What Parents Need to Know About Birth Injury Lawsuits: Causes and Compensation
Bringing a child into the world should be one of the most joyful and meaningful moments of a parent's life. However, when medical providers make mistakes before, during, or immediately after delivery, those moments can quickly turn into a lifetime of pain and uncertainty.
In Ohio, birth injuries are not just medical incidents—they often become matters of personal injury law, opening the door for parents to seek compensation for the harm caused.
Wolfe & Mote Law Group, LLC in Columbus, Ohio works with families whose lives have been permanently affected by preventable medical errors. In Ohio, birth injury lawsuits allow parents to hold medical providers accountable and recover damages that can support their child's future medical care, therapy, and quality of life.
Understanding how these cases work—and how personal injury law applies—can make a significant difference when pursuing justice.
Defining a Birth Injury Under Ohio Law
A birth injury refers to any physical harm a baby suffers before, during, or just after the birthing process. These injuries are distinct from birth defects, which typically stem from genetic or environmental factors.
Birth injuries often result from missteps taken by medical professionals, such as doctors, nurses, or hospital staff, during labor and delivery.
Under Ohio law, a medical professional may be liable for a birth injury if it can be shown that they failed to act as a reasonably careful practitioner would under similar circumstances.
This is the basis for a personal injury lawsuit rooted in medical malpractice. In such cases, the legal question becomes whether the harm could have been prevented with proper care.
Common Causes of Preventable Birth Injuries
Not every injury that occurs during childbirth is the result of negligence. However, many injuries that occur could have been prevented with better judgment, earlier interventions, or closer monitoring. Parents considering legal action must first identify whether the injury could have been avoided with competent medical attention.
Here are some of the most common causes of birth injuries that may form the basis of a personal injury claim:
Failure to monitor fetal distress: Medical providers must carefully monitor fetal heart rate patterns. Ignoring or misreading signs of fetal distress can lead to oxygen deprivation or brain damage.
Improper use of forceps or vacuum extractors: While sometimes necessary during a difficult delivery, these tools must be used with care. Misuse can result in skull fractures, nerve damage, or bleeding in the brain.
Delayed Cesarean section (C-Section): If labor is not progressing or the baby is in distress, failing to order a timely C-section can lead to permanent injury.
Failure to address shoulder dystocia: This occurs when the baby’s shoulder becomes stuck during delivery. Delayed or incorrect responses to this emergency can result in brachial plexus injuries or oxygen deprivation.
Medication errors: Errors in administering labor-inducing drugs such as Pitocin can result in contractions that are too strong or too frequent, posing risks to both mother and baby.
Negligent prenatal care: Failure to diagnose and manage conditions like gestational diabetes, preeclampsia, or infections can lead to complications during birth that cause harm.
Each of these causes may support a personal injury claim under Ohio law if it can be shown that the provider breached the standard of care and caused measurable harm.
Common Birth Injuries That Lead to Legal Claims
Injury to a newborn can take many forms, some of which are immediately obvious, while others may not be diagnosed until months or years later. Many families pursue personal injury claims once the long-term consequences of a birth injury become clear.
Some of the most frequent injuries seen in Ohio birth injury lawsuits include:
Cerebral palsy
Brachial plexus injuries (e.g., Erb’s palsy)
Hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE)
Skull fractures
Spinal cord injuries
Intracranial hemorrhage
Facial nerve damage
These injuries often require long-term or lifelong care, and the costs can be overwhelming. A personal injury lawsuit can help offset these financial burdens.
What Must Be Proven in a Birth Injury Lawsuit?
To succeed in a birth injury lawsuit under Ohio law, parents must demonstrate several critical elements. These elements form the foundation of most personal injury cases that involve medical malpractice.
Duty of care: The medical provider had a legal obligation to provide care consistent with professional standards.
Breach of duty: The provider failed to meet those standards by acting (or failing to act) in a way that caused harm.
Causation: There must be a direct link between the provider’s actions and the injury sustained.
Damages: The injury must result in measurable damages, whether financial, physical, or emotional.
These requirements must be supported by evidence such as medical records, expert opinions, and witness testimony. In Ohio, an affidavit of merit from a qualified medical professional is required before a medical malpractice lawsuit can proceed.
Statute of Limitations in Ohio Birth Injury Cases
Ohio law generally requires that personal injury claims for medical malpractice be filed within one year of the discovery of the injury. However, in cases involving minors, different time limits may apply.
For birth injuries, a lawsuit can typically be filed any time before the child’s nineteenth birthday, although this may vary depending on the facts of the case.
Parents should consult legal counsel promptly to determine how these rules apply to their situation. Delaying too long could jeopardize the ability to recover compensation.
Compensation Available in Ohio Birth Injury Lawsuits
Birth injury cases involve substantial damages, given the potential for lifelong medical costs, specialized care, and reduced quality of life. In Ohio, personal injury lawsuits involving medical malpractice may result in compensation for both economic and non-economic damages.
Economic damages may include:
Medical expenses (past and future)
Rehabilitation and therapy
Special education costs
Adaptive equipment and home modifications
Lost earning capacity
Non-economic damages, while more difficult to quantify, may cover:
Pain and suffering
Emotional distress
Loss of enjoyment of life
Ohio law does place caps on non-economic damages in medical malpractice cases. These caps typically limit recovery to $250,000 or three times the economic damages, whichever is greater, with an overall limit of $350,000 per plaintiff or $500,000 per occurrence. However, exceptions may apply in cases involving catastrophic injuries.
One Opportunity to Seek Justice
Families typically only get one chance to pursue compensation after a birth injury. A settlement or court award must take into account a child’s entire lifetime of needs. The financial, emotional, and psychological costs of a serious injury can be staggering.
Pursuing a personal injury claim helps secure the resources necessary for the child’s care and future stability.
Legal action may also prompt improvements in hospital policies and provider practices, potentially preventing future harm to others.
How Legal Representation Can Make a Difference
Legal representation in birth injury cases involves more than filing paperwork. A lawyer familiar with Ohio personal injury law can assess whether medical negligence occurred, identify all responsible parties, and gather the documentation needed to support the claim.
Medical providers and hospitals often have aggressive legal defense strategies and insurance companies that resist paying large settlements. Pursuing a claim without legal support may place families at a disadvantage.
Legal advocates can conduct interviews, obtain expert opinions, and present a compelling case in negotiations or court proceedings.
In Ohio, most personal injury lawyers who handle birth injury claims work on a contingency basis. This means there are no upfront legal fees, and payment is only required if compensation is successfully recovered.
Call a Lawyer Today
Wolfe & Mote Law Group, LLC is committed to representing families in Ohio who have experienced the heartbreak of a birth injury caused by negligence. They are proud to serve Columbus, Ohio, and the surrounding areas of Dublin, Westerville, Gahanna, Hilliard, Licking County, Fairfield County, and Delaware County. Call today.