Over 9,000 babies are born each year in St. Louis to families who hope for good health and prosperity. Most of these babies will come home from the hospital without any issues. However, other families will face an unthinkable reality: witnessing their child’s birth injury, brain damage, or untimely wrongful death.
No family imagines their baby will be the one to suffer from permanent injuries and complications at birth. Even though severe injuries and deaths are rare, the risk increases dramatically when medical professionals make careless mistakes.
Our St. Louis birth injury lawyers specialize in identifying those mistakes and delivering full and fair compensation to the affected families.
Birth Injury Malpractice
OB-GYNs, maternal fetal medicine specialists, nurses, midwives, and other healthcare providers have a duty to protect their patients from harm. When this duty (known as the “standard of care”) is breached and leads to preventable birth injuries, it constitutes medical malpractice.
We are committed to ensuring your child receives the best possible care and support. We will fight tirelessly to obtain justice on your behalf by holding all negligent parties accountable for their mistakes.
If you live in St. Louis or in our other service areas, we are available to analyze the facts of your case. We do this all at no upfront cost to you.
Service Areas in St. Louis, Missouri
Call our St. Louis Birth Injury Lawyers Today (888) 987-0005
Our St. Louis Birth Injury Lawyers are available to meet you in your home or the hospital.
Affton | Kirkwood | Maryland Heights | Ferguson | Bridgeton
When you contact our birth injury law firm, we begin gathering important medical records and consulting with our large network of medical experts. We use our comprehensive legal review process to determine exactly how and why the birth injury or wrongful death occurred. If we determine you have a case, we meet with you to discuss the next steps toward compensation.
At no point in our legal intake and lawsuit process will you have to pay any attorneys’ fees or expenses. The medical review of your case and the legal consultation are free. We only receive payment once you do.
Recent Birth Injury Settlement:
Birth Injury settlement against a hospital in which nurses and physicians failed to properly monitor the mother's blood pressure during delivery causing an HIE event resulting in neonatal seizures and cerebral palsy at birth. Our team of experienced St. Louis birth injury lawyers recovered $13,750,000 for the family to help with future medical expenses and developmental therapy.
How Are We Different from Other Birth Injury Firms?
Every birth injury firm is eager to prove they are capable of handling big cases with multi-million dollar payouts. Miller Weisbrod Olesky has been taking on high-profile medical malpractice cases for over 30 years, and our results and achievements speak for themselves.
Our specialized St. Louis Birth Injury Lawyers combine years of legal experience with a personal dedication to their clients. Partners Clay Miller and Les Weisbrod are board-certified trial lawyers who have built the firm’s reputation with not only successful verdicts, but by leading birth injury legal education for over 30 years.
While partner David Olesky originally practiced medical malpractice defense, he has now spent years pursuing justice for victims of birth injuries.
Together, they’ve built the firm’s reputation with successful verdicts and by leading birth injury legal education for over 30 years.
In 1989, firm founder Les Weisbrod co-founded the Birth Trauma Litigation Group (BTLG), a nationally-recognized organization committed to training other lawyers on how to best manage and win birth injury lawsuits.
Members of the BTLG meet multiple times each year, with medical doctors also attending to present and educate attorneys across the country.
Today, BTLG is the leading educational and information-sharing group for attorneys dedicated to representing children and their families dealing with life-altering birth injuries.
Les Weisbrod and the rest of our team remain committed to being the leading national birth injury law firm by training attorneys in the latest medical knowledge on the causes and long-term treatment of birth injuries.
Dedicated Nurse-Attorney Liaisons
Unlike other firms, Miller Weisbrod Olesky gets our clients the care they need today, not just after their case ends. Birth injury litigation can take time; it can sometimes take years before a family receives compensation to cover medical costs.
We understand that a child’s injuries and needs can’t just go on hold; that’s why we have a robust team of registered nurses and nurse-attorneys in the office who are assigned to each and every case.
