The birth of a child is supposed to mark the beginning of a new chapter for a family. When a baby suffers a serious injury before, during, or shortly after delivery, that future can suddenly include surgeries, therapy, specialist appointments, developmental concerns, and questions about what kind of support the child may need for years to come.
Not every birth injury is the result of medical malpractice. Complications can occur even when doctors and nurses provide appropriate care. But when a medical provider fails to meet the accepted standard of care and that failure causes or worsens a child’s injury, the family may have grounds to pursue compensation.
Power Rogers, LLP represents families in Naperville and throughout Illinois in complex birth injury and medical malpractice cases. We can investigate what happened, determine whether negligence contributed to your child’s injury, identify the providers responsible, and pursue compensation that accounts for your family’s current losses and your child’s long-term needs.
Click here to schedule a confidential consultation or call our office at (312) 236-9381.
Key Takeaways
- Families in Naperville 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, including cerebral palsy, HIE, Erb’s palsy, and other neurological conditions.
- Doctors, nurses, specialists, hospitals, and other healthcare providers may be held liable for preventable birth injuries, with compensation potentially covering lifelong medical treatment, therapy, assistive equipment, educational support, lost earning capacity, and pain and suffering.
- Illinois generally allows eight years from the medical error to file a birth injury malpractice lawsuit involving a child, although additional deadlines may apply, making early legal consultation and preservation of medical records important.
When Should You Contact a Birth Injury Lawyer?
If you believe your child’s injury may have been preventable, or you have unanswered questions about what happened during pregnancy, labor, delivery, or newborn care, it is reasonable to speak with a birth injury lawyer.
You do not need to know exactly what a doctor or nurse may have done wrong before making that call. Medical care and the decisions surrounding it are highly complex, and parents rarely have access to the full picture of what occurred. Our attorneys can obtain and review the relevant medical records and work with qualified medical professionals to determine whether the care provided met accepted standards and whether a failure in that care caused the injury.
How Our Naperville Birth Injury Lawyers Can Help
Power Rogers, LLP has represented people harmed by negligence since 1993 and has recovered more than $6 billion in verdicts and settlements for clients across Illinois.
Birth injury and medical malpractice litigation have long been a significant part of our practice. Our past results include a $35 million settlement for a child who suffered brain damage resulting in spastic quadriplegia, cerebral palsy, and seizures after delivery was delayed despite signs of fetal distress, as well as a $25 million settlement for a child who suffered permanent neurological injuries after providers failed to respond appropriately as the baby’s condition worsened during labor.
We also understand that families dealing with a serious birth injury have more immediate concerns than building a lawsuit. You may be arranging therapy, attending specialist appointments, learning about your child’s diagnosis, and trying to understand what the future may look like. Our role is to take responsibility for the legal investigation while you focus on your child.
Our personal injury attorneys can:
- Determine what went wrong and who was responsible. We obtain the relevant records, reconstruct the sequence of care, and work with qualified medical experts to determine whether the standard of care was violated and who may be liable.
- Build a claim that reflects the full impact of the injury. We document your child’s treatment, therapy, long-term care needs, developmental limitations, future earning ability, and other losses, using additional specialists where needed.
- Pursue the case from settlement negotiations through trial if necessary. We present the claim, negotiate with the defendants and insurers, manage litigation and discovery, and take the case to trial if a fair resolution cannot be reached.
Our goal is to give your family clearer answers about whether preventable medical negligence contributed to the injury and pursue compensation that reflects the care and support your child may need over the long term.
Common Types of Birth Injury Cases We Handle
Birth injuries come in many forms. Power Rogers, LLP represents families in cases involving:
- Hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE) and other brain injuries caused by oxygen deprivation
- Cerebral palsy and seizure disorders associated with birth-related brain damage
- Brachial plexus injuries, including Erb’s palsy
- Skull fractures and other traumatic delivery injuries
- Serious neurological injuries
- Injuries caused by failures in newborn resuscitation or other immediate post-delivery care
- Fatal birth injuries and wrongful death
A diagnosis is just the beginning. The question is whether the medical care provided before, during, or after delivery contributed to the harm.
How Medical Negligence Can Lead to Birth Injuries
Labor and delivery can change quickly, and providers are expected to recognize when something is going wrong and respond appropriately. When they do not, a delay or other failure can sometimes turn a manageable complication into a serious injury.
Examples may include:
- Failing to recognize or respond to signs of fetal distress
- Delaying a medically necessary C-section
- Continuing or increasing labor-inducing medication despite concerning fetal heart tracings
- Failing to properly monitor the mother or baby
- Failing to recognize or appropriately manage shoulder dystocia
- Using excessive force or improperly using forceps or vacuum extraction
- Failing to diagnose or treat maternal conditions that threaten the baby
- Failing to respond appropriately to umbilical cord or placental complications
- Making errors during newborn resuscitation, oxygenation, or other care immediately after birth
Importantly, identifying a medical mistake is only part of a birth injury case. You also have to show that the mistake actually contributed to your child’s injury. That is often where medical records, fetal monitoring data, and expert review become especially important. They can help establish not only what should have happened differently, but whether acting appropriately would likely have changed the outcome.
