Key Takeaways
- Birth injuries can occur after delivery due to medical errors or delayed diagnosis.
- Common post-birth negligence includes resuscitation mistakes, jaundice mismanagement, breathing assistance errors, untreated infections, and mishandled brain hemorrhages.
- Failure to treat neonatal seizures, undiagnosed HIE without hypothermia therapy, and untreated hypoglycemia can cause permanent brain damage or disability.
- Families may claim economic damages for medical costs, rehabilitation, assistive devices, and lost income.
- Non-economic damages cover pain, suffering, emotional distress, and loss of life enjoyment for both the child and family.
When a baby is injured during a birth accident, attention typically focuses on the delivery itself. But birth injuries can also occur after delivery, during the critical hours and days when newborns are being stabilized, monitored, and treated in the hospital nursery or NICU. Medical errors in this window carry the potential for serious, lasting harm.
If your child suffered an injury following birth due to a medical provider’s negligence, the Indianapolis birth injury attorneys at Wagner Reese can help your family pursue the compensation needed for your child’s care and future.
Types of Post-Birth Medical Errors That Cause Injuries
Negligence in the hours and days following delivery can take many forms. Each carries the potential for severe or permanent harm if not identified and addressed promptly. Common types of post-birth medical errors include:
- Newborn resuscitation errors. When a baby is born with breathing difficulties or a weak heartbeat, the response must be immediate and precise. Delayed oxygen delivery, incorrect use of resuscitation equipment, or failure to administer surfactant to premature infants can cause irreversible neurological damage.
- Jaundice mismanagement. Newborn jaundice is common and treatable, but improperly managed bilirubin levels can lead to kernicterus, a form of brain damage. Failures in diagnosis, delayed phototherapy, or incorrect lamp settings contribute to these outcomes.
- Breathing assistance errors. Premature infants and newborns with respiratory conditions often require ventilator support. Overventilation or underventilation can cause lung damage, pneumothorax, or cerebral hemorrhage.
- Untreated or undertreated infections. Newborns are highly vulnerable to infections, and sepsis or meningitis can develop rapidly when providers fail to diagnose or treat these conditions promptly.
- Failure to treat neonatal seizures. Seizures in newborns may indicate hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy or other neurological conditions. Failure to detect and treat seizures can result in cerebral palsy or lasting developmental delays.
- Delayed hypothermia therapy. Whole-body cooling is the standard of care for newborns with hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy. When providers fail to diagnose the condition or delay this treatment, the resulting brain damage can be severe and permanent.
These are preventable errors. When a medical provider’s failure to meet the applicable standard of care causes or worsens a birth injury, that failure may form the basis of a legal claim.
Compensation Available in Post-Birth Injury Cases
When a child suffers a birth injury because of a medical provider’s negligence, the family may be entitled to compensation covering the full scope of harm caused. Economic damages in a birth injury case can include current and future medical expenses, costs of ongoing rehabilitation and therapy, assistive devices and home modifications, and the child’s reduced earning capacity over a lifetime. Non-economic damages reflect the child’s pain and suffering and the emotional distress carried by the family.
According to the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, early identification and timely intervention in newborn conditions is associated with meaningfully better long-term outcomes. When medical error causes a delay in that intervention, the consequences can permanently alter the trajectory of a child’s development.
Contact Wagner Reese for a Birth Injury Consultation
If your child suffered a birth injury after delivery due to a medical provider’s failure to meet the appropriate standard of care, Wagner Reese is prepared to help your family pursue accountability and the resources your child will need going forward. Our birth injury attorneys work with medical professionals to document negligence, establish causation, and maximize the compensation available to your family.
Contact us for a free, no-obligation consultation. We take birth injury cases on a contingency basis, meaning there are no upfront costs and no fee unless we recover compensation for your family.
