Ohio HIE Birth Injury Lawyers
HIE Birth Injury Attorneys in Ohio
Each baby’s birth is the end result of a complex biological process that, on paper, seems highly improbable to be successful. And yet, doctors in Ohio successfully deliver over 126,000 healthy babies to families each year.
This is supposed to be a joyful time for new parents to celebrate the miracle of life. But a baby’s life-altering birth injuries can cast a dark shadow over these first precious moments.
Children with hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy (HIE) suffer from debilitating neurological impairments that can affect nearly all aspects of their life. While mild cases only bring slight disability, severe HIE brain damage can impact movement, speech, vision, hearing, and cognitive functioning.
Healthcare providers often tell families at birth that there was no way to prevent or avoid their child’s injuries. But our Ohio HIE Birth Injury Lawyers know that this isn’t always the case.
In reality, different studies have suggested that up to 1 in 5 HIE cases are preventable with proper medical care. Critical errors during pregnancy and during labor and delivery can greatly increase a baby’s risk for permanent injuries.
Healthcare providers can be responsible for committing medical malpractice if their negligence deprives the baby of oxygen for too long. Missing labor and delivery complications, improperly prescribing medications, or delaying emergency intervention can all cause a baby’s oxygen deprivation.
If your baby suffered from a preventable HIE birth injury, you may be able to recover financial compensation. An Ohio HIE Birth Injury Lawyer can file a medical malpractice claim so your family can afford life-changing medical care.
Have a Conversation with a Top Rated HIE Birth Injury Lawyer Today
When your child has severe brain damage from HIE, it can feel like no one else in the world understands. But our Ohio HIE Birth Injury Lawyers have been helping families like yours for over 40 years.
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Ohio HIE Birth Injury Lawyers
(888) 987-0005Our Ohio HIE Birth Injury Lawyers are available to meet you in your home or the hospital.
We know how intimidating and overwhelming the legal process can feel, especially when your baby needs help today. We are here to listen, provide a shoulder to cry on, then help your family get the justice you deserve.
Over four decades, our nationally recognized birth injury team has fought relentlessly on behalf of birth injury medical malpractice victims. We will work tirelessly to secure fair settlement sums and trial verdicts for your family.
Our firm invests in a dedicated nursing and medical research division to assist with all cases we handle. They work alongside our Ohio HIE Birth Injury Lawyers to represent you and uncover negligent medical errors. Your team will not only consist of attorneys, but also nursing staff, nursing advocates, and seasoned medical experts.
Your team will be there to answer questions and provide support, both inside and outside of the courtroom. We will keep in close contact throughout the case, providing important updates and checking in on your child’s status.
We also assist with your family’s day-to-day needs as litigation progresses. This includes scheduling specialists’ appointments, ordering medical records, providing transportation and lodging, and much more.
You receive these benefits on a contingency fee basis. This means you do not owe us a single dollar until after we secure compensation for your family. We only receive payment after you do, and we will never charge families expenses for cases we don’t win.
The Ohio HIE Birth Injury Lawyers at our firm are proud to have a long history of legal victories. Our results say more than words ever could.
Recent Ohio HIE Birth Injury Settlement
Our nationwide firm’s dedicated nursing and medical research division has secured over $1 billion for families of birth injured children. This includes a $3 million verdict for an Ohio family whose child suffered from an HIE brain injury at birth.
The mother had shown signs of pregnancy complications like oligohydramnios and decided with her medical team to schedule a C-section. But during delivery, obstetricians and delivery nurses failed to carefully monitor fetal heart rates. This led to them not conducting the C-section quick enough, and the baby lost access to oxygen for several minutes.
Doctors confirmed an HIE diagnosis at birth in the NICU, which would later progress into cerebral palsy. Our Ohio HIE birth injury lawyers recovered a $3,000,000 settlement for the family to afford cerebral palsy treatments and therapies.
What is an HIE Birth Injury?
Hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy (HIE) is a type of newborn brain injury occurring during or shortly after delivery. It stems from a disruption in oxygenated blood flow to the brain at the time of birth.
