Newborn sepsis is a severe and potentially life-threatening condition that occurs in infants younger than 90 days old.
It is characterized by a systemic infection that can quickly spread throughout the body, affecting multiple organs. Sepsis in newborns is classified into early-onset, occurring within the first 72 hours of life, and late-onset, occurring after the first 72 hours.
Early-onset sepsis is often caused by bacteria transmitted from the mother during pregnancy or delivery, such as Group B Streptococcus (GBS) and Escherichia coli (E. coli).
Late-onset sepsis can be acquired from the hospital environment or the community, involving pathogens like Staphylococcus aureus and coagulase-negative staphylococci.
Symptoms of newborn sepsis should not snake up on healthcare providers. They include fever, lethargy, poor feeding, respiratory distress, and jaundice. Prompt diagnosis and aggressive treatment with antibiotics are crucial to improving outcomes and preventing severe complications or death – every minute counts because infection multiplies exponentially.
Medical Malpractice Lawsuits Involving Newborn Sepsis
Medical malpractice lawsuits related to newborn sepsis typically involve claims that healthcare providers failed to diagnose or treat the condition promptly and effectively.
These cases often allege negligence in various forms, such as not screening pregnant women for GBS, failing to administer prophylactic antibiotics during labor, or overlooking signs of infection in the newborn.
To succeed in these medical malpractice lawsuits, plaintiffs must prove that the healthcare provider’s breach of the standard of care directly resulted in harm to the newborn. Evidence in these cases includes medical records, expert testimonies, and standards of medical practice. Plaintiffs seek compensation for medical expenses, pain and suffering, and, in cases of death, wrongful death damages.
Damages for Wrongful Death and Survival Action for the Death of a Newborn in Maryland
Sadly, many of these claims are wrongful death lawsuits. In Maryland, wrongful death and survival actions provide avenues for families to seek compensation following the death of a newborn due to medical malpractice.
Wrongful death claims, filed by the parents or legal guardians, seek damages for emotional suffering, loss of companionship, and economic losses, such as the future financial support the child would have provided. Survival actions are brought on behalf of the deceased newborn’s estate and can include claims for the newborn’s pain and suffering before death, medical expenses, and funeral and burial costs.
Maryland law imposes a cap on non-economic damages, which include pain and suffering, loss of companionship, and emotional distress. For cases arising from incidents that occurred in 2024, the cap on non-economic damages in wrongful death and survival actions involving a single claimant is $920,000. This cap increases annually with inflation. There is no cap on economic damages, which cover actual financial losses such as medical bills and lost income. But that is rarely a large number when you are dealing with the death of a baby.
Example Sepsis Wrongful Death Lawsuit – Smith v. Miller
This is a Charles County wrongful death lawsuit that involves the failure to diagnose a newborn’s sepsis that tragically causes death, ten days after her birth. The claim alleges that the doctors should have further evaluated the child for sepsis because there was a constellation of systems that by themselves warranted a full sepsis workup in the emergency room. If the doctors had recognized that herpes was the cause of the child’s symptoms, the antibiotic Acyclovir would have saved the child’s life.
- Another infant wrongful death lawsuit, this one filed in Baltimore
- The maximum in money damages you can get for a medical negligence claim in Maryland for the loss of a child
An infant girl is born at MedStar St. Mary’s Hospital in Leonardtown, Maryland. She is born after 38 weeks of intrauterine pregnancy and following an arrest of dilation, non-reassuring fetal tracing, and prolonged rupture of membranes which lead the doctors to deliver her by C-section. She is discharged from MedStar with a diagnosis that includes “need for observation and evaluation of newborn sepsis.”
One day after the infant girl’s discharge, one of the Defendant doctors performs an exam. No vital signs are documented and the Defendant doctor records that the infant girl has experienced abnormal weight loss.
The story is essentially the same when the Defendant nurse practitioner examines the infant girl 5 days after her discharge. Vital signs are not documented, despite the weight differential between 5 pounds 15 ounces then and 6 pounds 3.5 ounces just 4 days prior.
