If your child suffered a serious injury during pregnancy, labor, delivery, or shortly after birth, it may not be immediately clear whether something went wrong medically or whether the outcome was unavoidable. Not every complication is the result of negligence, but when providers fail to recognize warning signs, respond appropriately, or provide the level of care the situation requires, families may have grounds to investigate further.
Power Rogers, LLP represents families in Cicero and throughout Cook County in serious birth injury and medical malpractice cases. We can investigate what happened, review the medical records with qualified experts, identify whether preventable errors contributed to the injury, and pursue compensation for the medical care, therapy, support, and other losses your child may need.
Click here to schedule a confidential consultation or call our office at (312) 236-9381.
Key Takeaways
- Families in Cicero may have grounds for a birth injury medical malpractice claim when negligent care during pregnancy, labor, delivery, or newborn treatment causes or worsens a child’s injury, even if the condition is not diagnosed until later.
- Doctors, nurses, specialists, hospitals, and healthcare systems may be held responsible for preventable birth injuries, with compensation potentially covering lifelong medical treatment, therapy, specialized equipment, educational support, lost earning capacity, and pain and suffering.
- Illinois generally allows up to eight years from the medical error to file a birth injury malpractice lawsuit, although exceptions may apply, making early legal consultation and independent medical record review important.
How Do You Know if a Birth Injury Was Caused by Medical Negligence?
A birth injury does not automatically mean that a doctor, nurse, or hospital did something wrong. Pregnancy and childbirth can involve serious complications even when the medical team provides appropriate care. A malpractice claim generally depends on whether a provider failed to respond appropriately to a problem and whether that failure caused or worsened your child’s injury.
You may have questions if labor or delivery became unexpectedly complicated, your baby needed significant medical support after birth, or your child was later diagnosed with a serious condition that may be connected to what happened during pregnancy, labor, or delivery. Those circumstances do not prove malpractice, but they can be reasons to take a closer look at the care you and your baby received.
A birth injury attorney can review the medical records with appropriate experts, determine whether providers responded as they should have, and help you understand whether you may have a claim.
How Can a Cicero Birth Injury Lawyer Help Your Family?
Getting a copy of the medical chart is only a starting point. A birth injury case requires understanding the medicine well enough to spot decisions or delays that may have caused harm, and it requires building a realistic picture of your child’s future care needs.
A Cicero birth injury lawyer can:
- Reconstruct what happened before, during, and after delivery. That may involve reviewing prenatal records, labor and delivery notes, fetal monitoring, medication records, and the timing of important decisions to understand when problems first appeared and how the medical team responded.
- Work with medical experts to determine whether the care was appropriate. Obstetricians, neonatologists, neurologists, or other specialists may be needed to evaluate whether a provider should have acted differently and whether that failure contributed to your child’s injury.
- Identify who may be responsible. Depending on what went wrong, the case may involve a physician, nurse, hospital, or multiple providers whose decisions affected the outcome.
- Show how the medical error caused the injury. It is not enough to identify a mistake. The case also has to connect that failure in care to the harm your child suffered.
- Document what your child may need in the years ahead. Medical treatment, therapy, equipment, educational support, in-home care, and other long-term needs may all have to be evaluated and supported with evidence.
- Take on the hospital, insurers, and defense lawyers. Birth injury cases are often heavily defended, so your attorney handles the litigation, expert work, negotiations, and, when necessary, trial preparation on your family’s behalf.
Parents are rarely in a position to know from what they were told in the delivery room whether a provider should have acted sooner or differently. A thorough investigation can help answer that question while also showing what your child will need if the evidence supports a claim.
Why Choose Power Rogers, LLP for Your Birth Injury Case?
Power Rogers, LLP represents families in Cicero, throughout Cook County, and across Illinois in serious birth injury and medical malpractice cases. Since our firm was founded, our personal injury lawyers have recovered more than $6 billion for injured clients, including major recoveries in birth injury cases.
Our birth injury results include a $35 million settlement for a child who suffered brain damage resulting in spastic quadriplegia, cerebral palsy, and seizures after delayed delivery; a $25 million settlement for a child who suffered permanent neurological injuries after providers failed to respond appropriately to signs of distress during labor; and a $23 million settlement for a child who suffered severe oxygen deprivation and neurological injuries after delivery was delayed despite worsening warning signs.
