Birth Injury & Newborn Medical Error Lawyers in Pittsburgh
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Injuries Sustained Before, During, or Immediately After Childbirth
Do I Have a Birth Injury Case?
Not every difficult birth is malpractice. Proving a birth injury requires demonstrating that the medical team deviated from the Standard of Care, and that this deviation directly caused your child’s injury. If your child suffered an injury during pregnancy, labor, or delivery, you may be entitled to significant compensation for their lifetime care. In Pennsylvania, the Minors’ Tolling Statute often allows parents to file a claim until the child’s 20th birthday. Our Pittsburgh-based team specializes in complex birth injury cases, leveraging the 2023 venue rule changes and MCARE to hold hospital systems (like UPMC and AHN) accountable for failures in fetal monitoring, delayed C-sections, and neonatal care.
Four Requirements for a Birth Injury Claim
- Duty of Care: The hospital or OB/GYN had a duty to monitor both the mother and the fetus during labor and delivery.
- Breach of Standard: The team failed to act on “red flags” (e.g., ignoring signs of fetal distress on a monitor or failing to order a timely C-section).
- Causation: The negligence directly resulted in an injury, such as oxygen deprivation (asphyxia) or physical trauma during extraction.
- Damages: The child requires ongoing medical care, physical therapy, specialized education, or lifetime assistance.
Birth Injury “Red Flags” for Parents
- Emergency C-Section: The delivery was rushed after a long period of “waiting and watching” while the baby’s heart rate was dropping.
- NICU Admission: Your baby was immediately rushed to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit and required oxygen or a “cooling blanket” (Hypothermia Therapy).
- Low Apgar Scores: Your baby had very low scores at 1, 5, or 10 minutes after birth, indicating a lack of oxygen or physical distress.
- The “Limp” Arm: After birth, your baby was unable to move one arm or hand, or had a noticeable lack of muscle tone.
- Seizures: Your newborn experienced seizures or unusual tremors within the first 24–48 hours of life.
Commonly Occurring Birth Injuries
HIE (Hypoxic-Ischemic Encephalopathy)
Cerebral Palsy (CP)
Brachial Plexus / Erb's Palsy
Meconium Aspiration Syndrome (MAS)
Neonatal Stroke
Forceps & Vacuum Extraction Injuries
Pennsylvania Legal Rules & Deadlines
Birth injury cases are governed by unique PA statutes that differ significantly from adult malpractice claims:
Under the MCARE Act, we work to secure “excess coverage” to fund a Life Care Plan. This ensures your child has guaranteed financial support for medical equipment, home modifications, and 24/7 nursing care for the rest of their life.
Within 60 days of filing your lawsuit, Pennsylvania law requires a “Certificate of Merit.” This is a signed statement from your attorney confirming that a qualified medical expert has reviewed your records and believes the care you received fell below professional standards. Without this, your case cannot proceed.
Case Study
For any expectant couple, the birth of a first child is a moment of unparalleled anticipation. It is the culmination of months of preparation, dreams, and the careful stewardship of a new life. For a young couple from the Pittsburgh area, the pregnancy had been textbook perfect. However, what should have been the happiest day of their lives turned into a harrowing ordeal that would forever alter the trajectory of their family.
Article
If your child was born prematurely — before 32 weeks of gestation — and has been diagnosed with cerebral palsy, one of the first questions an experienced birth injury attorney should ask is: Was magnesium sulfate administered before delivery? This is not a complicated question. It is not a matter of experimental medicine or cutting-edge science.
Article
When it comes to the delicate health of premature infants, every second counts. A delayed diagnosis or mistreatment can have life-altering consequences for the baby and their family. One such condition that requires prompt attention is Retinopathy of Prematurity (ROP). Regrettably, not all medical professionals act with the urgency or care that they should, leading to potential cases of medical malpractice.
Birth Injury Case Results
Our firm secured a $13.5 million settlement for the family of a child who suffered catastrophic injuries due to medical negligence during a routine procedure at a Pittsburgh-area hospital. Despite clear signs of fetal distress and maternal complications, the healthcare team failed to take timely and necessary steps to ensure the baby’s safe delivery. This preventable delay led to severe hypoxic-ischemic brain injury and permanent disabilities. We fought tirelessly to hold the medical providers accountable and to secure justice and financial support for the family’s ongoing care needs.
Brendan Lupetin and Gregory Unatin represented the plaintiff in this case.
Our clients were the parents of a five-year-old boy who suffered a brain injury in utero just before birth. On the day of his birth, the child’s mother was admitted to a community hospital in Western Pennsylvania for induction of labor. A nurse placed a device on the mother called a fetal heart rate monitor. A fetal heart monitor uses ultrasound to display a tracing of the baby’s heart rate on a TV monitor. Before giving medication to a pregnant patient to induce labor, nurses need to make sure the fetal heart rate pattern displayed on the monitor is normal. If nurses find the fetal heart rate is abnormal, they should withhold medication to induce labor because it could harm the fetus.