- Hypoxic means hypoxia, or a shortage of oxygen in the blood and body tissues
- Ischemic means ischemia, or a shortage of blood flowing to the brain
- Encephalopathy is a general medical term referring to any brain injury, disease, or neurological dysfunction
Because oxygen travels primarily through the blood, a baby who experiences ischemia will almost certainly experience hypoxia simultaneously. HIE is the most common cause of cerebral palsy, a group of neurological conditions affecting a child’s muscle movement.
Children with moderate to severe HIE often have cognitive disabilities, vision impairments, seizures, and delayed developmental milestones. Research suggests that newborn HIE injuries remain one of the leading causes of neonatal mortality and morbidity worldwide.
How Common are HIE Birth Injuries in Ohio?
Despite being an overall uncommon condition, HIE is still the most prevalent type of brain injury at birth. Current estimates from medical researchers suggest an incidence rate around 1.7 in every 1000 births in the United States. With public state birth rate data, we can calculate that an estimated 214 newborns in Ohio will develop HIE each year.
How Does An HIE Brain Injury Develop and Progress?
HIE brain injuries actually occur over two main stages. The initial hypoxic-ischemic event is actually just the beginning of a process resulting in irreversible brain damage at birth:
Stage 1: Hypoxic-Ischemic Insult
Hypoxic-Ischemic Event: A complication during pregnancy or a delivery complication prevents oxygenated blood from reaching the baby’s brain. When this happens abruptly (such as with a placental abruption or uterine rupture), it is an acute profound hypoxic event. When it occurs over a period (such as with placental insufficiency), it is a partial prolonged hypoxic event. Both acute and prolonged hypoxia cause devastating HIE brain injuries, but just at different speeds.
Cellular Shutdown & Initial Injury: After enough time without sufficient oxygenation (usually anywhere between 2-15 minutes), brain cells shut down. This sudden cell death shocks the immune system and causes rapid inflammation and swelling in the baby’s brain tissue. Lesions (spots of damaged tissue visible on an MRI scan) begin to form on the brain.
Stage 2: Oxygen Reperfusion Injury
0-6 Hours After Injury: With the baby usually born at this point, oxygenated blood resumes flowing to their brain. Doctors refer to this period the latent phase, or a small window of recovery where therapeutic interventions are most effective. This is the ideal time for starting treatment like therapeutic hypothermia to reduce excess brain swelling and slow cellular metabolism.
Oxygen Reperfusion & Secondary Injury: As oxygen rushes back, the baby’s body mistakes brain tissue inflammation for a neonatal infection. In response, the immune system releases high levels of toxins (called free radicals or reactive oxygen species) searching for infection. As these toxins circulate the brain tissue, they end up damaging surrounding brain cells. Researchers believe this second wave of injury is actually more severe than the initial insult.
What Causes Newborn HIE Birth Injuries?
Hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy is a direct cause of a lack in oxygenated blood flow to the baby’s brain.
Humans need oxygen to produce energy. In fact, an adult brain consumes over one fifth of the body’s total energy to maintain constant neural activity.
Even before birth, our brain cells are the largest oxygen consumers. This is why steady oxygen flow is so crucial to the child’s development. The baby’s brain cells start shutting down when the body is unable to meet this high oxygen demand.
All medical professionals in the delivery room need to stay alert for signs of fetal oxygen deprivation. Whenever it occurs, there is usually very little time to respond. Even short periods without oxygen can impair the baby’s brain function for the rest of their life.
What Are Risk Factors for HIE Injuries?
Hypoxia and ischemia are the sole cause of HIE, but many complications and underlying conditions can trigger a hypoxic-ischemic event.
The following complications are risk factors that our Ohio HIE Birth Injury Lawyers commonly see contributing to an HIE diagnosis:
Placental Problems
The placenta is a temporary organ that grows inside the mother’s uterus in preparation for pregnancy. During gestation, the baby receives all blood, oxygen, and nutrients from this critical organ. Placental complications during pregnancy or labor can affect oxygenated blood flow and therefore increase the risk for hypoxia or ischemia.
