Birth Defects and Medical Negligence in Chicago

Birth defects are structural changes or other medical conditions that are present at birth. Some are identified during pregnancy, while others are diagnosed at birth or later in childhood. They vary greatly in cause, severity, treatment, and long-term effect.

Most birth defects are not caused by medical malpractice. Many involve genetic or chromosomal changes, developmental factors, environmental influences, a combination of factors, or causes that remain unknown. The diagnosis of a birth defect, by itself, does not establish that a doctor, hospital, or another medical provider did anything wrong.

A legal issue may exist in limited circumstances when a healthcare provider failed to offer medically indicated testing, misinterpreted an ultrasound or laboratory result, failed to communicate an abnormal finding, negligently managed a medication, or provided treatment that caused additional preventable harm.

When legal review may be appropriate: If your concern involves a specific prenatal testing, diagnosis, communication, medication, or treatment error rather than the diagnosis alone, contact Sexner Injury Lawyers LLC or call (312) 243-9922 for a free evaluation.

Most Birth Defects Are Not Medical Malpractice

A difficult medical outcome is not automatically evidence of negligence. Medical providers do not guarantee that every pregnancy will result in a child without a congenital condition, and not every birth defect can be predicted, prevented, or detected before birth.

For a medical malpractice claim to be viable, there generally must be evidence that a healthcare provider failed to meet the accepted standard of care and that this failure caused legally recognized harm. Depending on the circumstances, a potential issue might involve:

Failure to offer or perform prenatal screening or diagnostic testing that was medically indicated
Misinterpretation of an ultrasound, fetal anatomy scan, laboratory test, genetic test, or other study
Failure to follow up on an abnormal or inconclusive result
Failure to communicate significant findings to the patient or another treating provider
Failure to refer the patient to a maternal-fetal medicine specialist, genetic counselor, pediatric specialist, or other appropriate provider
Negligent prescribing or management of medication during pregnancy
Failure to diagnose or treat a maternal infection, diabetes, or another condition that created an avoidable risk
Negligent treatment after birth that worsened the child’s condition or caused an additional injury

Whether any of these events constitutes negligence depends on the medical information available at the time, the provider’s specialty, the patient’s individual risk factors, and whether different care probably would have changed the outcome.

Birth Defects and Birth Injuries Are Different

A birth defect generally develops while the baby is forming during pregnancy. A birth injury is harm that occurs before, during, or shortly after delivery. Examples of birth injuries may include damage caused by oxygen deprivation, traumatic delivery, delayed emergency treatment, improper use of delivery instruments, or failure to respond to fetal distress.

A child may have a congenital condition without suffering a birth injury. A child with a birth defect may also suffer a separate injury if negligent prenatal, delivery, surgical, or newborn care makes the condition worse.

Another distinct type of case may involve negligent prenatal testing or communication. In a potential wrongful birth claim, the allegation is generally not that the healthcare provider caused the underlying condition. The issue is whether negligent testing, diagnosis, counseling, or communication deprived the parents of timely and important medical information.

Prenatal Screening Is Not the Same as Diagnosis

Prenatal screening may show whether a pregnancy has a higher or lower likelihood of certain chromosomal or structural conditions. A screening result does not necessarily establish that the baby has or does not have the condition. An abnormal screening result may lead to additional imaging, genetic counseling, or diagnostic testing.

Ultrasound, blood screening, noninvasive prenatal screening, chorionic villus sampling, amniocentesis, fetal echocardiography, and other tests provide different types of information. No single test identifies every birth defect, and some conditions are not detectable until birth or later.

More general information about the difference between screening and diagnosis is available from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

How a Potential Illinois Claim Is Evaluated

A legal investigation usually requires complete prenatal, hospital, imaging, laboratory, genetic counseling, delivery, and newborn records. Medical experts may need to determine:

What testing or treatment was reasonably indicated
Whether the provider interpreted and communicated the available information correctly
Whether the condition could reasonably have been identified at that time
Whether a referral or additional test should have been ordered
Whether earlier information or treatment would probably have changed the medical outcome or the parents’ available choices
Whether negligence caused an additional injury or increased the child’s care needs

Illinois medical malpractice claims are governed by strict statutes of limitation and repose, including special provisions involving minors. The applicable deadline may depend on when the alleged error occurred, when it was discovered, whose claim is being asserted, and other facts. The general Illinois medical-malpractice deadline statute can be reviewed in Section 13-212 of the Illinois Code of Civil Procedure.

