Birth Injury Medical Malpractice Claims in Maryland

The following are frequently asked questions regarding birth injury medical malpractice claims. To learn more about medical malpractice or to discuss a claim schedule a free consultation with a Maryland birth injury lawyer today.

What Are Some Birth Injuries a Newborn Could Suffer?

Well there are several different types of birth injuries such as cerebral palsy, Erb’s palsy, brain injuries, potential cognitive or intellectual disabilities, infections, retardations and even death. All of these injuries are tragic and can cause an incredible amount of pain, damage, strain, and stress to an unsuspecting family.

This can potentially occur when a doctor or nurse or a number of other medical providers involved in the delivery of a child,  failed to posses and execute the medical skill that is required in delivering the baby and handling any complications that may arise in a timely and professional manner.

This could occur both while delivering a baby vaginally or via C- section. So there are a number of different instances in which these tragic injuries can occur.

How Do Parents Know if Their Child May Have Suffered a Birth Injury?

Well, some of the above mentioned injuries exhibit themselves right away and can be fairly obvious. However, based on the history of the parent or the history of the mother in particular, some of these defects can be congenital, meaning they would have happened at birth or before the birth and it has nothing to do with how the doctor performed.

Statute of Limitations

The statute of limitations for medical malpractice is either the five year statute (from date of injury) or the three year statute limitation (from date it should have been discovered), whichever is shorter. The birth injury, we consider it medical malpractice because the doctor’s performing medical treatment for you and the child. There are several tolls and provisions that are in effect for people under the age of 18.

So there is ample time to discover a medical malpractice injury on a baby from a birth case.  the best thing you can do is to monitor the child’s care and take care of any complications or concerns you have as soon as possible so that you can discover any potential injuries.

What Options Are Available to The Victim and Parents at That Point?

Well, if when they have discovered that there was a birth injury, what would happen is that the parents would bring a claim, but it will be brought on behalf of the injured child. So it would be a parent on behalf of an infant child. And that how the   lawsuit would be titled. But it would proceed as a regular medical malpractice case.

What Kind of Legal Claims Are Available?

Well, it would be — it depends on what happens to the child. The legal claims would be medical malpractice. And then if the child dies, it would be a wrongful death claim and survival action.

And those claims are incredibly complex especially with baby birth injury cases because there is the aspect of whether the injury was congenital or not. And the history of the parents and the families is explored to see whether it is congenital or not.

These cases are highly contested and highly complex in the state of Maryland because the doctors don’t want to admit that they have any wrongdoing so they want to fight these cases tooth and nail to protect their reputation and any future business that they may receive.