Birth Injuries
Bringing a child into the world should be joyful, yet a single medical mistake during pregnancy, labor, or delivery can leave a baby facing lifelong challenges and parents buried under staggering medical bills. At the Law Offices of Croley & Foley, our Lexington birth injury attorneys have spent more than 25 years holding negligent doctors, nurses, and hospitals accountable across Central and Eastern Kentucky.
See how birth injuries occur, what Kentucky law provides, and the concrete steps you can take to protect your child’s future.
Kentucky Law Turns Errors Into Birth-Injury Claims
Kentucky’s infant mortality rate stands at 6.58 deaths per 1,000 live births, significantly higher than the national average. While not all infant deaths or disabilities stem from malpractice, the statistic underscores systemic gaps in maternal and neonatal care—gaps that become painfully personal when an avoidable injury strikes your family.
Under Kentucky law, a birth injury is any preventable physical or neurological harm suffered by a baby—or by the mother—from pregnancy through the first few weeks of life. Because the Commonwealth treats these cases as medical malpractice, the family must prove four elements:
- a provider-patient relationship establishing a duty of care;
- a breach of that duty measured against how a reasonably competent Bluegrass obstetrician would act;
- a causal link between the error and the injury;
- And compensable damages such as lifelong therapy costs, diminished earning capacity, or emotional distress.
Expert testimony from board-certified obstetricians, neonatologists, or labor-and-delivery nurses is almost always essential to establish breach and causation. Many problems—cerebral palsy, speech delays, or learning disabilities—surface months or even years after discharge, so Kentucky applies a discovery rule that pauses its one-year malpractice statute until the harm is, or reasonably should have been, recognized.
For minors, KRS § 413.170 tolls the clock until the child turns eighteen, then grants one additional year to sue. Parents seeking reimbursement of their own out-of-pocket expenses must still file within the ordinary window, making swift action critical. Meticulously recording developmental milestones, therapy plans, and specialist opinions preserves evidence and strengthens any future Kentucky birth-injury claim.
Common Types of Birth Trauma We Litigate
Childbirth is a medical marathon, and any misstep in the delivery room can leave a newborn—or the mother—facing serious, often lifelong challenges. While every case is unique, a handful of injuries appear again and again in Kentucky malpractice files, each tied to critical moments where timely action could have changed the outcome.
Here are the top ten conditions that the best birth injury attorney in Kentucky encounters most frequently when pursuing justice for affected families:
Top 1: Hypoxic-Ischemic Encephalopathy (HIE) & Cerebral Palsy
When a newborn’s brain is deprived of oxygen even briefly, neurons die and lifelong motor or cognitive deficits can result. Fetal-monitor decelerations demand an immediate C-section and post-birth cooling therapy within six hours—but many hospitals miss both benchmarks, turning a reversible crisis into permanent disability.
Top 2: Brachial Plexus Birth Palsy (Erb’s or Klumpke’s)
Excessive traction during a shoulder-dystocia delivery can stretch or tear the nerves that power the arm. Although most infants regain function within a year, roughly eight percent endure lasting weakness or paralysis, often because staff ignored safer maneuvers.
Top 3: Birth-Related Fractures & Intracranial Bleeds
Misplaced forceps or a vacuum extractor can fracture the clavicle, humerus, or skull; undiagnosed cranial bleeds raise pressure, triggering seizures or fatal herniation. Immediate neuro-imaging—not a cursory head-circumference check—is the accepted standard of care.
Top 4: Maternal Trauma That Harms the Newborn
Severe perineal tears, unchecked postpartum hemorrhage, or untreated infections deprive the baby of oxygen or seed neonatal sepsis. Vigilant monitoring of maternal vitals is essential to prevent a double tragedy.
Top 5: Facial Nerve (VII) Palsy
Forceps blades that press too hard can paralyze one side of a newborn’s face. Early physical therapy often restores motion, but severe cases may require nerve-grafting surgery to regain symmetry.
Top 6: Subgaleal Hemorrhage After Vacuum Delivery
A vacuum cup that slips or stays on too long shears scalp veins, letting blood pool under the galea and potentially draining the infant’s entire blood volume. Rapid recognition and transfusion are lifesaving.
Top 7: Intraventricular Hemorrhage (IVH) in Preterm Babies
Fragile brain vessels in very-low-birth-weight infants can rupture during blood-pressure swings. Strict head-positioning and gentle BP control prevent many of these devastating bleeds.
Top 8: Persistent Pulmonary Hypertension of the Newborn (PPHN) & Meconium Aspiration
Thick meconium can clog airways and lock pulmonary vessels in a fetal-pressure state, starving organs of oxygen. Prompt intubation, surfactant, and inhaled nitric oxide are critical; delays constitute clear negligence.
Top 9: Kernicterus From Extreme Jaundice
When bilirubin tops 30 mg/dL, it crosses the blood-brain barrier and can cause athetoid cerebral palsy and hearing loss. Hospitals must follow AAP phototherapy curves and retest bilirubin after discharge to avoid liability.