Most birth injury law firms will employ one or two nurses to assist the review of cases and medical research. At our firm, a nurse-attorney liaison is assigned to each client’s team, guiding them through ongoing medical treatment and evaluation.
While your case is ongoing, our nurse-attorney helps to coordinate the day-to-day medical necessities your child will need. This includes doctor’s visits, medical examinations, treatments and therapies, and transportation services to and from these appointments throughout the case.
Our nursing staffalso lends their expertise to each case, analyzing and investigating the reasons behind each child’s birth injury. They work alongside our attorneys to pinpoint where and how medical professionals breached their standard of care.
Our collaboration between knowledgeable legal professionals and experienced medical experts is what gives our firm the edge needed to succeed.
Think You May Have a Case? Reach Out Today!
Birth injuries strike the most innocent of victims. Families deserve to know if better medical care could have prevented their child’s conditions, birth complications or death could have been prevented with better medical care. Our St. Louis birth injury lawyers can provide that clarity.
Sometimes people are hesitant to contact a birth injury malpractice attorney. Parents may feel overwhelmed by their circumstances and worry that a law firm won’t be able to help them.
If you live in St. Louis or any of our service areas, don’t hesitate to see if you have a case. You can contact us today by calling our toll-free line at (888) 987-0005 or by filling out our online request form. We work on a contingency fee basis, meaning you won't pay any legal fees unless we win your case.
What Are the Common Medical Mistakes Leading to Birth Injuries?
During labor and delivery and in the time leading up to it, a baby’s heart rate should be carefully monitored as it can reveal critical information about their wellbeing.
Fetal Heart Rate Monitoring
A healthy fetal heart rate rests between 110 and 160 beats per minute (bpm) with moderate variability and expected accelerations in response to the mother’s uterine contractions.
A non-reassuring fetal heart rate (known informally as fetal distress) is one with too much variability, absent variability (flatlining), or continual late decelerations after a mother’s contractions peak. These are all signs that the baby doesn’t have enough oxygen, which is medically referred to as hypoxia.
A baby can only go without oxygen for an extremely short window. If their access to oxygen is restricted or cut off for too long, brain cells will begin to die off within minutes and organ failure can occur. A baby in fetal distress who suffers from hypoxia for too long is at a heightened risk for birth asphyxia, brain injuries, and several other birth complications, and other unfavorable outcomes.
Examples of critical mistakes with fetal heart rate monitoring include:
Failing to carefully monitor a baby’s non-reassuring heart rate at all.
Misinterpreting the results of the monitoring strip.
Failing to take appropriate action after seeing the baby’s alarming heart rate status.
These errors can all prolong a baby’s oxygen deprivation and lead to injuries that would constitute a medical malpractice claim.
A cesarean section delivery (commonly shortened to C-section) is a medical procedure where doctors make an incision into the mother’s abdomen and uterus to deliver the baby. C-sections carry multiple risks, but it can become necessary when doctors deem vaginal birth to be even more risky.
Many different pregnancy complications can make vaginal birth unsafe and necessitate a C-section delivery. Conditions like macrosomia or cephalopelvic disproportion may indicate that the baby is too large to safely fit through the mother’s birth canal. Or sometimes the baby is in an abnormal fetal position that makes it unsafe to deliver. For example, the baby’s feet may point out toward the cervix (known as breech position).
The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) recommends that the interval between the decision and initiation of the C-section should be no more than 30 minutes. But ACOG also recognizes that some C-sections must be performed faster, depending upon the emergency conditions.
Examples of emergency conditions that would require a faster C-section include a uterine rupture, a placental abruption, or a severe lack of oxygen in the baby (acute birth asphyxia). When these labor and delivery complications occur, doctors do not have 30 minutes to spare debating on whether or not to perform the procedure.
Doctors must understand the urgency required in the delivery room when it becomes evident the mother will need a C-section. It is critical they begin operating as soon as they make the decision and have the necessary tools available. Preventable delays can cause birth injuries and qualify as medical malpractice.
