Abbeville Birth Injury Attorney

A birth injury changes what the first months and years with your child look like, and it can leave you with more questions than answers about what actually happened in the delivery room. At Hite Law Firm, we represent families across Abbeville, South Carolina, whose babies were hurt by a preventable medical error before, during, or shortly after birth.

If you suspect your child’s injury could have been avoided with proper care, our Abbeville birth injury attorneys can review the medical records and help you understand what your family’s options look like, starting with a free consultation.

How Medical Errors Cause Birth Injuries

Doctors and hospital staff are responsible for monitoring both mother and baby throughout pregnancy, labor, and delivery. When concerning signs are missed, or a necessary intervention is delayed, the consequences can be serious and sometimes permanent. Medical errors that may contribute to a birth injury include:

• Failing to diagnose or appropriately manage gestational diabetes, high blood pressure, or other pregnancy complications
• Missing or misinterpreting signs of fetal distress on a monitor strip
• Delaying a necessary cesarean section
• Improper use of forceps or a vacuum extractor
• Mishandling shoulder dystocia or using excessive force during delivery
• Failing to recognize or appropriately respond to a breech presentation

Mistakes can also happen in the hours and days after birth, particularly when providers fail to recognize or respond appropriately to signs of oxygen deprivation, infection, or neurological injury. In some cases, the actions of an individual provider may be at issue. In others, questions may arise about hospital staffing, policies, supervision, equipment, or other systemic factors. Identifying what went wrong and who was responsible is an important part of evaluating a potential birth injury claim.

What to Do If You Suspect a Birth Injury

Parents may begin questioning what happened before they have a clear diagnosis or explanation for their child’s condition. If that describes your situation, a few early steps can help preserve important information and protect your options:

1. Request a complete copy of the labor, delivery, and newborn medical records, including fetal monitoring records when available.
2. Keep notes about what hospital staff told you at the time, particularly if explanations about what happened have changed.
3. Be cautious about signing releases, settlement agreements, or other documents related to a potential claim before you understand what they mean.
4. Keep your child’s follow-up appointments and maintain records of evaluations, treatment, therapy, and developmental progress.

Birth Injuries That May Be Caused by Medical Negligence

Some birth injuries resolve with time. Others can affect a child for the rest of their life. Birth injury claims may involve conditions such as:

1. Cerebral palsy, which in some cases may be associated with complications that affect oxygen or blood flow to the baby’s brain
2. Hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE), a type of brain injury caused by inadequate oxygen and blood flow around the time of birth
3. Brachial plexus injuries, including Erb’s palsy, which can occur when the nerves controlling the shoulder, arm, and hand are injured during delivery
4. Subgaleal hemorrhage, a serious form of bleeding beneath the scalp that is particularly associated with vacuum-assisted delivery but can occur in other circumstances
5. Perinatal stroke, which can result from several different causes or risk factors affecting blood flow to the baby’s brain

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 1 in 345 children in the United States has been identified with cerebral palsy. Cerebral palsy can have several causes and risk factors, and having the condition does not by itself mean that medical negligence occurred.

Why the First Hours After a Hypoxic Injury Matter

For some newborns with moderate to severe hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy, therapeutic hypothermia may be used to reduce the risk or severity of brain injury. Treatment generally needs to begin within the first several hours after birth, making timely recognition and evaluation important. If medical providers fail to recognize signs of HIE or appropriately evaluate a newborn for treatment, that delay may become relevant when determining whether the standard of care was met.

Who May Be Responsible for a Birth Injury

More than one party may share responsibility for a preventable birth injury. Depending on the facts, a claim may involve:

• The obstetrician or other physician who managed the pregnancy or delivery
• Labor and delivery nurses
• The pediatrician or other providers who treated your baby after birth
• The hospital, depending on the actions of its employees and its own policies or practices
• A pharmacy, laboratory, or other healthcare provider whose error contributed to the injury

If your child’s injury proves fatal, our team can also help your family pursue a wrongful death claim against those responsible.

When a Hospital May Share Responsibility

A birth injury claim does not necessarily involve only the delivering physician. Depending on the circumstances, a hospital may also bear responsibility for the actions of its employees or for its own failures involving staffing, supervision, equipment, policies, or other aspects of patient care.

Determining hospital responsibility requires looking closely at who provided the care, their relationship with the hospital, and what contributed to the injury. A physician may not always be a hospital employee, and the hospital is not automatically responsible for every provider’s actions. However, failures involving hospital employees or the hospital’s own practices may create separate grounds for liability.

