Skip to main content

Exit WCAG Theme

Switch to Non-ADA Website

Accessibility Options

Select Text Sizes

Select Text Color

Website Accessibility Information Close Options
Close Menu
Wais, Vogelstein, Forman, Koch & Norman, LLC Wais Vogelstein Forman Koch & Norman LLC
  • Nationwide Birth Injury & Medical Malpractice Firm
  • ~
  • Schedule A Free Consultation Today!

Illinois Cephalohematoma Attorney

This medical term describes one of the most common infant head injuries sustained during labor and delivery. Cephalohematoma is blood that pools between a newborn’s skull and scalp if a blood vessel in the head ruptures. These injuries are often a side-effect of a difficult vaginal delivery. Other risk factors include fetal macrosomia, multiple pregnancies (twins or triplets), and epidural injections. Mechanical birth aids, like vacuum extractors and forceps, quadruple the risk. Possible effects of cephalohematoma include anemia, calcification, skull fractures, and jaundice.

Many doctors simply don’t understand the consequences of their actions in these cases. In contrast, the compassionate Illinois cephalohematoma attorneys at Wais, Vogelstein, Forman, Koch & Norman understand the pain and suffering a birth injury causes. Many of the people on our professional team have survived similar experiences. Because of this compassion, we work extra hard to obtain the compensation your family needs and deserves.

What Causes Cephalohematoma Injuries?

Frequently, failure to properly prepare for delivery causes a labor and delivery injury. Warning signs of a potentially troublesome birth, like the risk factors mentioned above, usually are apparent before the hospital staff even admits the mother. For example, an epidural injection is usually not a spur-of-the-moment decision. Instead, most mothers make their decisions in this area days or weeks before the big day arrives.

When doctors fail to properly plan for possible delivery emergencies, they often get desperate. If a baby becomes lodged in a mother’s narrow birth canal, the baby could suffer brain damage in as little as five minutes. When doctors get desperate, they often make poor decisions, as all of us are prone to do. In this situation, these poor decisions often include the aforementioned mechanical birth aids, such as:

  • Forceps: This instrument, which was used as early as the 1700s, is basically a large pair of surgical salad tongs. A doctor grasps a baby’s head with the pincers and tries to pull the baby out of the mother. The excessive force often damages the baby’s thin skull and underdeveloped brain.
  • Vacuum Extractor: Doctors use this instrument to suck babies out of their mothers in these situations. The doctor places a cap on the baby’s head. That cap is attached to a vacuum pump. Once again, the excessive force is usually more than a newborn can endure.

In a few cases, a delivery emergency truly blindsides the doctor. That’s especially true if the mother received little or no prenatal care. But doctors cannot use that situation as an excuse. The duty of care requires them to be prepared for the unexpected.

Damages Available

We briefly mentioned compensation above. This compensation usually includes money for economic losses, such as medical bills, and noneconomic losses, such as pain and suffering.

Victims and their families need this compensation to pay injury-related expenses, such as revision surgery bills and lifelong care costs. Victims deserve this compensation because the injury was not their fault.

It is altogether proper that the negligent doctor, or specifically the negligent doctor’s insurance company, should be financially responsible for these damages. We all make mistakes, and we must all make restitution for the mistakes we make. In this case, this restitution is paying compensation.

Additional punitive damages are available as well, if a Chicago cephalohematoma attorney proves, by clear and convincing evidence, the tortfeasor (negligent party) intentionally disregarded a known risk.

Count on a Hard-Working Chicago Cook County Attorney

Injury victims are usually entitled to significant compensation. For a free consultation with an experienced brain damage or swelling attorney in Chicago, contact Wais, Vogelstein, Forman, Koch & Norman by going online or calling 410-567-0800. Home, virtual, and hospital visits are available.

Share This Page:
Facebook Twitter LinkedIn
Skip footer and go back to main navigation