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Sepsis Infection Birth Injury Lawsuit

A birth injury lawsuit involving sepsis typically involves legal action taken by parents or guardians on behalf of a newborn who suffered harm due to sepsis, a severe and potentially life-threatening infection. Sepsis in newborns can result from bacterial, viral, or fungal infections contracted during pregnancy, labor, or shortly after birth.

These lawsuits often claim that healthcare providers, including doctors, nurses, and hospital staff, failed to diagnose or adequately treat the infection, leading to severe consequences such as brain damage, organ failure, or even death. Plaintiffs in these cases argue that medical negligence, such as delayed treatment, improper use of antibiotics, failure to monitor the mother and baby, or unsanitary conditions, directly contributed to the newborn’s condition.

The claims seek compensation for medical expenses, long-term care costs, pain and suffering, and other related damages. Successful cases must typically demonstrate that the standard of care was breached and that this breach directly caused the injury. These legal actions underscore the critical importance of prompt and accurate medical intervention in preventing sepsis-related birth injuries.

Medical Overview: What Is Neonatal Sepsis?

Neonatal sepsis is a critical and often devastating condition that we have seen far too often in birth injury cases. It occurs when a newborn develops a systemic infection and the body’s immune response triggers widespread inflammation. This reaction can quickly impair blood flow, damage vital organs, and overwhelm the baby’s still-developing systems. In our experience, when sepsis is not promptly recognized and treated, the outcome can be tragic, ranging from irreversible brain damage to multi-organ failure or death. What makes these cases so difficult is that the signs are often there to be seen if providers are paying attention, and timely medical intervention frequently makes the difference between recovery and lifelong injury.

The most common causes of neonatal sepsis include bacterial infections passed from the mother during labor and delivery. These pathogens can enter the baby’s bloodstream and trigger a dangerous immune reaction. The most frequent culprits include:

  • Group B Streptococcus (GBS) – the leading cause of early-onset sepsis in newborns and what we have in this case

  • Escherichia coli (E. coli)

  • Listeria monocytogenes

  • Herpes simplex virus and other viral agents (in late-onset cases)

  • Fungal infections, especially in premature infants or those with weakened immune systems

Timing: Early-Onset vs. Late-Onset

Neonatal sepsis is categorized based on when symptoms first appear:

  • Early-Onset Sepsis (EOS): Occurs within the first 72 hours of life. Typically acquired from the mother before or during delivery. GBS and E. coli are the most common sources.

  • Late-Onset Sepsis (LOS): Develops after 72 hours, often linked to hospital-acquired infections or prolonged medical interventions like central lines or ventilation.

Common Symptoms of Sepsis in Newborns: What Doctors Too Often Miss

One of the most frustrating aspects of neonatal sepsis cases is that the warning signs are almost always there…if doctors are looking for them. Sepsis in newborns rarely appears out of nowhere. The symptoms can start subtly, but they tend to escalate quickly. When providers fail to recognize these red flags or delay intervention, the consequences are often catastrophic.

Medical professionals are trained to monitor for sepsis, especially in high-risk infants. Yet in too many of the cases we handle, the medical team either overlooks or downplays classic signs that should have prompted immediate action.

Here are some of the most common symptoms of sepsis in newborns that doctors and nurses have a duty to identify and respond to without delay:

  • Respiratory distress: This often presents as rapid breathing (tachypnea), grunting, nasal flaring, or chest retractions. If a newborn is working hard to breathe or showing abnormal breathing patterns, it should trigger immediate concern for infection.

  • Temperature instability: A newborn with either a fever or hypothermia is in trouble. Newborns (especially preemies) may not spike a fever in the traditional sense. Instead, a low body temperature is often the first clue that something is seriously wrong.

  • Bradycardia: A slow heart rate may be dismissed as an isolated event, but in the context of sepsis, it is a dangerous sign. Recurrent or persistent bradycardia in the NICU should never be ignored.