Placental insufficiency during pregnancy gradually reduces a child’s oxygen supply over an extended period. Over time, this depletes the baby’s energy reserves and leads to a partial prolonged HIE injury at birth.
Sometimes, the placenta can grow in the wrong spot (placenta previa) or prematurely detach from the uterine lining (placental abruption). Placental abruption is a medical emergency that can cause brain damage within just minutes due to acute profound hypoxia.
Umbilical Cord Issues
Oxygenated blood flows from the placenta to the baby via the umbilical cord. Umbilical cord problems during pregnancy or during labor block critical nutrients from reaching the baby’s brain, exposing them to injury.
Knots in the cord or loops wrapped around the baby’s neck (nuchal cord) can pose minor risks to blood flow. However, more serious complications include cord compression and cord prolapse.
Umbilical cord compression occurs when the baby’s body presses against the cord inside the womb, often restricting blood flow. Umbilical cord prolapses occur when the cord exits out the birth canal before the baby does. As the baby attempts to exit, their head squeezes against the cord and restricts oxygen flow almost entirely.
Serious complications like cord prolapse or multiple nuchal cord loops can require an emergency C-section to avoid severe perinatal hypoxia.
Abnormal Blood Pressure
An expecting mother’s blood volume increases by nearly 50% during pregnancy to support placental blood flow. This causes her heart to pump harder, which can develop into hypertensive disorders like preeclampsia during pregnancy.
Preeclampsia is a condition causing high blood pressure and narrowing of the mother’s blood vessels. When left unmonitored, it can reduce placental blood flow over time and put the baby at risk for ischemia.
Blood Clots
An expecting mother’s body produces higher levels of blood-clotting proteins like fibrinogen and proconvertin in preparation for delivery. This, along with other factors like increased pressure on the pelvic veins, increases her risk for developing blood clots.
Blood clots within the placenta, while rare, can block the transfer of oxygenated blood to the baby. This increases their risk for developing hypoxia and ischemia, which can cause HIE birth injuries.
Maternal or Neonatal Infections
Maternal infections like group b strep or chorioamnionitis can easily transfer to the baby during labor. If the child contracts a fetal or neonatal infection from their mother, it can trigger widespread bodily inflammation. This inflammation can prevent oxygen from flowing to the baby’s brain, which increases the risk of injuries like HIE.
Additionally, maternal infections can cause the mother and her baby to develop fevers. The higher internal temperature increases the body’s oxygen demand and decreases the baby’s tolerance to labor. This will increase the baby’s risk for oxygen deprivation and resulting HIE brain damage.
Prolonged or Arrested Labor
Labor contractions will naturally constrict placental blood and oxygen flow as the uterus pushes the baby out. A baby can tolerate short periods of reduced oxygenation during labor. However, labor surpassing 16 hours or one that stops progressing altogether can become dangerous.
Extended labor can leave the baby without enough time to recover and “recharge” their oxygen supply in between contractions. If medical providers allow labor to continue without intervening, the baby becomes at risk for perinatal asphyxia and oxygen deprivation.
Labor Inducing Medications
Labor inducing medications like Pitocin and Cytotec can induce contractions that more tightly constrict placental blood flow. Doctors will typically prescribe these medications to mothers with weak contractions or when their labor fails to begin or progress.
But too high of a dosage can result in contractions that are too frequent and overly powerful. This labor complication (called uterine hyperstimulation) can dangerously restrict fetal oxygenation and increase the baby’s risk of an HIE injury.
Uterine Rupture
A uterine rupture is an emergency labor complication where the muscular wall of the mother’s uterus splits open. This can destroy the uterus’s connection to the placenta and abruptly cut off all oxygen flow to the baby.
Uterine ruptures greatly increase the risk for HIE birth injuries, postpartum hemorrhaging, maternal mortality, and infant death.