Many things can be abnormal in an expecting mother’s pregnancy, from umbilical cord problems to placental complications. Every mother’s experiences during pregnancy will be different, and it is extremely important that she receives proper observation from licensed healthcare providers during regular prenatal testing appointments.
Maternity Care Deserts
Jackson County is fortunate to have full access to maternity care centers and hospitals. However, March of Dimes classifies 48 counties across Missouri as “maternity care deserts”. A maternity care desert is an area where maternal healthcare access is either severely limited or nonexistent.
Using 2024 population estimates, nearly a tenth of the state population (over 626,000 Missourians) live within a maternity care desert.
Expecting mothers who live in maternity care deserts have a higher likelihood of experiencing insufficient or inadequate prenatal testing. This can increase her chance of experiencing a missed pregnancy complication that becomes life-threatening to her or her baby.
Prenatal Testing
Common examples of medical malpractice during prenatal care include:
Failing to test for abnormalities when a mother displays physical symptoms
Improperly conducting ultrasounds or misinterpreting their results
Failing to schedule appropriate follow-up appointments throughout the mother’s pregnancy
When an expecting mother’s labor becomes prolonged or arrested, it can have dangerous outcomes. For the safety of both her and her baby, doctors may decide to prescribe and administer labor-inducing medications to help ease the delivery process along.
Labor-inducing Medications
Labor-inducing medications (the most common of which being Pitocin and Cytotec) can greatly help a mother with weak contractions or a cervix that fails to properly dilate and efface. But when misused or improperly prescribed, they can cause harmful labor and delivery complications that can cause severe injuries.
Sometimes doctors wrongly prescribe labor-inducing medications despite the mother displaying signs suggesting its usage will lead to complications. Other times, doctors may prescribe too high of a dosage, fail to monitor its effects, or fail to properly intervene.
Medical mistakes during labor and delivery can cause severe brain damage at birth that can impair a child’s physical and cognitive functioning for the rest of their life.
What Is Hypoxic-Ischemic Encephalopathy?
The most common brain injury caused by these mistakes is hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy (commonly shortened to HIE). HIE is an injury that occurs when the baby’s brain does not receive sufficient levels of oxygen (hypoxia) or blood flow (ischemia).
The primary concern with HIE is that it is often a precursor to a cerebral palsy diagnosis later in childhood. Cerebral palsy is not a “one-size-fits-all” diagnosis. This is because it isn’t just one condition, but rather a group of neurological conditions that can affect a person’s movement, posture, balance, speaking, swallowing, and cognitive functioning.
Children with cerebral palsy often have varying levels of gross motor function control. Some children are able to walk with minimal assistance, while others will require assistive equipment such as walkers or wheelchairs for mobility. Other children may require communication devices to interact with others.
The attorneys, nurses, and supporting staff of Miller Weisbrod Olesky understand that parents of children with birth injuries feel overwhelmed. This is why we strive to ensure every client has the full attention and support of our trained, compassionate team of professionals.
We don’t just offer compassion: we offer a comprehensive process to help you discover whether your child’s birth injury, HIE, cerebral palsy or brain injury was caused by a medical error.
Here is a simplified step-by-step guide to the legal process once you contact one of our St. Louis birth injury lawyers:
Step 1: Intake
During your first contact with the firm, you will speak with one of our birth injury-trained intake team members. Each intake specialist you speak with is either a nurse or someone who works closely with our legal nursing team. The intake specialist will ask specific questions to gather all the relevant facts regarding the birth of your child and any concerns you may have.
You will not be required to tell us what you think was done wrong; that is our job to find out. Otherwise, please feel free to tell us everything you feel and know.
Step 2: Gathering Documents
If we decide to look further into your case, we will ask you to sign medical authorizations to gather documents to support your potential case.
It usually takes six to eight weeks to retrieve medical records. As soon as they arrive, our nurse consultants and nurse-attorneys thoroughly review them. We then review each case at a birth injury case review meeting.