Another Defendant doctor and/or the Defendant nurse practitioner again examines the infant girl, now 7 days after her discharge. This visit is classified as a “sick visit.” The infant girl has a 95-degree body temperature. Vomiting and diarrhea of large volume are recorded and her weight has now dropped to 5 pounds 13.5 ounces. According to the claimants’ medical expert, the maximum expected weight loss is 10% of birth weight and is usually regained by the second week of life.
Now eight days after her discharge, the infant girl is seen again by the first Defendant doctor. Vitals are taken during the visit, but specific vital signs are not reported on the medical records. What is reported is that the infant girl’s weight is measured at 5 pounds 13 ounces, she is lethargic, listless, and cold to the touch. These abnormal signs, more than a week after birth, should have alerted the doctors to the mounting evidence that this infant girl required emergency attention.
Later that day, the infant girl is admitted to MedStar where she passes away. The cause of death is reported as “disseminated infection by Herpes Simplex Virus with superimposed bacterial sepsis and dehydration.”
The infant girl’s parents file a wrongful death claim and a survival action against the Defendant doctors and the Defendant nurse practitioner in Charles County, where each of the Defendants either practices or conducts regular business. The parents allege that the doctors either from lack of training or neglect violated the standard of care by failing to recognize, evaluate, and monitor for sepsis, infection, viruses, and weight loss.
Negligence
- Failed to recognize, evaluate, and monitor for sepsis, infection, viruses, and weight loss
Specific Counts Pled
- Wrongful Death- Father- Each of 4 Defendants
- Wrongful Death- Mother- Each of 4 Defendants
- Survival Action- Child’s Estate- Each of 4 Defendants
Plaintiff’s Experts and Areas of Specialty
- Shulamite Kon, M.D. – a pediatrician with a private practice in New York.
- Chadi El Saleeby, M.D., M.S. – board certified in both General Pediatrics and Pediatric Infectious Diseases. Practices pediatric medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital for Children and is an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School.
Additional Comments
- The plaintiff’s argument in these cases is not that the doctor should have “known” the child had sepsis. These symptoms could be attributed to any number of different causes. But they must raise the suspicion of sepsis which requires the doctors to take steps to rule it out as the cause of the child’s problems. In this case, the doctor was given a roadmap by the hospital who said she needed to be evaluated for the possibility of newborn sepsis.
- You can expect two contradictory defenses from the doctors. First, they are going to argue that a reasonable physician in the defendant’s shoes would not have suspected sepsis from child’s symptoms. Alternatively, the doctors will argue that the child’s sepsis was so advanced that an earlier diagnosis would not have saved her.
- For their causation argument, the defendants will cite the Textbook of Pediatric Neurology: Principles and Practice (page 1604-1606): “Although favorable outcome after neonatal childhood herpes virus infections correlates with early initiation of Acyclovir, sequela are common even after appropriate medical management…. Fewer than 40% of survivors of neonatal or childhood herpes simplex virus encephalitis recover to their baseline levels of function. Potential sequela consists of partial and generalized seizure disorders, developmental delay, cerebral palsy, language dysfunction, behavior abnormalities and motor deficits.” From this, they will argue that it is impossible for the plaintiffs’ attorneys to establish how exactly delay from presentation until positive diagnosis caused the child harm.
- One question unanswered in the Complaint is whether the mother knew she had the herpes virus and, if she did, what she told the doctors about it.
Getting a Lawyer for Your Malpractice Claim
If your child has been harmed from medical error, our Baltimore based malpractice attorneys can help you get the justice and compensation you deserve. Miller & Zois has a history of results, earning seven figure verdicts and settlements in surgical malpractice injury and wrongful death cases. Speak to an attorney today at 800-553-8082 or get a free, no obligation online case review. We handle claims in every corner of Maryland and Washington, D.C.
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