Shoulder Dystocia
Shoulder dystocia is a complication where the baby’s shoulders become lodged behind the mother’s pubic bone in the birth canal. This creates a situation where the baby’s head delivers, but the rest of their body is stuck.
The longer the baby remains in this position, the more likely they will lose blood circulation to their head. This can create a hypoxic-ischemic event that greatly increases their risk for HIE birth injuries and nerve damage birth injuries.
Birth-Related Head Injuries
Injuries to a baby’s head during birth can rupture blood vessels or damage their brain tissue. These causes inflammation that restricts essential blood flow to their brain. A ruptured blood vessel can disrupt cerebral perfusion enough to cause HIE birth injuries.
Common head injuries that cause this inflammation can include skull fractures, intracranial hemorrhages, or cephalohematoma. These injuries are more common with difficult deliveries or when doctors misuse delivery instruments like forceps and vacuum extractors.
Preterm Birth
Babies with a premature birth usually have underdeveloped brains and lungs that are vulnerable to injuries.
Having an underdeveloped brain and/or blood vessels can make the baby less capable of managing a restricted oxygen supply. This will increase their chances for brain injuries like HIE if they experience a hypoxic-ischemic event during labor.
A child’s risk factors during pregnancy and labor will not always guarantee that they will suffer from HIE brain damage. But medical professionals must recognize their potential to cause hypoxia and ischemia, which can affect the developing fetal brain.
Taking preventative action when these complications appear can help reduce a newborn’s risk for irreversible brain injuries. If healthcare providers ignore the risk, our Ohio HIE Birth Injury Lawyers can hold them accountable for the resulting damage.
What Are the Symptoms of HIE Brain Damage?
A newborn’s symptoms of HIE and oxygen deprivation often begin before they even exit their mother’s womb. During cases, our Ohio HIE Birth Injury Lawyers will determine whether medical professionals properly recognized the following warning signs:
Abnormal Fetal Heart Rate Tracings
Non-reassuring fetal heart rates are often the first sign that the child underwent a hypoxic event during labor. This is because a baby’s heart rate responds when they aren’t receiving enough oxygen. Medical professionals should immediately register the following patterns as a concern:
- Late decelerations after a contraction
- Minimal to no change (variability) in heart rate
- A baseline heart rate under 100 beats per minute (fetal bradycardia)
- A baseline heart rate over 160 beats per minute (fetal tachycardia)
Should the baby show any of these patterns on the electronic fetal monitor, medical professionals need to intervene. This can vary from mildly adjusting the mother’s position and giving fluids to performing an emergency c-section delivery.
Seizures at Birth
A baby with HIE brain injuries may have abnormal electrical signals triggering within their brain, causing neurons to fire uncontrollably. This results in neonatal seizures, characterized by uncontrollable convulsions, rhythmic eye movements, and dangerous breathing pauses.
Neonatal seizures can be life-threatening and require quick medication administration along with further monitoring in the neonatal intensive care unit.
Neonatal Metabolic Acidosis
Fetal hypoxia will cause the baby’s cells to release excess amounts of lactic acid when producing energy. Over time, this lactic acid buildup will make the baby’s blood more acidic, which is dangerous at certain levels.
A blood pH below 7.20 at birth almost always confirms that the baby suffered from oxygen deprivation during labor. Research supports the idea that severe fetal acidosis is often a key symptom of HIE injuries in neonates.
Poor Physical Appearance
An HIE brain injury baby will have outward physical signs hinting to doctors that something is not right. Signs of an HIE birth injury or other brain damage at birth can include:
- Breathing difficulties or no breathing at all
- Irregular heartbeat (fetal bradycardia or tachycardia)
- Blueish tint around their lips and face
- Fatigue
- Floppy, weak muscle tone (hypotonia)
- Arched back
- Poor reflexes
- Loss of consciousness
Newborns exhibiting two or more of these symptoms must undergo further testing for possible brain injuries like HIE.