Firm partners, various St. Louis birth injury lawyers, and our entire legal nurse and legal nurse-attorney team all attend this meeting. It’s important to note that looking further into medical records does not always mean we will be taking the case.
Step 3: Consulting With Medical Experts
At this point, we decide whether the medical records support a potential medical negligence or malpractice lawsuit. If they do, we begin working with medical experts necessary to pursue a birth trauma or wrongful death lawsuit.
These experts include obstetricians, neonatologists, pediatric neurologists, pediatric radiologists, nursing experts, life care planners, and economists. In some states, we must get official written reports back from these experts before filing a lawsuit.
This entire medical record review process may take as long as six months to complete. We use this time preparing to manage all the potential issues that may arise after the experts have reached their medical conclusions.
Step 4: Case Review with An Attorney
Once we accept your case, you will meet with a professional St. Louis birth injury lawyers and other team members. The attorney will walk you through our findings, what the medical experts found, and how the litigation process will work.
Step 5: Attorney Contract/Retainer Process
At this stage, we have decided to take your case and have thoroughly reviewed it with our St. Louis birth injury lawyers. We will reach out to have you sign our firm-attorney contract that officially hires us to represent you. You will also sign medical authorizations so we can gather additional medical records covering:
Follow-up visits with pediatricians and other specialists
Once again, you will not pay any attorneys’ fees or expenses during this process. You will never owe a fee or reimbursement of expenses unless we make a successful recovery for you and your child. We believe in taking care of our clients during each step of this process. Please know that we are here to listen and help during the entire journey from case review all the way to a potential lawsuit.
What Does Compensation Look Like in a Birth Injury Lawsuit?
Injured parties can receive compensation for their damages through a successful medical malpractice claim. But what can be considered as “damage”?
Medical malpractice cases generally involve claims for three kinds of damages:
Economic Damages
This type of damage is tangible. Plaintiffs will have bills, invoices, and records to show how much they spent on things like medical care, prescriptions, therapy, and equipment. Medical malpractice attorneys will work with highly qualified experts to create life care plans.
These plans map out a birth injured baby’s medical and attendant care for the entire life expectancy, as well as a plan of how to pay for these expenses.
Many plaintiffs include loss of earnings or earnings capacity as another economic damage in their claim. If someone’s earnings or earnings potential is negatively affected because of a doctor’s mistake, a medical malpractice attorney can recover lost wages and lost earning capacity through a lawsuit.
Non-Economic Damages
Damages like pain and suffering exist but are not as quantifiable as economic losses. Plaintiffs might not have receipts about some of the suffering caused by medical malpractice, but it still deserves compensation. Non-economic damages also include pain, emotional/mental anguish, loss of enjoyment of life, physical impairment, disability, disfigurement, and loss of companionship.
Punitive Damages
Punitive damages are considered as ‘punishment’ for the wrongdoer’s actions. They can also be a way to deter or discourage defendants from engaging in the same type of conduct in the future.
Compensation for punitive damages is less common than for economic and non-economic losses. In fact, some states do not allow them to be awarded at all.
Our St. Louis birth injury lawyers will know each state’s peculiar laws regarding the availability of and limitations on punitive damages.
A knowledgeable birth injury lawyer can help explain what types of damages are potentially available to claim in your child’s lawsuit. Available damage claims will depend on the circumstances of each case.
How Long Do You Have To File A Birth Injury Malpractice Lawsuit in Missouri?
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.
Parents may file a birth injury claim for their child no later than their 20th birthday.
Generally, the clock starts ticking on the date the injury occurred. However, there are exceptions to this rule. In some cases, the statute of limitations starts when a person discovers or reasonably should have discovered an injury.
You may need to file a birth injury 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 on your case can be tricky. If you're considering pursuing compensation for a birth injury, you should contact an attorney as soon as possible.
