Cerebral Palsy

Kline & Specter won a $15 million settlement in a complex birth injury case in which a delay in delivery resulted in the baby suffering cerebral palsy. Litigating the case for the firm were Shanin Specter, Kila Baldwin and Lisa Dagostino. The defendants included a northern New Jersey hospital,…

Prisons are notoriously dangerous places. However, even prisoners are supposed to have access to a certain standard of health care. A birth-injury lawsuit filed against the Ohio Department of Correction alleges that that care was overlooked in a recent case. A prison inmate who gave birth while in…

An Allentown, Pennsylvania obstetrician continued with a natural childbirth despite complications which caused a newborn to be deprived of oxygen for more than three minutes. Chloe McCarthy, now four years old, suffered cerebral palsy and other neurological disorders stemming from the birth injury…

Group B Streptococcus, or Group B Strep, is normal flora that lives in the abdomen and genital tract.  The bacteria can live in a woman’s vagina without causing any signs or symptoms.  It is not a sexually transmitted disease.  However, a pregnant woman with Group B Strep, or GBS, can pass the…

Meconium is the first thick and sticky bowel movement, feces, or stool that is normally stored in the infant’s intestines until after birth. Sometimes, the meconium is released into the amniotic fluid prior to birth or during labor.  This usually happens when the baby is under stress or there is a…

Pre-eclampsia is the onset of high blood pressure or hypertension and proteinuria, or protein in the urine, in a pregnant woman who is past 20 weeks gestation.  During each prenatal visit, your doctor or nurse should be checking your blood pressure for development of pregnancy induced hypertension…

The placenta is a sac within the uterus where a baby develops during pregnancy. The umbilical cord is attached from the baby to the placenta to transport blood and oxygen to the baby from the mother. In an uncomplicated pregnancy, the placenta remains attached to the wall of the uterus until after…

Meningitis is an inflammation of the protective cover surrounding the brain and spinal cord due to an infection.  Meningitis can be a life-threatening condition and should be treated as a medical emergency.  The infection occurs most often in newborns, infants, children, young adults and college…

A jury handed down a $100 million verdict against a hospital for a Staten Island teenager who suffers from cerebral palsy as a result of a premature birth. The case took years to litigate. The baby is now 17-year-old Stephanie Debes, who, along with a twin sister, was born three months early after…

Rebecca Fielding remembered screaming aloud because it was taking so long for her to get a C-section to deliver her baby at The Johns Hopkins Hospital in Maryland. She went to the hospital after her baby got stuck following an attempt to give birth at home using a midwife. She was told while…