Your child’s birth should be a celebration, not the beginning of an unimaginable struggle. When Towson medical professionals fail to uphold proper care standards during delivery, the resulting injuries can forever change your child’s life and your family’s future.
At Schochor, Staton, Goldberg and Cardea, P.A., our attorneys combine medical knowledge with legal tenacity to help Towson families hold negligent healthcare providers accountable while obtaining the substantial compensation necessary for specialized care, therapy, and lifelong support.
Defining Birth Injuries Under Maryland Law
Birth injuries occur when avoidable medical errors during pregnancy, labor, or delivery cause harm to newborns. Unlike birth defects, which develop due to genetic factors, birth injuries result from preventable mistakes made by healthcare providers.
Common birth injuries in Towson include:
- Cerebral Palsy: Often resulting from oxygen deprivation during birth, cerebral palsy affects muscle control, coordination, and movement. This condition frequently requires lifelong therapy, adaptive equipment, and specialized educational support.
- Brachial Plexus Injuries: Excessive force or improper delivery techniques can damage the nerve network controlling arm and shoulder movement. These injuries manifest as Erb’s palsy (affecting the upper arm) or Klumpke’s palsy (affecting the hand and wrist).
- Hypoxic Brain Damage: When a baby’s brain doesn’t receive adequate oxygen during birth, even briefly, the resulting damage can cause seizure disorders, cognitive impairments, or developmental delays.
Additional birth injuries include spinal cord injuries during difficult deliveries, and untreated jaundice leading to kernicterus (a form of brain damage). Each injury carries unique treatment requirements and potential long-term consequences for affected children.
Common Causes of Birth Injuries in Towson Hospitals
Birth injuries typically result from specific failures in medical care during labor and delivery:
Delayed C-Section
When complications threaten fetal wellbeing, timely cesarean delivery often prevents permanent injury. Harmful delays occur when hospital staff fails to recognize urgent situations, communication breakdowns occur between nurses and physicians, or facilities lack adequate surgical resources.
Failure to Monitor Fetal Distress
Throughout labor, medical staff must vigilantly track 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.
Improper Use of Delivery Tools
When labor progresses slowly, or positioning complications arise, physicians sometimes employ forceps or vacuum extractors. While these instruments can be necessary in certain situations, improper application causes numerous preventable injuries.
Forceps applied with excessive force can fracture an infant’s skull, damage facial nerves, or cause intracranial bleeding. Vacuum extractors used incorrectly may lead to scalp injuries, subgaleal hematomas (blood collection beneath the scalp), or brain hemorrhages.
Misdiagnosis or Failure to Diagnose Critical Conditions
Pregnancy complications like preeclampsia, gestational diabetes, or maternal infections require prompt identification and treatment to prevent harm to both mother and baby. When physicians miss these conditions or fail to appreciate their severity, serious birth injuries may result.
Medication Errors During Labor
Improper dosing of labor-inducing drugs like Pitocin can cause excessive contractions that restrict fetal oxygen supply. Anesthesia errors may compromise maternal blood pressure, affecting placental blood flow and fetal oxygenation. When medication administration deviates from established protocols, both mothers and babies face unnecessary risks.
When Birth Injuries Lead to Wrongful Death Claims
In the most heartbreaking cases, medical negligence during childbirth results in a newborn’s death. These situations transition from personal injury to wrongful death claims, which function under different legal frameworks in Maryland.
Maryland law permits wrongful death claims for viable infants who die due to negligence. The viability standard generally applies to fetuses capable of surviving outside the womb, typically around 24 weeks gestation.
Wrongful death lawsuits differ from birth injury claims in several key aspects. While birth injury litigation seeks compensation for ongoing care needs, wrongful death actions address the loss suffered by surviving family members.
Types of Damages Available in Maryland Birth Injury Lawsuits
Economic Damages
Economic damages address quantifiable financial losses resulting from birth injuries:
- Medical Expenses: These are expenses already incurred and those anticipated throughout the child’s lifetime, including hospital stays, surgical procedures, rehabilitation therapies, specialized equipment, and medications.
- Costs of Lifelong Care: Children with permanent disabilities often need ongoing support, including specialized educational services, adaptive equipment, home modifications, and professional caregiving.
- Funeral and Burial Expenses: In wrongful death cases, economic damages include costs associated with funeral services and burial arrangements.
Maryland places no statutory limits on economic damages, allowing families to recover the full amount of these financial losses, which often reach into millions of dollars for severe birth injuries.
Non-Economic Damages
Non-economic damages compensate for intangible suffering caused by birth injuries:
- Pain and Suffering: Physical pain experienced by the injured child through medical procedures, therapies, and daily limitations deserves recognition and compensation.
- Disability and Loss of Enjoyment: Birth injuries often prevent children from experiencing normal childhood activities, educational opportunities, and future independence. These permanent limitations warrant compensation beyond measurable economic losses.
- Emotional Distress: Parents of children with birth injuries frequently experience significant psychological trauma, including anxiety, depression, and grief over lost expectations.
Maryland Courts and Judicial Proceedings § 3-2A-09 caps non-economic damages in medical malpractice cases. For 2025, this cap stands at approximately $905,000 for most cases, with annual adjustments for inflation.
Wrongful Death Damages
When birth injuries prove fatal, surviving family members may seek specific damages:
Emotional Pain and Loss of Companionship: Maryland law recognizes the profound grief experienced by parents who lose children to medical negligence. Compensation addresses this emotional suffering and the loss of the parent-child relationship.
In wrongful death cases with multiple beneficiaries, Maryland applies somewhat higher caps on non-economic damages compared to standard medical malpractice cases.