  • Hypotension (low blood pressure): Low blood pressure in a newborn is a late and dangerous sign of sepsis, often indicating circulatory collapse. Providers should be aggressively managing this before it reaches that stage.

  • Feeding difficulties: A baby who stops eating or has a sudden loss of interest in feeding is not just being fussy. In many cases, this is one of the earliest signs of neonatal infection. It should never be chalked up to fatigue or prematurity without ruling out sepsis.

  • Lethargy or poor responsiveness: A newborn who becomes limp, difficult to rouse, or unusually sleepy should raise immediate alarms. Changes in tone, responsiveness, or activity level are well-known early indicators of systemic infection.

  • Seizures or abnormal movements: Seizures in a neonate often signal central nervous system involvement, frequently due to meningitis or brain injury from sepsis. Jerky movements, eye deviations, or periods of stiffness or limpness need urgent investigation.

  • Lab abnormalities: Elevated white blood cell counts, low platelet counts, abnormal C-reactive protein (CRP), or positive blood or CSF cultures are often present in the chart long before a formal diagnosis is made. Providers must connect the dots. Failure to act on clear lab markers is not just poor medicine—it is negligence.

Issue Why It Matters Legal Argument
Failure to Recognize Symptoms Sepsis signs like lethargy, poor feeding, or low temperature are subtle but critical. Physicians are trained to catch these early. Overlooking the obvious is a breach of duty.
Delay in Administering Antibiotics Early treatment reduces brain damage and death. Every hour counts. A delay in treatment with clear infection signs often establishes neonatal sepsis malpractice
Failure to Monitor Lab Results Abnormal labs like high white cell count often precede full-blown sepsis. Ignoring or delaying response to labs is a clear deviation from medical norms.
Prematurity as a Defense Hospitals often blame the baby’s early birth instead of medical errors. But studies show preemies at 25+ weeks often thrive when properly cared for.
Lifelong Medical Costs Children with brain injuries from untreated sepsis often need lifelong care. Damages can include future medical bills, lost wages, and pain and suffering.

Why This Medical Background Matters

Parents pursuing a birth injury lawsuit for neonatal sepsis need to understand how this condition develops and why early detection and treatment are critical. Hospitals and medical providers are trained to monitor for signs of sepsis—especially in at-risk infants—and initiate prompt antibiotic therapy and supportive care.

When sepsis is missed or treated too late, the consequences can be catastrophic. By understanding the medical landscape, families can better evaluate whether medical negligence played a role in their child’s condition and whether they have a viable claim for compensation.

Example Sepsis Infection Birth Injury Lawsuit

Beasley v. Shady Grove Adventist Hospital

This is a birth injury case filed on behalf of a child in Prince George’s County. The claim alleges that Shady Grove Adventist Hospital failed to diagnose and treat a GBS infection that led to sepsis, which caused catastrophic injuries to a now four-year-old child.

Summary of Plaintiff’s Allegations

A pregnant woman goes to Southern Maryland Hospital (SMH) in preterm labor. She has a Group B Streptococcus (GBS) infection. A GBS bacterial infection that can be found in a pregnant woman’s vagina or rectum. She has been receiving prenatal care in Pennsylvania, so her GBS status is unknown to the doctors and nurses at SMH. She is around 25 weeks pregnant, and she gets two doses of betamethasone. Betamethasone is a tocolytic drug that is intended to help delay delivery (the opposite of Pitocin).

But her son is born and transferred to the NICU at Shady Grove Hospital as a precaution due to his prematurity. His lungs are hyperinflated and diffusely hazy. His X-rays show regular pulmonary opacities suggesting hyaline membrane disease and apnea.

Within the first few days, he begins to have trouble breathing, experiences desaturations, and periods of bradycardia. X-rays continue to be done, his heart rate drops, and his oxygen saturation eventually improves with intubation. His right lung seems to be improving according to the chest X-rays, but a head ultrasound reveals a grade I intraventricular hemorrhage on the left.