Doctors and delivery nurses cannot afford to miss the symptoms of HIE birth injuries. Missing clear signals of a hypoxic-ischemic event will delay critical treatment like hypothermia therapy. An Ohio HIE Birth Injury Lawyer can help identify when delayed action caused or worsened your child’s HIE brain damage.
How Are HIE Brain Injuries Diagnosed?
Healthcare professionals have a range of tools at their disposal to accurately diagnose HIE injuries. The following methods are the most reliable indicators for determining when a baby has suffered from HIE brain damage:
HIE Brain Imaging Scans
Neuroimaging scans are the most definitive method a medical professional can use to detect HIE birth injuries. The most common test for neonates is Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scanning because of its high accuracy and non-invasive nature.
Electroencephalogram (EEG) testing measures the brain’s electrical activity. These tests are another great imaging tool because they help doctors spot abnormal signals characteristic of brain damage.
These tests will help medical professionals determine the precise location, severity, and expected long-term effects of a baby’s HIE birth injury.
Umbilical Cord Gas Testing
There will be markers of severe oxygen deprivation during birth within the baby’s umbilical cord blood. An umbilical cord blood gas test can measure the pH level and base deficit within the baby’s blood. Low pH levels and high base deficits indicate fetal acidosis, which occurs when the baby receives insufficient oxygen during labor.
Blood gas tests that come back positive for acidosis should push medical professionals to conduct further testing. A baby with signs of acidemia during birth should always receive further testing for potential brain injuries.
APGAR Scores
Every baby receives an APGAR score at birth to evaluate whether medical professionals should perform further intervention. The delivery nurse or doctor present at birth will assess a baby across 5 measurable categories. They assign a score between 0-2 to each category for a maximum possible score of 10.
Babies with HIE birth injuries will score low in all APGAR categories, particularly in the respiration and pulse sections. Overall scores between 0-5 after 10 minutes are a sign of moderate to severe HIE. Doctors often use the APGAR score as the first indicator of a baby needing further testing for brain damage.
Sarnat Staging
Like the APGAR test, the Sarnat exam evaluates the newborn’s physical characteristics on a rubric to determine their status. However, Sarnat staging (named after doctors Harvey and Margaret Sarnat in 1976) focuses specifically on characteristics of neonatal brain injuries.
Medical professionals evaluate the baby using a set of criteria aligning with common HIE symptoms like seizures and muscle tone. Based on their observations, they will determine which stage the injury falls under.
What Are the Stages of HIE?
The Sarnat scale has three stages of severity to classify the baby’s HIE birth injury:
- Stage I (Mild): the newborn’s HIE injuries are minimal. Standard guidelines will not recommend cooling therapy and the child will likely have no lasting complications.
- Stage II (Moderate): the newborn has signs of significant HIE brain damage that requires further intervention like therapeutic hypothermia
- Stage III (Severe): the newborn has serious HIE injuries that will strongly affect their development and capabilities in life. Immediate intervention is mandatory to prevent death of the infant.
The time clock for diagnosing HIE starts running immediately after delivery. When healthcare providers miss the signs of a potential hypoxic-ischemic event, it delays treatment that would have prevented permanent damage. If you suspect doctors failed to properly diagnose your baby in time, consider contacting an Ohio HIE Birth Injury Lawyer.
What Are the Complications of HIE?
The complications of HIE birth injuries can range from mildly intrusive to fully debilitating. Each child’s related conditions will depend on the location and extent of their injury, along with any underlying factors.
Among the most common complications our Ohio HIE Birth Injury Lawyers see in our young clients include:
Epilepsy in Childhood
Babies with severe HIE injuries at birth are at high risk of developing epilepsy during childhood. This is a condition where abnormal electrical activity in the brain causes recurring seizures.
According to the National Epilepsy Foundation, over 140,000 Ohioans suffer from this condition.
Sensory Impairments
Our brains help us control and process all sensory output we receive from the world. But an HIE brain injury can damage crucial neural pathways and sensory receptors allowing the child to see or hear.
Hearing loss and vision impairments are the two most common forms of sensory damage from an HIE birth injury.
