“Birth injury” encompasses injuries that occur during any stage of pregnancies or just after children are born. Claims arising from birth injuries involve complex medical and legal issues. Attorneys at Iliff, Meredith, Wildberger & Brennan, P.C. have decades of experience in representing victims of birth injuries. We have successfully handled many birth injury cases either through trial or settlement, and we have obtained outstanding verdicts and settlements for clients on birth injury claims. We are prepared to assert the rights of our clients in birth injury cases throughout Maryland and Washington, D.C., and we are committed to helping families cope with the many issues that arise from birth injuries.

Some birth injuries cannot be prevented, but medical negligence occurs more often than patients would like to believe. When medical negligence causes birth injuries, victims can suffer permanent, and frequently very severe, disabilities. These can include mental retardation and other intellectual and developmental disabilities, seizure disorders, cerebral palsy, Erb’s palsy, limb paralysis, blindness or lesser loss of vision, deafness or lesser loss of hearing, and other physical disabilities.

Examples of medical negligence that can cause birth injuries include: failure to order appropriate prenatal tests, or failure to properly read or react to prenatal tests; failure to properly monitor the mother and the fetus during the pregnancy; failure to provide proper care during a high risk pregnancy, including failure to refer a woman for evaluation or treatment by an obstetrician who specializes in high risk pregnancies; failure to properly monitor the fetus’ condition during labor and delivery; failure to recognize or to properly respond to fetal distress; misuse of Pitocin to induce or speed labor; other medication errors; failure to guard against or to react to infection; failure to diagnose or treat placental abruption or placenta previa; errors in the use of forceps or vacuum extraction during delivery; and failure to properly resuscitate a newborn.

The impact on families is profound when children are born with disabilities. The attorneys at Iliff, Meredith, Wildberger & Brennan, P.C. are sensitive to the issues that families face under such circumstances. Some of our attorneys have dealt with these issues within either their immediate or extended families, in addition to representing victims of medical negligence in birth injury litigation. If a child in your family has suffered a birth injury, please contact us by telephone at (410) 685-1166 or online for a free consultation.