Click here to schedule a confidential consultation or call our office at (312) 236-9381.
Who Can Be Held Liable for a Birth Injury in Naperville?
A birth injury may result from one provider’s mistake or from several failures that happen over the course of labor, delivery, and newborn care. For example, a nurse may fail to respond to concerning fetal monitoring, a physician may delay an intervention, or important information may not be communicated between members of the medical team.
Depending on where the breakdown occurred, potentially responsible parties may include:
- OB/GYNs
- Labor and delivery nurses
- Midwives
- Maternal-fetal medicine specialists
- Anesthesiologists
- Neonatologists
- Pediatric providers
- Hospitals or health systems
- Other professionals involved in prenatal, delivery, or newborn care
Hospitals may also be responsible for the negligence of certain employees or for their own failures, such as inadequate policies, staffing, supervision, or communication systems, depending on the circumstances.
You do not need to know which provider was responsible before speaking with an attorney. Reviewing the medical records and reconstructing the sequence of care can help identify where the failure occurred and who may be legally accountable.
What Compensation Can You Recover Through a Birth Injury Claim?
The financial impact of a severe birth injury may extend far beyond the first hospitalization. Some children need continuing medical treatment, therapy, assistive equipment, personal care, or developmental services for years or for the rest of their lives.
A birth injury claim may seek compensation for losses such as:
- Past and future medical care
- Surgeries and specialist treatment
- Physical, occupational, speech, and other therapies
- Medications and medical equipment
- Wheelchairs and other assistive technology
- Home or vehicle modifications
- In-home nursing or attendant care
- Special educational or developmental services
- Future loss of earning capacity
- Pain and suffering
- Disability
- Disfigurement
- Loss of a normal life
- Wrongful death damages when applicable
A strong birth injury claim should reflect what your child is reasonably expected to need as they grow and how the injury may affect their life into adulthood.
What Should You Do If Your Child Suffered a Birth Injury?
Questions about a possible birth injury do not always arise immediately after delivery. You may become concerned after receiving a diagnosis, watching your child’s development, learning more about what happened during labor, or hearing information that does not match the explanation you initially received.
If you are considering whether malpractice may have occurred:
- Continue your child’s medical care. Keep attending recommended appointments, therapy, specialist evaluations, and other treatment.
- Keep important records together. Save medical reports, diagnoses, therapy recommendations, bills, insurance records, and information about ongoing care.
- Track needs beyond medical treatment. Keep records of equipment, transportation, accessibility changes, caregiving, educational services, and other expenses or assistance connected to the injury.
- Write down what you remember. Your recollection of labor, delivery, conversations with providers, changes in your baby’s condition, and when concerns first arose may be useful later.
- Do not assume the initial explanation is the final word. Determining whether an injury could have been prevented may require review by medical professionals outside the providers involved in the delivery.
- Speak with a Naperville birth injury attorney. An attorney can obtain the complete medical record, arrange an independent review, and determine whether the evidence supports a malpractice claim.
You do not need to wait until every aspect of your child’s long-term prognosis is known before seeking legal advice. Our attorneys can begin investigating what happened while your family continues to focus on treatment and your child’s developing needs.
Click here to schedule a confidential consultation or call our office at (312) 236-9381.
FAQs About Naperville Birth Injury Claims
Illinois generally allows a medical malpractice claim involving a child to be filed within eight years of the medical error that caused the injury. Because birth injury cases can involve additional deadlines or claims belonging to the parents, it is important to have the specific filing period reviewed as early as possible.
Power Rogers, LLP offers free case consultations. If we accept your birth injury case on a contingency-fee basis, attorney fees are paid from the recovery rather than requiring you to pay an hourly legal fee while the case is pending.
There is no single timeline. Birth injury cases often require extensive medical-record review, consultation with experts, discovery from multiple providers, and detailed evaluation of the child’s future needs. The timeline can also depend on whether the defendants contest negligence or causation and whether the case can be resolved through settlement or must proceed toward trial.
Speak With a Naperville Birth Injury Attorney Today
You may know that your child was seriously injured without knowing exactly why it happened. You may also have received explanations from medical providers while still wondering whether something could have been done differently.
You do not need to answer those questions before contacting Power Rogers, LLP. Our Naperville birth injury attorneys can obtain the medical records, consult qualified experts, determine whether the evidence supports a malpractice claim, and explain what options are available to your family.
If medical negligence caused or contributed to your child’s birth injury, we can pursue compensation designed to address both the losses your family is facing today and the care your child may need in the future. Contact Power Rogers, LLP for a free consultation.