Top 10: Neonatal Sepsis From Missed or Untreated Infection
Globally lethal and often preventable, sepsis strikes when Group-B strep prophylaxis is skipped, antibiotics are delayed, or maternal fever is ignored. Rapid cultures and broad-spectrum antibiotics save lives—and lawsuits.
Because each injury has a different mechanism and prognosis, our top-rated birth injury attorney works closely with pediatric neurologists, neonatologists, and life-care planners to calculate the true cost of future care.
Proving Negligence in a Kentucky Birth Injury
Winning a birth-injury lawsuit in Kentucky hinges on proving that the medical team violated the obstetric standard of care and that the breach directly harmed the child or mother. Here are the key building blocks your Kentucky injury attorney will gather and why each matters:
- Pinpointing Red-Flag Evidence
- Fetal-monitor strips showing unaddressed decelerations, late heart-rate recoveries, or prolonged bradycardia.
- Nursing flow sheets documenting Pitocin rates, contraction patterns, and any warning notes about tachysystole.
- Decision-to-incision timestamps for C-sections; industry guidelines expect delivery within 30 minutes once fetal distress is confirmed.
- Instrument logs indicating vacuum-cup pressure, number of pulls, and forceps application time.
- Medication charts that reveal dosage miscalculations for magnesium sulfate, oxytocin, or anesthetics.
- Leveraging the Right Expert Witnesses
Kentucky courts typically require testimony from professionals with “similar training and experience” to the defendant. Your legal team will enlist:
- Board-certified obstetricians to testify that a competent OB would have intervened sooner.
- Neonatologists or pediatric neurologists to connect the negligent act to HIE, brachial-plexus palsy, or other injuries.
- Nurse experts to address breaches in bedside monitoring or medication protocols.
Experts translate complex medical data into plain language, making the breach crystal clear for jurors.
- Crafting a Minute-by-Minute Timeline
By synchronizing fetal-monitor printouts, anesthesia logs, and operative reports, attorneys create a real-time narrative that exposes delays, missteps, and contradictory charting. This chronology often becomes the case’s most compelling exhibit. - Demonstrating Causation and Damages
Finally, vocational and life-care planners convert the child’s future medical needs—surgeries, therapy, adaptive equipment—into dollar figures, linking every cost to the original breach.
When these elements align, negligence shifts from suspicion to courtroom certainty, empowering Kentucky families to secure the compensation required for a lifetime of specialized care.
Kentucky Statute of Limitations and Tolling Rules
Kentucky enforces one of the nation’s fastest malpractice clocks: KRS § 413.140(1)(e) gives most plaintiffs only one year from the negligent act—or from the date the harm “reasonably should have been discovered”—to file suit. Two carve-outs soften that harsh deadline for birth-injury cases.
First, the minor-tolling rule stops the timer entirely for injured children until their eighteenth birthday, then grants a fresh one-year window that expires on their nineteenth. Second, a strict five-year statute of repose caps the outer limit of all medical-negligence claims: even if the injury surfaces late, no lawsuit may proceed more than five years after the malpractice event.
Parents who pursue their own derivative damages—such as out-of-pocket medical bills—must still file within the basic one-year period unless counsel secures equitable tolling. Because missing any deadline is fatal, Law Offices of Croley & Foley serves immediate statutory notice on every provider involved, which automatically adds 120 extra days for pre-suit investigation, expert review, and record collection.
This proactive step preserves the family’s rights, buys critical time to build a strong case, and ensures that no procedural misstep bars the child’s opportunity to obtain the lifetime compensation Kentucky law allows.
Damages Available in a Kentucky Birth-Injury Lawsuit
Kentucky does not cap compensatory damages in medical-malpractice cases. Successful plaintiffs may recover:
- Lifetime medical and rehabilitation costs (surgeries, therapies, adaptive equipment)
- Projected loss of future earning capacity
- Home and vehicle modifications
- Pain and emotional distress
- Parental lost wages for caregiving duties
- Wrongful-death damages, when tragedy strikes
2024 data show Kentucky malpractice payouts averaged about $477,000 across 160 claims. Birth-injury settlements run higher, averaging roughly $1 million nationwide. When cases reach juries, average verdicts jump to between $1.7 million and $2 million, reflecting lifelong therapy, equipment, and caregiving expenses. Kentucky’s absence of damage caps lets courts award amounts matching each child’s projected lifetime needs.
Get Help From A Kentucky Birth Injury Attorney
A devastating birth injury can never be undone, but the right compensation can fund state-of-the-art therapies, adaptive technologies, and educational support that let your child reach full potential. Do not gamble with strict Kentucky deadlines or fight billion-dollar hospital insurers alone. Call Law Offices of Croley & Foley or fill out our secure online form for a comprehensive consultation with a Kentucky birth injury attorney who fights like family.