Learning that a child has cerebral palsy is one of the hardest moments a family can face. For many parents, the diagnosis arrives alongside a flood of questions. Why did this happen? Could it have been prevented? Was something missed during labor and delivery that a doctor or nurse should have caught? Cerebral palsy can result from a wide range of causes, and some are unavoidable, but a meaningful share trace back to mistakes made in the delivery room, including oxygen deprivation, delayed C-sections, and mismanaged complications that a reasonably careful medical team should have identified and addressed.
At Wagner Reese, our Indianapolis birth injury attorneys help families get answers after a cerebral palsy diagnosis. Since 1997, our firm has built a practice around complex medical malpractice claims, and our team brings over 150 years of combined experience to birth injury cases throughout Indiana. If your child was diagnosed with cerebral palsy and you suspect a medical error played a role, we can review the circumstances of the delivery, consult with qualified medical professionals, and help you understand whether you have grounds to pursue compensation.
Time-Sensitive Filing Window for Indiana Families
Indiana generally requires medical malpractice claims to be filed within two years of the alleged error, with a narrow exception for children younger than six at the time of the incident.
We work on contingency, so you owe us nothing unless we recover compensation for your family. Consultations are free and confidential, and our team brings over 150 years of combined experience to birth injury and medical malpractice claims across Indiana.
Symptoms and Types of Cerebral Palsy
Cerebral palsy is a group of disorders that affect a person’s muscle tone, movement, and coordination. It results from damage to the developing brain that occurs before, during, or shortly after birth. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), an estimated 1 in 345 children in the United States has been identified with some form of cerebral palsy, based on data from the CDC’s Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring (ADDM) Network.
Cerebral palsy is generally classified into a few main types, based on the area of the brain affected and the movement symptoms it produces:
Spastic
The most common form, causing stiff, rigid muscles and exaggerated reflexes.
Dyskinetic
Causes uncontrolled, involuntary movements that can affect the hands, arms, feet, legs, or face.
Ataxic
Affects balance and coordination, often making it hard to walk steadily or perform precise movements.
Mixed
Involves symptoms of more than one type, often spastic and dyskinetic features together.
Regardless of type, cerebral palsy can produce a wide range of symptoms in infancy and early childhood, including:
- Muscle weakness or abnormal muscle tone, either too stiff or too loose
- Impaired muscle control and motor coordination
- Rigid, stiff, or uncontrollable movements
- Reduced movement or range of motion in the arms and legs
- Misaligned or abnormal body positioning
- Delayed milestones, such as sitting up, crawling, or walking later than expected
- Difficulty with feeding, swallowing, or speech development
- Seizures, which affect a significant share of children with cerebral palsy
Cerebral palsy is a lifelong condition. Beyond the physical and developmental challenges a child may face, families often carry the emotional weight of the diagnosis along with the considerable and ongoing costs of medical treatment, therapy, assistive equipment, and focused daily care their child will need for years to come. When the underlying cause was a preventable medical mistake, Indiana law gives families a path to hold the responsible providers accountable and recover the resources their child will need.
What Causes Cerebral Palsy During Birth
Cerebral palsy has many possible causes, and not every case is linked to negligence. Genetic factors, infections during pregnancy, and complications unrelated to medical care can all play a role. Medical research indicates, however, that as many as 1 in 5 cerebral palsy cases stem from complications occurring during labor and delivery, and a meaningful portion of those are connected to preventable errors by physicians, nurses, and other health care providers.
Doctors, nurses, midwives, and other members of a delivery team owe their patients a duty to provide care that meets accepted medical standards. When they fail to do so, and a child’s cerebral palsy results from that failure, families may have grounds for a medical malpractice claim. Examples of medical mistakes that can lead to cerebral palsy include:
- Failing to diagnose or properly manage pregnancy complications, such as infections, preeclampsia, or high blood pressure
- Failing to monitor for and address shoulder dystocia during delivery
- Failing to detect signs of fetal distress, including decreased fetal heart rate or oxygen deprivation, that can lead to birth asphyxia and brain damage
- Delaying a medically necessary C-section, or failing to perform one when it was clearly indicated
- Misusing labor-inducing medications, such as Pitocin, or failing to monitor their effects
- Using excessive force, or improper technique, with forceps or a vacuum extractor during delivery
- Failing to recognize or respond to signs of umbilical cord complications, such as prolapse or compression
- Improper resuscitation or delayed emergency response immediately after birth
Any one of these errors, alone or in combination, can deprive an infant’s brain of oxygen or cause direct trauma during the birth process, and both mechanisms are well-documented causes of the brain damage that underlies cerebral palsy.
Do You Have a Cerebral Palsy Lawsuit?
Whether your family has grounds for a cerebral palsy lawsuit depends on the specific facts of your child’s birth and diagnosis. Relevant factors typically include when and how your child was diagnosed, the extent and location of the brain damage involved, the underlying medical cause identified by your child’s doctors, and the conduct of the medical professionals who managed your pregnancy, labor, and delivery.
Indiana medical malpractice law is built around the concept of negligence. To succeed in a claim, a family generally needs to establish four elements:
Duty of Care
Your child’s doctors, nurses, and other providers owed a duty to deliver care that met accepted medical standards during pregnancy, labor, and delivery.
