If a birth injury has impacted your family, it’s natural to wonder if it makes sense to pursue legal action against the responsible medical providers. It’s important to be aware that birth injury lawsuits require extensive medical evidence and legal knowledge to prove that preventable errors during pregnancy, labor, or delivery caused a child's injuries. Below, our experienced Missouri birth injury lawyers discuss the unique challenges associated with this type of case and how our team can help.
Types of Birth Injuries That May Indicate Malpractice
Birth injuries are not always the result of medical negligence. However, the types of injuries listed below often indicate substandard treatment or medical errors that could have been prevented.
Oxygen Deprivation
Proper fetal monitoring is necessary to prevent oxygen deprivation. When medical professionals fail to monitor fetal distress signs and/or do not respond appropriately, the baby’s brain may not receive adequate oxygen during delivery. This can lead to cerebral palsy, seizure disorders, and developmental delays.
Improper Equipment Usage
Tools commonly used during delivery, such as vacuum extractors and forceps, require proper technique and timing in order to prevent birth injuries. Failure to do so can cause a number of different types of injuries, including:
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Skull fractures
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Brain bleeding
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Facial nerve damage
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Erb's palsy from shoulder dystocia mismanagement
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Spinal cord injuries from excessive pulling or twisting
Medication-Related Complications
Pitocin and other labor-inducing medications must be administered very carefully. Excessive doses can cause uterine rupture or fetal distress. Epidural complications can lead to maternal or fetal complications requiring immediate intervention.
Delayed Emergency Interventions
Medical teams must recognize emergency situations and act quickly. Delayed cesarean sections, failure to treat maternal infections, or inadequate response to cord prolapse can cause permanent injuries.
Proving Causation in Missouri Birth Injury Cases
Birth injury lawsuits provide families with resources to secure their child's future care while holding medical professionals accountable for preventable errors. However, this type of lawsuit requires proof that medical negligence directly caused the injury. Establishing causation involves input from multiple medical professionals and an extensive documentation review.
Establishing the Standard of Care
Medical professionals must follow accepted treatment protocols for each situation, known as the standard of care. Expert witnesses explain what a competent physician would have done under similar circumstances, which may vary based on the hospital's resources and the medical team's training level.
Demonstrating Breach of Standard
Your legal team must show that the medical professionals deviated from accepted practices. This might involve reviewing fetal monitoring strips, medication records, or surgical notes. Expert witnesses compare actual care provided to established medical guidelines.
Connecting the Breach to the Injury
The most challenging aspect of birth injury lawsuits involves proving that the medical error caused the specific injury, especially because some birth injuries have multiple potential causes. Medical professionals must rule out other factors, such as genetics, the health of the mother, or unavoidable complications.
Timing and Documentation
Detailed medical records help establish when delivery complications began and how medical professionals responded. Gaps in monitoring or delayed interventions can strengthen causation arguments. Electronic fetal monitoring strips often provide crucial timeline evidence.
Missouri's Extended Statute of Limitations for Minors
Missouri's legal framework protects families' rights to seek justice even when the full impact of injuries isn't immediately apparent. There are special protections for children injured during birth, because some birth injuries may not be immediately apparent or fully understood until years later. For example, some learning disabilities or developmental delays don’t become apparent until after a child reaches school age.
Standard Medical Malpractice Timeline
Most Missouri medical malpractice claims must be filed within two years of discovering the injury. However, birth injury cases involving minors receive additional protection under state law.
Extended Protection for Children
Children who experienced a birth injury have until they turn 20 years of age to file a birth injury lawsuit in Missouri. This extended timeline allows families to understand the full extent of their child's condition as they develop.
Discovery Rule Applications
The discovery rule may extend filing deadlines if the injury wasn't reasonably discoverable earlier. For example, cognitive impairments might not be diagnosed until the child reaches developmental milestones. In a situation like this, the statute of limitations begins when parents reasonably should have known about the injury and its potential connection to medical care.
Long-Term Compensation Considerations
Birth injuries often have long-term effects that require lifelong care and support; this needs to be factored into birth injury lawsuits. Our Missouri medical birth injury lawyers work closely with medical professionals and financial planners to project comprehensive compensation needs.
Medical Care Costs
Children with birth injuries may require extensive and expensive ongoing medical treatment, such as physical therapy, occupational therapy, and/or speech therapy. Specialized equipment, home modifications, and assistive technology add significant expenses over time.
Educational Support
Many birth-injured children need special education services, tutoring, or specialized schools, extending through high school and beyond, such as into vocational training or higher education programs.
Lost Future Earnings
Severe birth injuries can limit a child's future earning capacity. Economic professionals calculate potential lifetime earnings losses based on the injury's impact on cognitive and physical abilities.
Family Impact
Compensation may include the cost of professional caregiving services or lost parental income, because parents who have a child impacted by birth injury often need to reduce their work hours or potentially leave their career entirely in order to care for their child.