Holding Indiana Medical Professionals Accountable For Brachial Plexus Nerve Injuries
Last updated on July 11, 2025
The birth of a baby is one of the most important emotional moments in the lives of the parents and in the health and safety of the baby. The vast majority of child deliveries performed in this country occur in a safe and professional manner without injury to the baby or the mother. Unfortunately, babies do sometimes sustain serious and permanent personal injury during the birth process as a result of a delivering health care provider’s failure to comply with reasonable standards of medical care.
One of the most common, permanent birth-related injuries is damage to nerves in the brachial plexus nerve complex of a baby’s upper extremity during the birth process. There are five nerves in the brachial plexus nerve complex in each upper extremity in a human being. Those nerves run from the spinal cord in the neck through the shoulder and into each upper extremity.
How Are Brachial Plexus Nerves Injured During The Birth Process?
During a vaginal delivery, the shoulder of a baby can become impacted upon the mother’s pubic bone as the baby passes through the maternal pelvis. This is a rare but well-known complication of vaginal delivery known as shoulder dystocia.
All health care providers who deliver babies are aware that a shoulder dystocia can occur during a vaginal delivery. Most health care providers who deliver babies will encounter shoulder dystocia several times during their medical career. All health care providers who deliver babies are trained to recognize a shoulder dystocia and on how to relieve a shoulder impaction without causing injury to a baby.
Unfortunately, health care providers sometimes forget their knowledge and training and panic during a shoulder dystocia delivery and cause permanent injury to brachial plexus nerves in a baby’s upper extremity. When a permanent brachial plexus nerve injury occurs, it is almost always the result of the failure of the delivering health care provider to comply with reasonable standards of medical care during the prenatal, labor and/or delivery process.
When a baby’s shoulder becomes impacted upon the mother’s pubic bone during a vaginal delivery, special maneuvers must be performed by the delivering health care provider and his or her assistants to relieve the shoulder impaction without injuring the nerves in the baby’s upper extremity. These maneuvers, when carefully and correctly performed, will prevent permanent injury to a baby’s brachial plexus nerves.
However, when a delivering health care provider fails to correctly perform these maneuvers, permanent injury can occur. Some health care providers, when confronted with a shoulder dystocia, forget their knowledge and training and, instead, panic. They pull or twist on the baby’s head after it is delivered and before the shoulder impaction at the mother’s pubic bone is relieved. By improperly pulling or twisting on the baby’s head to relieve the shoulder impaction while the baby’s shoulder remains impacted on the mother’s pubic bone, the brachial plexus nerves leading from the baby’s spinal cord into either arm can be stretched to the point that the nerves are stretched and can rupture or avulse (pulled off of the spinal cord). When this occurs, a baby will have a partially or fully paralyzed upper extremity for life.
Lawsuits Regarding Birth-Related, Brachial Plexus Nerve Injuries Are Important, Complicated And Difficult To Win
When brachial plexus nerves are permanently injured during the birth process, the child faces a lifetime of medical treatment, permanent impairment and substantial economic loss. The child needs an attorney who knows and understands the lifelong implications of these injuries to children and who has substantial knowledge regarding the medicine necessary to prove that the child’s permanent injuries and impairments were caused by substandard health care. Before hiring an attorney to handle such a case for your child and for you, you should carefully interview the attorney regarding his or her knowledge, training and experience in handling this type of lawsuit, including the number of trials that the attorney has successfully concluded regarding shoulder dystocia deliveries.
How Our Indiana Legal Team Can Help You And Your Child
At The Cline Law Firm, we have successfully represented many babies and their parents in medical malpractice litigation involving the occurrence of shoulder dystocia during a vaginal delivery with resulting permanent injuries to a baby. We have successfully concluded over 30 such lawsuits, some by verdict and many by settlement, receiving the maximum payment allowable under Indiana law in nearly every case. We have successfully tried cases for such injured infants in Indiana, Kentucky and Georgia and have collected many millions of dollars for injured children and their parents. At any given time, our firm typically has about five of these lawsuits in progress.
Call our brachial plexus nerve injury attorneys in Carmel at 317-505-1760 or contact us online to get started on your child’s case. We are a law firm nationally recognized for this type of litigation while focusing our time and energy on representing Hoosier families and children.