Breach of Duty
A provider failed to meet that standard of care, whether through a missed diagnosis, a delayed response, or an outright error during delivery.
Causation
The breach, more likely than not, directly caused or substantially contributed to your child’s brain damage and resulting cerebral palsy.
Damages
Your family has suffered measurable losses, including medical costs, therapy expenses, and the physical and emotional toll of the injury.
Because these cases require detailed medical evidence and testimony from qualified medical professionals, families are rarely in a position to evaluate them alone. Hospitals and their insurers routinely defend these claims vigorously, which is why a thorough, well-documented case built with the help of an attorney and qualified medical professionals gives families a stronger position for a fair outcome.
Compensation Available for Cerebral Palsy Claims
Families pursuing a cerebral palsy claim in Indiana may be able to recover both economic and non-economic damages, depending on the facts of the case and the severity of the child’s condition.
| Economic Damages | Non-Economic Damages |
|---|---|
| Past and future medical and surgical expenses | Pain and suffering |
| Costs of physical, occupational, and speech therapy | Emotional distress |
| Assistive devices and home or vehicle modifications | Loss of enjoyment of life |
| Costs of long-term or focused daily care | Impact on family relationships |
| Lost future earning capacity, where applicable | Diminished quality of life |
Indiana law also caps total damages in medical malpractice cases at $1.8 million for incidents occurring after June 30, 2019 (IC 34-18-14-3). Because this cap and the related procedural rules can significantly affect a family’s case, it is worth discussing your child’s specific circumstances with an attorney who focuses on OB-GYN malpractice and birth injury claims before assuming what your family may or may not be entitled to recover.
How Wagner Reese Approaches Cerebral Palsy Cases
Cerebral palsy claims require a careful review of medical records, imaging, and professional medical opinion to determine what happened during your child’s birth and whether it fell below the standard of care. When we take on a cerebral palsy case, we work with qualified medical professionals, including obstetricians and pediatric neurologists, to reconstruct the timeline of your child’s delivery and identify where a provider’s decisions may have caused or contributed to the injury.
We handle these cases on a contingency fee basis, which means our clients pay no upfront costs, and we only get paid if we recover compensation for their family. We also offer free, confidential consultations so families can understand their options without financial pressure. Every cerebral palsy case is different, and we build our approach around the specific medical facts of your child’s situation rather than a one-size-fits-all strategy.
What to Do if Your Child Was Diagnosed With Cerebral Palsy
If you suspect your child’s cerebral palsy resulted from a medical mistake, the steps you take in the weeks after diagnosis can matter for your child’s health and for any potential legal claim.
Get a Thorough Medical Evaluation
Make sure your child’s diagnosis and prognosis come from a qualified pediatrician or pediatric neurologist, and do not hesitate to seek a second opinion if you have questions about the initial evaluation.
Request and Preserve Medical Records
Ask for complete copies of prenatal, labor, delivery, and postnatal records, including fetal heart monitoring strips, before hospitals are required to purge them.
Document Your Child’s Development
Keep notes, photos, and records of your child’s symptoms, milestones, and treatment as they evolve, since this history can support both care planning and a potential claim.
Avoid Detailed Discussions With Insurers
Hospitals and insurance representatives may reach out after a difficult delivery. You are not required to give a recorded statement before speaking with an attorney.
Consult a Birth Injury Attorney Promptly
Because Indiana’s filing deadlines are strict and largely unaffected by your child’s age, reach out to an attorney as soon as possible to protect your family’s legal options.
Statute of Limitations for Cerebral Palsy Claims in Indiana
Under Indiana’s Medical Malpractice Act, most medical malpractice claims, including those involving cerebral palsy, must be filed within two years of the date of the alleged act, omission, or neglect that caused the injury (Indiana Code 34-18-7-1). This is an occurrence-based deadline, meaning the clock generally starts running from the date of the error itself, such as the date of delivery, rather than the date your child was formally diagnosed with cerebral palsy.
Indiana law includes one narrow exception for young children. A child who was younger than six years old at the time of the alleged malpractice has until their eighth birthday to file a claim. Outside of this specific exception, Indiana’s malpractice statute applies “regardless of minority or other legal disability,” meaning most families do not benefit from the broader tolling rules that pause deadlines until a child turns eighteen in other types of injury cases. Because the countdown often begins well before a cerebral palsy diagnosis is even possible, families frequently have far less time than they assume once a diagnosis is confirmed. Missing this deadline can permanently bar your family’s claim, so we encourage anyone with concerns about a birth injury to speak with an attorney as soon as possible.
Frequently Asked Questions About Cerebral Palsy Claims in Indianapolis
Wagner Reese has focused on complex medical malpractice and birth injury claims throughout Indiana since 1997, and our attorneys bring over 150 years of combined experience to families navigating a cerebral palsy diagnosis. We work directly with qualified medical professionals to evaluate the full circumstances of your child’s birth, so your family can make informed decisions about your legal options.
If your child was diagnosed with cerebral palsy and you have questions about whether medical negligence played a role, we encourage you to reach out. You can contact us online or call 888-204-8440 to schedule a free, confidential consultation with our Indianapolis birth injury team.
