A preventable birth injury changes everything. What should have been one of the best moments of a family’s life becomes the beginning of a long, expensive, emotionally exhausting road. Medical bills start immediately. Therapy follows. And somewhere in the middle of caring for a child with serious medical needs, families start asking whether someone should be held accountable for what happened.
In Kansas, the answer is sometimes yes. And the compensation available in these cases can be substantial.
What Kind of Case Are We Talking About
Birth injury claims fall under medical malpractice law in Kansas. To have a viable case, you need to show that a healthcare provider, whether that’s an obstetrician, nurse, hospital, or some combination, failed to meet the accepted standard of care and that failure directly caused your child’s injuries.
That’s a high bar. These cases are complex, heavily contested, and require expert medical testimony to establish both negligence and causation. But when the evidence supports the claim, the damages can reflect the full scope of what a family faces over a lifetime.
Economic Damages
Economic damages are the measurable financial losses connected to the injury. In serious birth injury cases, these numbers can be significant. A child diagnosed with cerebral palsy, hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy, or a brachial plexus injury may require decades of ongoing medical care, therapy, and support.
Economic damages in a Kansas birth injury case can include:
- Past and future medical expenses including surgeries, hospitalizations, and specialist care
- Physical, occupational, and speech therapy over the course of the child’s life
- Assistive devices, home modifications, and specialized equipment
- In-home nursing or attendant care costs
- Lost earning capacity if the child’s injuries will prevent them from working as an adult
- Educational support and special needs services
Calculating future costs requires input from medical experts, life care planners, and economists who can project what the child will need and what that care will cost over time. This isn’t guesswork. It’s a detailed, evidence-based analysis that forms the foundation of the damages claim.
Non-Economic Damages
Non-economic damages cover the human cost of the injury. Pain and suffering. Emotional distress. The loss of a childhood that looked nothing like what it should have. These damages are harder to quantify, but they’re real and they’re recoverable.
Kansas does cap non-economic damages in medical malpractice cases. Under Kansas Statute 60-19a02, that cap currently applies to pain and suffering and similar non-economic losses. An Overland Park birth injury lawyer can explain how that cap applies to your specific situation and what it means for the overall value of your case.
Can Parents Recover Damages Too
Yes. Parents aren’t limited to pursuing damages on behalf of their child. Mothers who suffered their own physical injuries during a negligent delivery may have independent claims. Parents can also pursue damages for their own emotional distress and, in some cases, for the out-of-pocket expenses they’ve personally incurred as a result of the injury.
These claims run alongside the child’s case and are evaluated separately based on the specific harm each parent experienced.
How Damages Are Proven
Documentation drives everything in a birth injury case. Medical records, therapy notes, physician evaluations, and expert testimony all contribute to building a picture of what the injury has cost and what it will continue to cost. Life care planners create detailed future care projections. Vocational experts assess earning capacity. Economic experts calculate present value of future losses.
It’s a significant undertaking. But for families facing a lifetime of care costs, that level of thoroughness is what makes the difference between a settlement that covers real needs and one that falls short years down the road.
Law Office of Daniel E. Stuart, P.A. handles birth injury cases in Overland Park and throughout Kansas, working with medical and financial experts to build claims that reflect the true scope of what families are facing.
Taking the First Step
If your child suffered a preventable injury during birth and you’re trying to understand what your family may be entitled to, talking to an Overland Park birth injury lawyer is a reasonable place to start. These cases have strict filing deadlines under Kansas law, so the sooner you get a professional review of what happened, the better positioned you’ll be to make informed decisions about your family’s future.