These injuries manifest as Erb’s palsy or Klumpke’s palsy, causing weakness, decreased mobility, or complete paralysis in affected limbs.
Physical Trauma: Difficult deliveries sometimes result in fractures, spinal injuries, or skull damage. Forceps or vacuum extractors, when used incorrectly, may cause cephalohematomas (blood pooling between the skull and periosteum), skull fractures, or intracranial bleeding.
Infections and Bleeding: Undiagnosed maternal infections can be transmitted to newborns during delivery, causing meningitis, sepsis, or pneumonia with the potential for lasting neurological damage. Similarly, uncontrolled bleeding in newborns, when not promptly addressed, may result in organ damage or brain injury due to decreased blood flow and oxygen delivery.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that lifetime care costs for children with severe birth-related disabilities often exceed $1 million, far beyond what most families can manage without proper compensation.
Common Causes of Birth Injuries and Newborn Fatalities
Birth injuries typically result from specific failures in medical care during labor and delivery:
Failure to Monitor Fetal Distress: Throughout labor, medical staff must vigilantly monitor fetal heart rate patterns to detect signs of oxygen deprivation or distress. When healthcare providers miss warning signs on fetal monitoring equipment or fail to communicate concerns promptly, babies may suffer preventable brain damage.
Delayed or Unperformed Cesarean Sections: When complications threaten fetal wellbeing, timely cesarean delivery often prevents permanent injury. Research published in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology demonstrates that infants delivered more than the required window after the decision for emergency C-section face substantially higher risks of brain damage.
These harmful delays typically occur when hospital staff fails to recognize urgent situations, communication breakdowns occur between nurses and physicians, or facilities lack adequate surgical resources.
Improper Use of Delivery Instruments: When labor progresses slowly or positioning complications arise, physicians sometimes employ forceps or vacuum extractors. While these tools can be necessary in certain situations, improper application causes numerous preventable injuries.
Medical studies indicate that instrument-assisted deliveries carry significantly higher risks of birth trauma compared to either spontaneous vaginal births or properly executed cesarean sections. Proper training and careful technique remain imperative to prevent skull fractures, nerve damage, or brain hemorrhages during assisted deliveries.
Medication Errors: Mistakes in medication administration during labor or the immediate postpartum period can cause severe injuries. Improper dosing of labor-inducing drugs like Pitocin can cause excessive contractions that restrict fetal oxygen supply. Similarly, anesthesia errors may compromise maternal blood pressure, affecting placental blood flow and fetal oxygenation.
Misdiagnosed or Untreated Conditions: Failure to identify and address maternal conditions like preeclampsia, gestational diabetes, or infections can lead to serious complications during delivery. Similarly, undiagnosed fetal conditions that would indicate the need for special delivery precautions may result in preventable injuries when standard delivery methods prove inappropriate.
Maryland hospitals, including those serving Bel Air South families, must maintain specific protocols for managing high-risk pregnancies, monitoring labor, and responding to emergencies.
Proving Medical Negligence in a Birth Injury Case
Successful birth injury claims require establishing that healthcare providers delivered care falling below accepted medical standards, directly causing injury to the mother or baby.
The legal standard of care represents what a reasonably prudent healthcare provider with similar training would have done under comparable circumstances. This standard varies by medical specialty, with obstetricians, labor and delivery nurses, and anesthesiologists each held to the specific protocols of their profession.
Building a persuasive case requires substantial evidence, including:
- Medical Records and Fetal Monitor Logs: Complete prenatal, labor, delivery, and postnatal records provide the foundation for identifying deviations from proper care. Fetal monitoring strips often reveal crucial information about when distress occurred and how staff responded.
- Internal Hospital Reports: Quality assurance reviews, incident reports, and staffing records may contain valuable insights into systemic issues contributing to the injury. These documents often require court orders to obtain, highlighting the importance of experienced legal representation.
- Witness Statements: Accounts from healthcare providers present during delivery, family members, or others with relevant information help establish a clear timeline of events and actions taken or omitted during critical moments.
- Expert Medical Opinions: Maryland law requires testimony from qualified medical experts who can explain the applicable standard of care, how it was violated, and how this violation directly caused the birth injury. These experts must have clinical experience, teaching experience, or special knowledge in the relevant medical specialty.
Under Maryland Courts and Judicial Proceedings § 3-2A-04, birth injury claims require a certificate from a qualified medical expert attesting that healthcare providers failed to meet the standard of care and directly caused the injury.
This certificate must be filed within 90 days of the initial claim, making early consultation with an experienced birth injury attorney vital.
Liability may extend beyond individual doctors to include:
- Hospitals responsible for inadequate staffing, training, or supervision
- Medical practices that failed to implement proper safety protocols
- Nursing staff who neglected monitoring duties or was unable to communicate concerns
- Pharmaceutical companies or equipment manufacturers in rare cases involving defective products
