For Montgomery Village families, the shock of discovering that your newborn has suffered a preventable injury can be devastating. The combination of immediate medical concerns, uncertainty about your child’s future, and unexpected financial pressures creates a perfect storm of stress during what should be a joyful time.
Maryland law provides specific pathways for families to recover compensation when medical negligence causes birth injuries. At Schochor, Staton, Goldberg and Cardea, P.A., our attorneys have secured over $1 billion for clients harmed by preventable medical errors.
What Constitutes a Birth Injury Under Maryland Law?
Maryland law recognizes birth injuries as harm suffered by infants during labor and delivery that could have been prevented with proper medical care. These injuries must result from substandard care that falls below recognized medical protocols.
Common Birth Injuries in Montgomery Village Cases
- Oxygen Deprivation Injuries: When babies experience reduced oxygen during birth, permanent brain damage can occur within minutes. Hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE) often leads to cerebral palsy, intellectual disabilities, seizure disorders, and developmental delays.
- Nerve Damage: Excessive force or improper maneuvers during difficult deliveries can damage the brachial plexus nerves controlling arm and shoulder movement. Erb’s palsy, the most common form, causes weakness or paralysis in the affected arm. While some cases resolve naturally, severe nerve damage may require surgery and result in permanent limitations.
- Physical Trauma: Inappropriate delivery techniques or misused instruments can cause fractures, particularly to the clavicle and skull. Improperly applied forceps or vacuum extractors may cause skull fractures, brain hemorrhages, facial paralysis, or spinal cord injuries. These physical injuries sometimes accompany neurological damage, creating multiple health challenges.
- Infectious Complications: Untreated maternal infections can be transmitted to babies during delivery. Group B streptococcus, untreated urinary tract infections, and chorioamnionitis can lead to neonatal sepsis or meningitis. When providers fail to screen for, identify, or treat these infections appropriately, newborns may suffer permanent harm from conditions that should have been prevented.
Types of Damages Available in Montgomery Village Birth Injury Claims
Maryland law provides several categories of compensation for families affected by birth injuries:
- Medical Expenses: Birth injuries often require immediate neonatal intensive care followed by ongoing specialized treatment. Compensation covers past medical bills and projected future medical needs, including surgeries, hospital stays, medications, and regular physician visits. Unlike some states, Maryland places no cap on these economic damages, allowing recovery of all necessary medical costs.
- Specialized Care and Equipment: Children with permanent disabilities typically require therapeutic services like physical, occupational, and speech therapy. They may also need adaptive equipment such as braces, wheelchairs, communication devices, and specialized transportation. Home modifications for accessibility are another substantial expense families face. All these costs qualify as recoverable damages.
- Lost Income: When parents must reduce work hours or leave employment to care for an injured child, these lost wages qualify as recoverable damages. Additionally, children with permanent disabilities may have reduced earning capacity throughout their lives. Economic experts calculate these future losses based on the specific limitations imposed by the injury.
- Non-Economic Damages: Maryland law recognizes the physical pain, emotional suffering, and diminished quality of life experienced by children with birth injuries. Parents also experience significant emotional distress when their child suffers preventable harm. While Maryland Courts and Judicial Proceedings § 3-2A-09 caps non-economic damages (approximately $905,000 for cases arising in 2025), these remain an important component of birth injury compensation.
- Wrongful Death Compensation: When birth injuries prove fatal, Maryland’s wrongful death statute allows parents to recover for funeral expenses, emotional pain, and lost companionship. These cases involve specific procedures under Maryland Courts and Judicial Proceedings § 3-904.
Common Medical Malpractice Situations Leading to Birth Injuries
Several recurring patterns of negligence appear in Montgomery Village birth injury cases:
- Fetal Monitoring Failures: Electronic fetal monitoring during labor provides vital information about a baby’s condition. When healthcare providers misinterpret data or ignore warning signs, babies may suffer oxygen deprivation, resulting in permanent brain damage. Proper monitoring allows timely intervention when distress occurs.
- Delayed Emergency C-Sections: When complications arise during labor, prompt cesarean delivery often prevents serious injury. Delays in performing necessary C-sections frequently lead to oxygen deprivation and resulting brain damage. Medical standards require timely surgical intervention when fetal monitoring shows distress, when labor fails to progress, or when complications like placental abruption or umbilical cord problems occur.
- Medication Errors: Mistakes in medication dosing during labor and delivery pose serious risks. Improper use of labor-inducing drugs like Pitocin can cause abnormally strong contractions that reduce oxygen flow to the baby. Similarly, anesthesia errors can affect both maternal and fetal well-being.
- Hospital Systemic Problems: Some birth injuries result from organizational failures rather than individual provider errors. Inadequate staffing, poor communication between team members, insufficient training programs, or flawed safety protocols can all contribute to preventable harm.