How Can Our Birth Injury Attorneys Help You?
It takes an expert review of the facts to determine whether injuries during pregnancy or delivery resulted from medical malpractice. An St. Louis birth injury lawyer is available to start that process today.
Our mission is to help victims of birth injury negligenceby pursuing medical malpractice claims against responsible parties. We know how expensive birth injury treatment is and have witnessed the financial strain lifelong medical bills place on families.
We are eager to secure the compensation your family deserves. We also help along the way, scheduling important doctor’s visits, treatments and therapies, and transportation to and from these appointments.
When you hire us to represent you and your child, you become a part of a strong team of support. Our goal is to help you feel less alone during the legal process and to assist your family wherever possible.
We do not charge any fees unless we win your case. The legal consultation and case review process are free of charge. We handle cases against major hospitals in St. Louis, including surrounding areas like Affton, Kirkwood, Maryland Heights, Ferguson, and Bridgeton. Contact us at (888) 987-0005 or fill out our convenient online form to schedule your free consultation.
Are There Birth Injury Support Groups in Missouri?
Utilizing available resources can be helpful for families who are coping with the effects of a birth injury. Joining support groups can help to ease the emotional impact of birth trauma and the child's resulting needs. They provide a safe space for you to share your experiences, fears, and frustrations while also receiving empathy and understanding. Listed below are numerous resources and organizations serving Missouri:
March of Dimes
March of Dimes is a non-profit organization originally founded in 1938 as the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis. They publish maternal and fetal healthcare data, fundraising for lifesaving research, and advocating for stronger maternity care across the nation.
March of Dimes’s website features a variety of research, public health reports, and links to donate and find local support.
Missouri Developmental Disabilities Council (MODDC)
The MODDC is a federally funded council consisting of 23 board members. Their mission is to assist individuals, families, and the community to include all people with developmental disabilities in life.
Their website provides individual, family, and professional resources that Missourians can take utilize. The council meets twice every month to discuss goals, funding, and their priorities in policymaking advocacy. The MODDC Partners in Policymaking program allows families to become involved in lobbying campaigns for stronger disability rights.
The Arc is an outreach organization with locations across the country. They advocate for public policy supporting individuals for disabilities, leading training and educational programs, and coordinating support groups and services.
Their website provides access to local resources and events across Missouri where people can volunteer. They also provide expansive information on different types of intellectual disabilities and how you can take action.
The Missouri state chapter has 4 local sub-chapters in Saint Louis, Gladstone, Osage Beach, and Springfield.
Missouri Department of Education Office of Childhood
The Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education includes an Office of Childhood specializing specifically in early childcare needs. Their web page hosts a wide variety of information regarding early intervention, child care subsidy programs, and child care health consultations.
The site also features information on early childhood special education programs and specific resources for referrals, placement, and financing. They also provide helpful tips for making a smooth transition from a child’s first steps to beginning special education.
Visit the Office of Childhood webpage for more details.
Using these resources can help you progress toward coping with social, emotional, physical, and financial effects of serious birth injuries. Miller Weisbrod Olesky can help you find the appropriate resources, information, and services while seeking full compensation for your family.
Miller Weisbrod Olesky
At Miller Weisbrod Olesky, the attorneys, nurses, and 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 was caused by a medical error.
Call our offices today at 888.987.0005 for experienced assistance in a free consultation.
Lyric C. I feel like our voice was heard in a sense of what can possibly go wrong in a delivery and finding us answers. I feel with our settlement, we are now in a comfortable position to provide for our son.
Lyssa L. They are not just people that say “hey let's get you money and let's go” The law firm was very thorough with us. It was awesome. I don't want to cry, because I think about and it's amazing that they were able to help me and that we were able to help my son and get the story out there.
Jay C. Throughout the process, one thing was clear to us, the ultimate interest of our child was the utmost concern of Max and his team and as parents navigating a situation like that, that was refreshing to know we had them firmly on our side. I highly recommend them.