The baby is intubated again for persistent apnea spells and unstable glucose. A chest X-ray shows right and lower lobe aeration disturbance, and internal development of right middle lobe opacification, suggestive of atelectasis. Over the course of a few days, he is intubated multiple times for episodes of bradycardia and apnea. Labs are done each day, some of which reveal high white blood cell counts, an obvious sign of infection. The lab report showed Staphylococcus aureus, along with possible pneumonia.

A chest tube is placed in the infant to treat the pneumothorax, and his condition improves over a few days; the chest tube is removed. An echo shows a moderate to large intracardiac mass, consistent with vegetation, and an ultrasound shows bilateral grade I hemorrhages and an increase in the size of his left-brain bleed. The doctors read this as showing bilateral periventricular leukomalacia. He is finally transferred to Children’s National Medical Center for additional care.

The plaintiffs’ lawsuit alleges that a serious bacterial infection must be a differential diagnosis for any newborn infant who presents with the signs that the child had. As a result of the inadequate care the infant received, he has respiratory distress syndrome, leukomalacia, hemorrhage, cognitive impairments, neurological disabilities, conscious pain and suffering, and other damages. He will be dependent on others for his life and will continue to undergo serious and painful medical procedures.

Additional Comments

  • Every birth injury case is a complicated case. But the core of this lawsuit is quite simple. Plaintiffs’ medical malpractice lawyers and experts will contend that the breach of care by not restarting antibiotic therapy assumes the child has sepsis. Antibiotic administration during labor to a GBS-colonized mother produces a 30-fold risk reduction in the incidence of early-onset GBS infection. That statistic is eye-popping, right?  So the gist of this birth injury lawsuit is that if the doctors had given the child Vancomycin and Gentamicin three days earlier, the child would have had a different outcome.
  • Assuming the plaintiff can demonstrate that the doctors breached the standard of care, the primary issue will be causation. A child born at 25 weeks is more likely to suffer some permanent injuries. Because this little boy was so premature, he was already at high risk for facing the many various risks that preemies have. This child already had a Grade 1 brain bleed.
  • On the other hand, an article published in the Journal of Perinatology in 2008 summarized a review of the data in the literature on the survival of very preterm babies like this child. The study found that the majority of infants born at or beyond twenty-five (25) weeks’ gestation and with a birth weight of greater than 600 grams survive. Most importantly to this case, at least 50% were found to do so without severe long-term disabilities. This child is on the young end of the care spectrum, but likely on the high end when it comes to APGAR scores and oxygenation levels.
  • If there is a finding that the early use of adequate antibiotic treatment would more likely than not have prevented the severity of this child’s GBS infection, the doctors made a bad situation worse. The question is whether plaintiffs’ malpractice lawyers will be able to thin-slice out how much worse.

Getting a Lawyer for Your Malpractice Claim

If your child developed a severe infection shortly after birth and you suspect it was mishandled by medical staff, you may be entitled to take legal action. Our law firm represents families across the country in cases involving infant sepsis, sepsis neonatorum, and other life-threatening infections in newborns. These are not simple cases. You will almost invariably need a lawyer for infant sepsis who understands both the medical complexity and the legal strategy necessary to hold negligent hospitals accountable.

Whether you are looking for a newborn infection lawyer or an attorney for neonatal sepsis, our team has experience with these tragic but preventable injuries.  Our legal team knows the right expert to use to build strong cases for families whose babies suffered brain damage, long-term disabilities, or death due to delayed diagnosis or improper treatment of sepsis. An experienced infant sepsis attorney can guide you through your options and fight for the justice your child deserves.

So if you have suffered as a result of the negligence of a doctor, nurse, or hospital, our law firm can help you get the compensation you deserve. We have a very long history of results in medical malpractice and nursing home cases in Maryland, earning large verdicts and settlements. Call Miller & Zois today at 800-553-8082 to speak with a caring medical negligence attorney who can help you or get a free online case review.

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