Birth Injury Lawyer

A birth injury lawyer investigates what went wrong during the delivery of your baby.  Doctors rarely confess their mistakes.  The ability to monitor the well-being of a fetus in utero has advanced with modern medicine. Despite these advancements, infants are still being born with brain damage due to medical errors. The most serious birth injuries typically occur when doctors fail to deal with traumatic events during the birth of the infant. Usually the infant sustains the most serious injuries, but the mother may also sustain an injury due to medical errors occurring during the delivery.

George Patterson is a Board Certified Civil Trial Attorney and a Top 100 Maryland Lawyer that offers free consultations for birth injury cases.

A birth injury lawyer will lead an investigation of the following facts:

• The frequency of prenatal visits and the findings that were made during those visits.
• Was the possibility of a cesarean section discussed with the mother during pre-natal visits?
• Were any medications prescribed or discussed during the pre-natal visits.
• The mother’s blood pressure.
• Prior pregnancies and any issues with those pregnancies.
• Comparisons of the birth weight of children from prior pregnancies.
• A timeline from the moment that labor began and important events such as the membranes rupturing.
• The administration of any medications during labor. When and how often a fetal monitor was applied.
• How often and during what time periods was the obstetrician present during labor. How was the obstetrician contacted during labor as it progressed?
• What care was provided to the child immediately following delivery. Who provided the care.
• What was the child’s condition when taken to a nursery?
• What statements were made and by whom during and after the delivery.
• Review of any photographs taken of the baby while at the hospital.
• Was a cesarean section discussed or performed? Was consent obtained to perform the cesarean section. What reason(s) were given by the doctor for the cesarean section?
• After an initial investigation of the facts is conducted then a further investigation of applicable records should be conducted.
• Were the records reviewed of the examination to determine whether the mother should be admitted to the hospital or sent home when she arrived at or near labor?
• Review of the complete medical records including the gynecologic records for office visits and any hospital visits, obstetric records, records from previous pregnancies, prenatal physician records, hospital records from the labor and delivery, fetal monitoring strips, newborn records and autopsy reports if applicable.
• Any manuals and procedures from the obstetrics unit should be sought and reviewed.

This lengthy procedure is often necessary to obtain complete and accurate answers as to whether medical errors were responsible for birth injuries.

In cases where lawsuits are filed the obstetrician will be deposed. Brain injuries typically occur after a baby endures stress during the labor and delivery. The fetal monitoring strips compose a record documenting any periods of distress the fetus was under during the labor and delivery. If the babies brain is deprived of oxygen for too long brain damage will occur. The obstetrician can and should be asked to interpret the fetal monitoring strips. He should be asked to point out and interpret any abnormalities in the fetal monitoring strips. This questioning is typically done after the fetal monitoring strips have already been reviewed and analyzed by an independent expert.

If the baby is in distress the fetal monitoring strips should document the distress. Periods of distress may be expected but the obstetrician has an obligation to evaluate the signs of distress and to take appropriate action for the safety of the mother and the baby. This website discusses birth injuries in greater detail. Proving harm to the baby from medical errors often starts with showing that the baby was in distress and the obstetrician did not take appropriate actions to protect the baby.