Proving Negligence in a Birth Injury Case

A birth injury lawsuit in South Carolina is a form of medical malpractice, which comes with procedural steps most families have never encountered. Before filing a medical malpractice lawsuit, South Carolina law generally requires the claimant to file and serve a Notice of Intent to File Suit along with an affidavit from a qualified medical expert, under S.C. Code § 15-79-125. The parties must then participate in prelitigation mediation within 90 to 120 days after the notice is served, unless the court grants an extension for good cause.

To succeed, you generally need to show that a healthcare provider failed to meet the applicable standard of care and that this failure caused your child’s injury. Establishing those elements often requires a detailed review of the medical records and testimony from qualified medical experts who can explain what the standard of care required, how the care provided differed, and how that failure contributed to the injury.

What Compensation Can Cover

A birth injury claim can account for a wide range of losses tied to your child’s injury and future needs, including:

• Past and future medical treatment, therapy, and equipment
• The cost of long-term or lifelong care, which can overlap with what we handle in a catastrophic injury claim
• Lost future earning capacity for your child
• Pain, suffering, and the impact on your child’s quality of life

South Carolina limits noneconomic damages in many medical malpractice cases under S.C. Code § 15-32-220. The statute establishes limits for claims against individual healthcare providers and institutions, with a higher aggregate limit when multiple providers or institutions are liable. These amounts are adjusted for inflation, and statutory exceptions can apply in certain cases. The limits do not apply to economic damages, including medical expenses, rehabilitation, certain educational and custodial care costs, and lost earning capacity.

Because a birth injury claim may need to account for decades of future care, accurately evaluating those anticipated costs is an important part of determining the potential value of the claim. Future therapy, mobility equipment, specialized education, medical treatment, and assistance may represent substantial expenses that need to be considered before a case is resolved.

The Deadline for a Birth Injury Claim

South Carolina generally requires a medical malpractice action to be filed within three years of the treatment, omission, or other medical care that caused the injury, or within three years of when the injury was discovered or reasonably should have been discovered, under S.C. Code § 15-3-545. The statute also generally imposes a six-year outer limit from the date of the medical care at issue, although specific tolling rules and exceptions can affect the deadline.

Birth injury cases involving minors have additional rules. South Carolina law allows the limitations period to be tolled because of a child’s minority, but that tolling cannot extend the filing period by more than seven years on account of minority or, in any event, more than one year after the disability ends. Because the interaction between these deadlines can be complicated, the filing deadline should be evaluated based on the specific facts of the child’s case.

Waiting can still carry risks even when additional time may be available. Medical records, fetal monitoring data, witness recollections, and other evidence may become more difficult to obtain as time passes. Speaking with an attorney early can provide more time to preserve relevant evidence, identify the providers involved, and investigate what happened.

Why Choose Hite Law Firm for a Birth Injury Case

Birth injury cases require a careful review of complicated medical evidence and an understanding of how an injury may affect a child for years to come. Hite Law Firm has represented families in Abbeville County since 1981, and we bring decades of trial experience to serious medical malpractice claims.

We look beyond the diagnosis to determine what happened during pregnancy, labor, delivery, and newborn care. That can include reviewing fetal heart monitoring strips, nursing notes, physician orders, test results, and other records. When appropriate, qualified medical experts can help evaluate whether the standard of care was met and whether a medical error contributed to the child’s injury.

We also consider what the injury will mean for the child’s future. When lifelong limitations are expected, medical, life care planning, vocational, or economic evidence may help document anticipated treatment, therapy, equipment, assistance, educational needs, and lost earning capacity.

Most importantly, we prepare serious injury cases with the possibility of trial in mind. We develop the medical evidence, investigate who may be responsible, and document both current and future damages so the case is prepared for negotiations or court.

Get Answers From an Abbeville Birth Injury Lawyer

Hite Law Firm has served Abbeville and the surrounding community for more than four decades from our office on Court Square, steps from the Abbeville County Courthouse. When you come to us with questions about a possible birth injury, you do not need to know whether malpractice occurred before you call.

Our job is to investigate what the medical evidence shows and explain what it means for your family. We understand that questioning the care your child received can be difficult, and we approach these cases with the care their circumstances require.

If you believe a medical error may have contributed to your child’s injury, contact Hite Law Firm for a free, no-obligation consultation. Tell us what happened, and we can help you understand whether further investigation is warranted and what your next steps may be.