Developmental Delays
A child’s limitations from their HIE birth injury can slowly appear as they get older. While each person is different, there are common developmental milestones that most babies will hit by a certain age. Children with HIE are more likely to miss these milestones or hit them at a much later age than normal.
The most common missed milestones for children with brain injuries include:
- Walking by 18 months
- Sitting up and rolling over independently
- Babbling or speaking
- Fine motor skills like grasping at objects
Other common missed milestones include social and emotional delays, speech impairments, or the lack of speech altogether. A child with HIE birth injuries may also have difficulties controlling their emotions or a hesitation to interact with others.
While missing one or two milestones isn’t always concerning, parents should share these updates with doctors during routine checkups. A child missing multiple milestones may indicate that they have conditions like cerebral palsy.
Cerebral Palsy
HIE brain injuries are the leading cause of cerebral palsy worldwide. Cerebral palsy is a group of neurological disorders affecting a child’s muscle movement, tone, coordination, speech, vision, and cognitive abilities.
Children with cerebral palsy often experience uncontrollable muscle spasms that result in paralysis or jerky, involuntary movements. Other common complications include swallowing disorders and speech impairments like dysarthria or dysphagia.
Doctors usually wait until the child’s first year or two of life to diagnose cerebral palsy. But symptoms like developmental delays, floppy muscle tone, and feeding problems can appear before then. Medical professionals should monitor children with HIE for any emerging symptoms of cerebral palsy to ensure they get timely treatment.
How Long Will Baby with HIE Live?
Children who have mild to moderate HIE birth injuries usually go on to live full and fulfilling lives. However, severe HIE brain damage can come with cerebral palsy symptoms that do have the potential to shorten life expectancy.
Conditions like epilepsy, hemiplegia, or severe respiratory issues can wear down a child’s body faster.
But proper treatment and intervention can ensure that children who survive HIE birth injuries will live long and healthy lives.
How Do Doctors Treat HIE Birth Injuries?
Treating an HIE brain injury can be multifaceted and require a number of different approaches, depending on the baby’s circumstances. However, different HIE treatment strategies exist that can make the child’s symptoms more manageable.
HIE Birth Injury Neonatal Treatments
The most effective opportunity to provide HIE treatment is within 6 hours after birth. This window is healthcare providers’ best chance to reduce the long-term effects following a brain injury.
Depending on the baby’s status, medical professionals should administer the following treatments as soon after birth as possible:
Hypothermia Therapy
Neonatal hypothermia therapy (or brain cooling treatment) is the only known HIE treatment with the power of reversing its effects.
Healthcare providers place the baby into a thermal regulating machine to manually lower their internal temperature to 92.3 degrees Fahrenheit. This reduces swelling and slows the cellular metabolism that causes major brain cell death after birth.
Doctors or nurses must start the cooling process within six hours after delivering the baby. Waiting too long can reduce the treatment’s effectiveness as oxygen reperfusion injury will have already set in.
Supplemental Oxygen
Babies who have suffered hypoxia at birth may have breathing difficulties that persist after delivery. If the baby isn’t breathing, medical professionals will need to perform neonatal resuscitation to quickly restore oxygen flow.
Doctors may put babies with shallow breathing on an assisted ventilation machine to provide supplemental oxygen to their brain.
Anticonvulsant Medications & Continued EEG Monitoring
One study estimates that up to 60% of HIE newborns will experience seizures. Administering preventative antiseizure medications can reduce the risk of further occurrences and reduce the possibility of infant death. Doctors and nurses should also conduct EEG monitoring to assess electrical activity in the baby’s brain after an HIE injury.
HIE Birth Injury Childhood Treatments
After a certain point during early infancy, HIE birth injuries become irreversible. By the early childhood years, medical specialists tend to shift their focus toward symptom management over curative care.
The following treatments can help alleviate a child’s HIE symptoms and allow them more physical and emotional comfort:
Physical Therapy
Children with moderate to severe HIE brain damage will have less control over their muscle movement. This can prevent them from developing the skills necessary for standing, walking, running, or jumping.