Common Birth Defects and Congenital Conditions

The pages below provide general medical information about several congenital conditions. Inclusion in this list does not mean that the condition was caused by malpractice or that a legal claim ordinarily exists.

Phenylketonuria

Phenylketonuria, commonly called PKU, is an inherited metabolic disorder that prevents the body from properly processing phenylalanine. PKU itself is not caused by medical malpractice.

Newborn screening allows PKU to be identified and treated early. A legal issue would be more likely to involve a preventable failure to perform required newborn screening, communicate an abnormal result, arrange follow-up care, or begin appropriate treatment when that failure caused additional harm.

Additional general information is available from MedlinePlus.

Neural Tube Defects

Neural tube defects affect the developing brain or spine. Conditions in this category include anencephaly, encephalocele, and spina bifida.

Obtaining sufficient folic acid before conception and during early pregnancy can reduce the risk of neural tube defects. Because the neural tube develops very early, beginning folic acid only after a pregnancy is recognized may be later than the most protective period. The presence of a neural tube defect, however, does not establish that the mother or a healthcare provider was negligent.

Some neural tube defects can be detected through prenatal screening and imaging, but the effectiveness of testing depends on the condition, timing, quality of the study, and other circumstances. More information is available from the CDC’s folic acid resource.

Congenital Heart Defects

Congenital heart defects affect the structure or function of the heart and are the most common type of birth defect. They range from relatively mild conditions to critical defects requiring treatment soon after birth.

Some heart defects can be identified during pregnancy with ultrasound or fetal echocardiography. Others are not detected until birth, childhood, or adulthood. Treatment depends on the type and severity of the defect. Some children require surgery, while others may receive catheter-based treatment, monitoring, medication, or other care.

A potential malpractice question may arise when an indicated study was not ordered, an abnormal finding was misinterpreted or not communicated, newborn screening was mishandled, or a treatment delay caused avoidable additional harm. The condition itself does not establish malpractice.

Additional information is available from the CDC’s congenital heart defect resource.

Medication Use During Pregnancy

Certain medications can increase the risk of particular fetal conditions, but an association between a medication and a birth defect does not by itself prove that the drug caused the condition or that prescribing it was negligent.

Doctors must often balance potential fetal risks against the risks of leaving the mother’s medical condition untreated. A proper evaluation may consider the medication, dosage, timing, reason it was prescribed, available alternatives, known medical information at that time, and counseling provided to the patient.

Patients should not stop a prescribed medication during pregnancy without discussing the risks and alternatives with an appropriate healthcare provider.

When Should a Family Consider a Legal Review?

A legal review may be reasonable when there is a specific concern that:

An indicated prenatal screening or diagnostic test was never offered
An ultrasound, laboratory result, or genetic test was misread
An abnormal finding was not communicated or followed up
A specialist referral was unreasonably delayed
Medication was prescribed or managed without appropriate consideration of known pregnancy risks
A congenital condition was worsened by delayed or negligent treatment
Newborn screening results were lost, ignored, or not acted upon

A diagnosis alone generally is not enough. The central questions are whether a provider acted negligently and whether that negligence caused additional legally recognized harm.

Contact Sexner Injury Lawyers LLC

If your concern involves a specific error in prenatal testing, diagnosis, communication, medication management, delivery planning, newborn screening, or treatment, contact Sexner Injury Lawyers LLC or call (312) 243-9922 for a free and confidential evaluation.

We will explain honestly whether the circumstances appear to justify further investigation. If the firm accepts a medical malpractice matter, no attorney fee is charged unless compensation is recovered for the client.