Power Rogers, LLP combines the resources needed to handle complex medical malpractice litigation with a hands-on approach to client service. We remain a relatively small firm by design so our attorneys can stay closely involved and keep families informed throughout the case. We also handle birth injury claims on a contingency-fee basis, meaning you do not pay attorney’s fees unless we recover compensation for you.
Click here to schedule a confidential consultation or call our office at (312) 236-9381.
Who Can Be Held Responsible for a Preventable Birth Injury?
Responsibility depends on what went wrong and who was in a position to prevent it. In a birth injury case, that may mean looking at the decisions made during pregnancy, labor, delivery, and the baby’s care immediately afterward.
Potentially responsible parties may include:
- Obstetricians or other physicians who failed to recognize a complication, order a timely intervention, or respond appropriately when the mother or baby showed signs of distress.
- Nurses or other members of the delivery team who failed to monitor the mother or baby properly, communicate important changes, or carry out necessary care.
- Specialists involved in the pregnancy or delivery when their own decisions or treatment contributed to the injury.
- Hospitals or health systems when problems with staffing, policies, communication, supervision, or other aspects of hospital care played a role.
In some cases, the issue is one provider’s decision. In others, the harm may result from several breakdowns across the medical team. Identifying where the care failed helps determine which individuals or institutions should be included in the claim.
What Compensation May Be Available After a Birth Injury?
When your child has suffered a serious birth injury, the financial impact can extend far beyond the initial hospital stay. Your family may be facing years of medical treatment, therapy, specialized equipment, educational support, or hands-on care, along with changes to your child’s independence and future opportunities. A birth injury claim can seek compensation for both those financial costs and the broader ways the injury affects your child’s life.
Depending on the case, damages may include:
- Past and future medical treatment
- Surgeries and hospitalizations
- Physical, occupational, and speech therapy
- Medications, mobility aids, and medical equipment
- Home or vehicle modifications
- In-home nursing or attendant care
- Special education or other support services
- Future lost earning capacity
- Pain and suffering
- Disability and loss of normal life
- Wrongful death damages where applicable
Many of these damages have to be projected with input from medical providers, life-care planners, vocational experts, and financial professionals who can estimate what your child’s care will realistically cost over a lifetime.
How Long Do You Have to File a Birth Injury Lawsuit in Illinois?
For a medical malpractice claim involving an injury at birth, Illinois law generally allows up to eight years from the medical error to file a lawsuit. However, exceptions and other rules can affect the deadline in a particular case, so you should not assume that you automatically have the full eight years.
If you believe your child’s injury may have been caused by medical negligence, speak with a birth injury attorney as soon as possible. Our attorneys can determine the deadline that applies to your family’s claim and begin reviewing the medical evidence while important records and information are still easier to obtain.
Click here to schedule a confidential consultation or call our office at (312) 236-9381.
FAQs About Cicero Birth Injury Claims
A birth injury is harm that occurs during pregnancy, labor, delivery, or shortly after birth and may be caused by medical negligence. A birth defect is generally a congenital or developmental condition that is not caused by the way the pregnancy or delivery was managed. That distinction matters because a preventable birth injury may support a medical malpractice claim, while a birth defect generally does not.
Yes, potentially. Some developmental, neurological, or motor conditions do not become clear until a child grows and starts missing milestones. What matters is whether medical evidence can connect the condition back to negligent care during pregnancy or birth, even if the diagnosis came later.
A hospital’s own explanation is not the final word on whether malpractice occurred. An independent review of the fetal monitoring records, the timing of interventions, and the rest of the chart can help determine whether the complication truly was unavoidable or whether timelier care could have prevented the harm.
Birth injury cases often take a year or more to resolve, and cases that involve significant disputes or proceed through litigation can take several years. The timeline depends on factors such as the amount of medical evidence that must be reviewed, the number of experts involved, whether the hospital or providers dispute responsibility, and whether the case can be settled without a trial.
Talk to a Cicero Birth Injury Attorney at Power Rogers, LLP
You do not need to know exactly what went wrong medically before reaching out. If you have questions about whether your child’s injury was connected to something that happened during pregnancy, labor, or delivery, that is precisely the kind of question Power Rogers, LLP is equipped to help answer.
Our Cicero birth injury lawyers have handled some of the state’s most significant birth-injury cases, and we bring that same level of preparation to every family we represent. We can obtain and review the medical records, bring in appropriate medical experts, and determine whether the evidence supports a malpractice claim. Consultations are free, and we handle these cases on a contingency-fee basis, so you owe nothing unless we recover compensation. Contact us today to talk with our team about your family’s situation.