Physical therapy introduces targeted exercises that can help these children improve their flexibility and widen their range of motion.
Occupational Therapy
Occupational therapy gives children structured time to practice everyday tasks that they will need for daily living. This can include practicing holding utensils, writing, brushing hair, brushing teeth, putting on clothes, or tying shoes.
Over time, children with HIE who receive occupational therapy from a young age will become more independent.
Speech Therapy
Neurological speech impairments and swallowing disorders can negatively impact an HIE brain injured baby as they get older. With speech therapy, these children can learn different techniques and strategies making eating and communicating much easier.
Over time, improved speech skills can bring a greater sense of independence and social confidence to children with HIE.
Assistive Equipment & Devices
The neurological effects of a newborn’s HIE birth injury often cause mobility limitations that restrict their ability to manage everyday tasks.
Assistive equipment and devices like wheelchairs, walkers, and adaptive furniture can make it easier for these children to move around. Adaptive devices for recreational activity also exist, such as modified bikes, frame runners, skiing equipment, gripping aids, and more.
Some children may also use adaptive communication devices to interact with others to overcome HIE speech impairments. Overall, these devices can help a child participate in social and physical activities that improve their quality of life.
Ohio’s Help Me Grow Early Intervention Program
Help Me Grow is a statewide early intervention system from the Ohio Department of Children & Youth. They aim to help families of children under age 3 with signs of developmental disabilities.
The program’s network of healthcare and childcare professionals help conduct developmental screenings, home visits, and connections to community resources. The program’s website claims that 95% of Ohio parents reported learning and skill improvements in their children after accessing services.
Is There a Cure for HIE?
No cure currently exists to completely reverse a newborn HIE injury. Mild cases generally do not cause long-term impairments. But children with moderate to severe injuries are likely to experience complications lasting into adulthood.
However, specialists can help manage HIE symptoms with early intervention and targeted exercises to provide the best possible comfort.
Each child will experience their HIE diagnosis differently. In general, babies who receive early intervention like therapeutic hypothermia will have the most favorable outcomes later in life.
Did Medical Malpractice Cause My Child’s HIE Birth Injury?
Negligent healthcare professionals sometimes get away with committing medical malpractice when their mistakes are small. Amid the chaos of labor, it can be hard to tell when doctors waited too long to intervene. But even seemingly small errors like a slightly delayed C-section can have irreversible and tragic consequences.
If a medical provider’s preventable errors caused your child’s brain injuries, our Ohio HIE Birth Injury lawyers will find out.
Common Medical Errors That Can Cause HIE Birth Injuries
Over the years, we have seen countless examples of birth injury medical malpractice that leave children with permanent disabilities. The most common errors leading to HIE birth injuries include:
- Improperly monitoring the mother’s blood pressure during delivery
- Not monitoring fetal heart rates and missing the signs of fetal distress
- Not catching placental complications in time, such as insufficiency during pregnancy or a placental abruption during labor
- Failing to intervene amid umbilical cord problems during labor, such as nuchal cord, cord compression, or cord prolapse
- Failure to sufficiently treat maternal infections like group b strep or chorioamnionitis
- Not intervening when the mother’s labor exceeds 16 hours
- Delaying an emergency C-section despite the baby having zero access to oxygen
- Administering labor inducing medications like Pitocin and Cytotec and failing to adjust the dosage when complications occur
- Using excessive force in cases of shoulder dystocia or with delivery instruments like forceps and vacuum extractors
- Not ordering neuroimaging tests or umbilical cord blood gas testing after birth to confirm a case of HIE
- Missing the critical 6-hour window to start therapeutic hypothermia treatment after an HIE birth injury
- Downplaying the extent of a child’s HIE birth injury to their parents and family.
Even after learning their child’s hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy was preventable, many parents will still feel hopeless. But in these devastating moments, our Ohio HIE Birth Injury Lawyers are here to offer support.