Regrettably, nursing staff failed to notice concerning changes in the fetal heart rate and wrongly administered a medication to induce labor known as Cervidil. Over the next two hours, the heart monitor showed the fetal heart rate was gradually dropping and going through prolonged decelerations. These were warning signs that the fetus was not getting enough oxygen in utero. Unfortunately, nurses did not promptly recognize these warning signs or report them to the on-call obstetrician. An emergency cesarean section was not performed in a timely manner, and the baby’s brain was deprived of oxygen for too long. As a result, the child was left with permanent physical and cognitive disabilities, and dependent on tube feeding likely for the rest of his life.
Our firm secured a $1 million settlement for the grieving parents of a newborn whose death resulted from a misdiagnosed and untreated serious neonatal heart condition. The child presented with signs and symptoms that required immediate medical intervention, but healthcare providers failed to recognize and treat the condition promptly. This was a challenging case because the delay at issue was only a few minutes. Through hard work and consultation with world-class medical experts, we were able to overcome this litigation hurdle. This tragic loss highlights the critical importance of timely and accurate medical care. Through our advocacy, we were able to provide the family with financial support and hold the negligent parties accountable, ensuring justice for this preventable tragedy.
Regrettably, nursing staff failed to notice concerning changes in the fetal heart rate and wrongly administered a medication to induce labor known as Cervidil. Over the next two hours, the heart monitor showed the fetal heart rate was gradually dropping and going through prolonged decelerations. These were warning signs that the fetus was not getting enough oxygen in utero. Unfortunately, nurses did not promptly recognize these warning signs or report them to the on-call obstetrician. An emergency cesarean section was not performed in a timely manner, and the baby’s brain was deprived of oxygen for too long. As a result, the child was left with permanent physical and cognitive disabilities, and dependent on tube feeding likely for the rest of his life.
Frequently Asked Questions
We use “Life Care Planners” to calculate every cost your child is expected to ever have – from speech therapy to specialized vehicles. We then fight to have these costs covered by a Structured Settlement, which provides tax-free payments for the child’s entire life.
Yes. Maternal injuries (like severe tearing, hemorrhage, or infections) caused by medical negligence are also valid malpractice claims. You can often file your own claim alongside your child’s.
No. In Pennsylvania, the Minors’ Tolling Statute allows you to file a claim well after the birth occurred. As long as your child is under age 20, you likely still have the right to seek justice.
No. CP can have many causes, including genetics or prenatal infections. However, if the CP was caused by HIE (oxygen deprivation) during labor, it is often a sign of preventable medical error. We review the fetal monitor strips to find the truth.
No. While the MCARE Act previously included a 7-year “Statute of Repose,” the Pennsylvania Supreme Court has since declared that absolute limit unconstitutional. For children, the Minors’ Tolling Statute remains the primary rule: the two-year clock for a birth injury claim generally does not even begin to run until the child turns 18. This means that in most cases, you have until the child’s 20th birthday to take legal action. However, because fetal monitoring strips and hospital records can be lost or destroyed over time, we strongly advise starting an investigation while the evidence is still fresh.
Yes. Hospitals frequently use genetic experts as a defense tactic to argue that a brain injury was “pre-destined” rather than caused by birth trauma. However, a child can have a genetic predisposition and still be a victim of medical negligence. In Pennsylvania, we use the “Increased Risk of Harm” standard to prove that even if a child had an underlying vulnerability, the doctor’s failure to manage labor properly (such as a delayed C-section) significantly worsened the outcome. We work with our own team of pediatric neurologists and geneticists to challenge the hospital’s narrative and find the truth.
A Life Care Plan is a comprehensive document that projects the total cost of your child’s needs from the present day through their full life expectancy. In a birth injury lawsuit, this plan serves as the evidentiary backbone for your damages. It includes everything from speech and physical therapy to specialized vehicles, home modifications, and 24/7 nursing care. In 2025, Pennsylvania appellate courts upheld record-breaking verdicts (some exceeding $200 million) specifically because these detailed plans demonstrated the immense, multi-generational cost of caring for a child with a catastrophic brain injury.
Not necessarily, but it is a major “red flag.” Cooling therapy is a highly specialized treatment used to limit brain damage in newborns suffering from HIE (oxygen deprivation). While the treatment itself is a standard of care for a distressed baby, the reason the baby needed it in the first place is often rooted in a failure during labor. If your child required cooling therapy, it confirms they suffered a significant brain event at birth. We investigate the fetal monitoring strips from the hours before that treatment to see if the medical team missed a window where an earlier delivery could have prevented the injury entirely.