When a medical team’s preventable mistakes turn what should be your family’s happiest day into the beginning of a lifelong struggle, you need more than sympathy—you need answers and accountability.
Each year in Rockville, families watch helplessly as their newborns suffer the consequences of medical errors during delivery, forever altering their children’s futures.
The physical suffering of an injured child, combined with escalating healthcare costs and uncertainty about tomorrow, creates an unbearable burden no family should face alone.
At Schochor, Staton, Goldberg and Cardea, P.A., our attorneys have secured justice for countless Maryland families, recovering over $1 billion from negligent healthcare providers. Our detailed knowledge of Montgomery County medical facilities gives your case the edge it deserves while our commitment to your family remains unwavering.
Common Causes of Birth Injuries Due to Medical Negligence
The common causes of birth injuries in Rockville include:
Delayed C-Section
When complications arise during labor, timely cesarean sections prevent serious birth injuries. Unfortunately, delayed emergency C-sections remain a leading cause of preventable harm to newborns in Rockville hospitals.
Medical research published in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology reveals that undue delays between the decision for emergency cesarean delivery and actual surgery significantly increase the risk of brain damage.
When physicians fail to act promptly, babies may suffer oxygen deprivation, leading to cerebral palsy, intellectual disabilities, or other permanent neurological conditions that require lifelong care.
Failure to Monitor Fetal Distress
Throughout labor and delivery, medical staff must vigilantly monitor both maternal vital signs and fetal heart patterns. Electronic fetal monitoring helps identify early signs of distress that demand immediate attention.
When Rockville healthcare providers neglect proper monitoring or misinterpret warning signs, babies may experience the following:
- Acidosis from blood chemistry changes
- Seizures or neurological impairments
- Organ damage affecting the heart, lungs, or kidneys
Misuse of Delivery Tools
When labor progresses slowly or positioning complications arise, physicians sometimes employ instruments and devices to assist delivery.
Forceps can cause skull fractures, facial nerve damage, or brain hemorrhages when used with excessive force. Similarly, vacuum extractors create substantial pressure on an infant’s scalp and skull.
Thus, physicians must receive proper training and exercise appropriate judgment when employing these potentially dangerous tools.
Medication or Anesthesia Errors
Proper medication administration during pregnancy, labor, and delivery is vital for both maternal and fetal safety. Common medication errors in Rockville birthing facilities include:
- Incorrect dosing of Pitocin (synthetic oxytocin), causing uterine hyperstimulation that restricts fetal oxygen
- Improper epidural administration leading to maternal hypotension affecting fetal blood flow
- Anesthesia errors during cesarean sections affecting newborn respiration
- Failure to adjust medication dosages based on maternal or fetal conditions
These mistakes typically result from communication failures, inadequate drug verification protocols, or insufficient monitoring after administration.
Other Negligence (Lesser-Known Scenarios)
Beyond the common causes, several less-discussed scenarios contribute to birth injuries in Rockville medical facilities:
- Untreated Jaundice: When physicians fail to diagnose and treat severe jaundice (hyperbilirubinemia), bilirubin can reach toxic levels, causing kernicterus, a form of brain damage with lifelong consequences including hearing loss, vision problems, and movement disorders.
- Undiagnosed Maternal Infections: Infections like Group B streptococcus, when untreated during pregnancy, can transmit to newborns during delivery, causing meningitis or sepsis with the potential for permanent neurological damage.
- Prenatal Care Failures: Inadequate prenatal screening may miss conditions like gestational diabetes or preeclampsia that create significant risks during delivery.
- Maryland Laws and Deadlines for Birth Injury Cases
Maryland establishes strict timeframes for filing medical malpractice claims, including those involving birth injuries:
Statute of Limitations
- General Rule: Under Maryland Courts and Judicial Proceedings § 5-109, medical malpractice claims must be filed within the earlier of:
- Five years from when the injury occurred, or
- Three years from when the injury was reasonably discovered
- Special Rules for Minors: For children under age 11, Maryland extends the deadline until the child’s 11th birthday. This extension recognizes that some birth injuries, particularly neurological ones, may not become apparent until developmental delays emerge.
Missing these deadlines permanently eliminates your right to compensation, regardless of how serious the medical negligence was.
Wrongful Death Actions
When birth injuries tragically result in death, Maryland law allows surviving family members to pursue wrongful death claims:
- Filing Deadlines: Generally, wrongful death actions must be filed within three years of the date of death under Maryland Courts and Judicial Proceedings § 3-904.
- Viability Considerations: Maryland law recognizes wrongful death claims for infants who were born alive and subsequently died from birth injuries. In some circumstances, claims may be possible for viable fetuses who died during delivery due to medical negligence.
- Survival Actions: A separate claim called a “survival action” may be filed by the child’s estate to recover damages the child experienced between injury and death, including pain and suffering.
Medical Malpractice Requirements
Maryland imposes specific procedural requirements for birth injury claims:
- Health Care Alternative Dispute Resolution Office (HCADRO): All medical malpractice claims must initially be filed with the HCADRO. While parties typically waive arbitration and proceed to court, this filing step remains mandatory.
- Certificate of Qualified Expert: Within 90 days of filing, plaintiffs must submit a certificate from a medical expert attesting that:
- The healthcare provider violated the standard of care
- This violation proximately caused the injury
- The expert has clinical experience, provided consultation, or taught medicine in the defendant’s specialty
Proving Negligence
To succeed in a birth injury claim, Rockville families must establish four key elements:
- Duty of Care: The healthcare provider owed a duty to provide care meeting accepted medical standards.
- Breach of Duty: The provider failed to meet this standard of care through action or inaction.
- Causation: This failure directly caused the birth injury.
- Damages: The injury resulted in significant harm requiring compensation.
Expert medical testimony forms the foundation of these claims, explaining both the applicable standard of care and how the provider’s actions fell short, directly resulting in injury.