If you suspect your HIE brain injury baby needlessly suffered, we urge you to explore legal avenues toward compensation. Reaching out to an Ohio HIE Birth Injury Lawyer comes with no downsides, only the opportunity for additional financial help.
How Long Do You Have to File an Ohio HIE Birth Injury Case?
A statute of limitations (SOL) sets a time limit on how long an injured person has to file a lawsuit.
Statutes of limitations vary based on the type of case and the state in which you filed it. For instance, the deadline for birth injury claims typically differs from other claims like fraud, contract disputes, and debt collection.
Section 2305.113 | Medical malpractice actions
For adults, the statute of limitations in medical malpractice lawsuits is generally one year from the date of the negligence. For children, the statute of limitations is slightly different. For these cases, families must file a birth injury lawsuit no later than the child’s 19th birthday.
Generally, the clock starts ticking on the date the injury occurred. However, there are exceptions to this rule. Some states (including Ohio) have something called the discovery rule. This means the statute of limitations starts after a person discovers or should have reasonably discovered an injury.
Depending on who you’re suing, you may need to file your claim under the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA). In FTCA cases, claimants must go through certain administrative procedures before filing a lawsuit. The time period in which you must give "notice" may be shorter in some cases. Examples include if the negligent party was a local or state government hospital, or if the doctors are government employees.
The court will typically dismiss your case if you file it outside the statute of limitations. However, certain exceptions exist to the rules when the injured party is a child. Determining when a statute of limitations begins and ends can be tricky. If you're considering filing, contacting an Ohio HIE Birth Injury Lawyer as soon as possible is in your best interest.
How Can Our Ohio HIE Birth Injury Attorneys Help?
We understand how overwhelming it can be to speak with legal experts about your child’s injuries. No parent wants to recount and relive one of the hardest moments in their life. But one conversation with an Ohio HIE Birth Injury Lawyer can put your family on the path toward justice.
We can help your family recover full and fair compensation that you can put toward:
- Regular appointments with specialists and healthcare planners
- Medications, therapies, and surgeries that will improve your child’s quality of life
- Assistive equipment, adaptive devices, and home modifications to provide more comfort and easier access
- In-home caregivers to assist with your child’s needs
Our Process
Our Ohio HIE Birth Injury Lawyers will offer a comprehensive legal review process to each and every case.
We will start by learning more about you and your child. We will hear your account of what happened and begin piecing together important details, locations, and contact information.
We will gather medical records like fetal heart rate strips, umbilical cord blood gas results, and any neuroimaging tests.
After gathering information, we will show it to our vast network of pediatric neurologists, radiologists, and neonatologists. They will review your records to make a professional determination as to whether medical errors caused your newborn's HIE injury.
If they determine medical errors played a role, we will move forward with an HIE birth injury medical malpractice lawsuit. We will meet in person to discuss your case and offer an attorney-client retainer contract hiring us to represent you.
At no point will you need to pay any fees during the litigation process. Our dedicated nursing and medical research division will conduct a comprehensive review of your case for free.
Our contingency fee policy means that we only charge attorney fees on cases we win. You will never have to pay out of pocket; we charge a pre-agreed fee outlined in our attorney-client retainer contract. Our top rated HIE Birth Injury Lawyers in Ohio will only accept cases that we know we will win.
Allow our nationally recognized birth injury team to start the process toward justice by contacting us today. We handle HIE Birth Injury Cases against major hospitals throughout the state in cities like Cleveland, Cincinnati, Columbus, and more.
You can contact us today to schedule your free consultation by calling our toll-free line at (888) 987-0005. We can also get into contact digitally through our online request form.
National Birth Injury Law
Our National Birth Injury Attorneys, nurses, and support staff understand that parents of children with birth injuries feel overwhelmed. So, every client has the attention and support of a team of trained, compassionate professionals. But we don’t just offer compassion.
We offer a process to help you discover whether your child’s birth injury, HIE, cerebral palsy or brain injury at birth was caused by medical malpractice.
Call our offices today at (888) 987-0005 for experienced assistance in a free consultation.
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