Last spring, a young couple walked into my office near the Chicago River. New parents. First baby. They should've been on cloud nine, right? Instead, they looked exhausted and scared.
Their daughter was born at one of Chicago's well-known hospitals. The delivery didn't go well. The medical team missed signs that their baby was in distress. By the time anyone did anything about it, their little girl had suffered a brain injury that's going to affect her for the rest of her life.
Sitting there listening to them, I thought about my own father. When I was nine, he got hurt bad at work. His injury case dragged on for seventeen years. Seventeen years of dealing with insurance companies and lawyers who didn't give a damn about him or our family. At the end of it all, his own lawyer sued him for more fees. Can you imagine?
That experience shaped everything about how I practice law today. I decided back then that if I ever became a lawyer, I'd do things completely different. I'd treat people like family because that's what they deserve.
If your child got hurt during labor and delivery at a Chicago hospital, you're probably angry. Confused. Worried about the future. You're wondering if anyone's going to be held accountable for what happened.
That's where I come in.
I'm Scott DeSalvo, and I've been handling labor and delivery malpractice cases for Chicago families for years now. Here's what you need to know right off the bat: you won't pay me a single penny out of pocket, you don't pay me anything unless I win your case, and you can call me anytime. I mean that literally. Call me at 2 AM if something's weighing on you. I'll pick up.
Most people don't know this, but birth injuries are becoming more common, not less. The CDC did a study that showed complications during birth have doubled in recent years. Emergencies during delivery went up 75 percent. Those aren't small numbers.
When I say "labor and delivery malpractice," I'm talking about situations where doctors, nurses, midwives, or hospital staff mess up during pregnancy, labor, delivery, or right after the baby's born. Sometimes mistakes happen that nobody could prevent. I get that. But a lot of times? These injuries were completely preventable if the medical team had just done their job right.
Things like ignoring the baby's heart rate monitor. Waiting too long to do an emergency C-section. Using forceps wrong. Giving the mother too much Pitocin. Missing signs of preeclampsia. Not noticing problems with the umbilical cord.
These aren't accidents. They're negligence.
I've seen these cases at Northwestern Memorial, University of Chicago Medical Center, Rush, Advocate Christ, and hospitals all over Chicagoland. Good hospitals. But that doesn't mean mistakes don't happen there. They do. And when they happen to your baby, someone needs to answer for it.
After handling these cases for years across every part of Chicago—Lincoln Park, Beverly, the Loop, Hyde Park, you name it—I've noticed the same types of injuries keep coming up. Let me walk you through the big ones.
HIE is what happens when a baby's brain doesn't get enough oxygen during birth. It causes brain damage, sometimes severe. Kids who suffer HIE might develop cerebral palsy, have seizures, struggle with learning disabilities, or face serious developmental delays.
Here's what makes me crazy about HIE cases: most of them didn't have to happen. If doctors are actually watching the fetal heart monitor and respond when they see the baby's in distress, you can usually prevent HIE. But I've reviewed cases where the monitor showed clear problems for thirty, forty, even sixty minutes and nobody did a thing about it.
That's not medicine. That's malpractice.
Cerebral palsy affects how a child moves, balances, and controls their muscles. It's usually caused by the baby not getting enough oxygen during delivery, though head trauma or infections during birth can cause it too.
There's no cure. A kid with cerebral palsy needs physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, special equipment, and ongoing medical care their whole life. The costs add up fast—we're talking millions of dollars over a lifetime.
I've seen cerebral palsy cases here in Illinois result in settlements and verdicts ranging from $4.5 million all the way up to $53 million. That's because these kids need serious resources to have any kind of quality life.
The brachial plexus is a bundle of nerves in the shoulder and neck that control arm movement. During delivery, especially when the baby's shoulder gets stuck behind the mother's pelvic bone, doctors sometimes pull too hard trying to get the baby out. When they do that, they can stretch or tear these nerves.
Erb's palsy is the most common version of this injury. It causes weakness or even paralysis in the baby's arm. Some kids get better with therapy. Others need surgery. And some never fully recover.
I've had cases where nurses and doctors pulled so aggressively on a baby during delivery that they caused permanent nerve damage. That's not an unavoidable complication. That's using too much force.
Forceps and vacuum extractors can be useful tools when a doctor knows what they're doing and uses them carefully. The problem is they don't always get used carefully.
Too much force with forceps can fracture a baby's skull. Vacuum extractors can cause bleeding inside the brain, especially if the doctor tries multiple times and keeps failing. I've seen babies with cephalohematomas (blood pooling under the scalp), facial nerve damage, even serious intracranial hemorrhages.
Chicago hospitals use these tools all the time, and most deliveries go fine. But when they're used wrong, the consequences can be devastating.
Everyone focuses on the baby when we talk about birth injuries, but mothers get hurt too. Badly sometimes.
I've represented women in Chicago who suffered severe vaginal tearing that wasn't repaired correctly. Uterine ruptures because doctors gave them too much Pitocin. Heavy bleeding that could've been stopped sooner. Infections from poor hygiene practices. Internal organ damage during C-sections. Permanent pelvic floor injuries.
These injuries are serious and they deserve compensation, but hospitals and insurance companies tend to downplay them. I don't.
Chicago has some of the best hospitals in the country, so why are preventable birth injuries still happening? After handling dozens of these cases and taking depositions from nurses and doctors, I've figured out a few patterns.
Hospitals care about their bottom line. Labor and delivery units are expensive to staff. So what happens? They cut corners. They assign one nurse to monitor four or five laboring mothers at the same time.
That's dangerous. When a nurse is spread that thin, she can't properly watch all the fetal heart monitors. She can't respond quickly when something goes wrong. Mistakes happen because people are overwhelmed and overworked.
I've sat across from nurses during depositions who admitted they were responsible for way more patients than they should've been. They knew it wasn't safe. But they didn't have a choice because the hospital wouldn't hire more staff.
Electronic fetal monitoring is supposed to keep babies safe during labor. The monitor tracks the baby's heart rate and can show early warning signs that something's wrong. But monitoring only works if someone's actually looking at it and doing something when they see a problem.
I can't tell you how many medical records I've reviewed where the fetal heart rate strip clearly showed the baby was in distress for extended periods of time and nobody intervened. No emergency C-section. No repositioning the mother. Nothing. They just let it go.
That's inexcusable.
When a baby's in serious distress during labor, speed matters. A lot. The general rule is that an emergency C-section should happen within thirty minutes of recognizing the emergency. After that, you're risking permanent brain damage to the baby.
But I've handled cases where Chicago hospitals took forty-five minutes, an hour, sometimes even longer to get the mother into the operating room and start the C-section. By that time, the damage was already done.
Why the delays? Sometimes the operating room's being used for another procedure. Sometimes the anesthesiologist isn't available right away. Sometimes it's just poor communication between doctors and nurses.
None of those are good enough reasons.
Pitocin is a drug that induces labor or makes contractions stronger. When it's used right, it's helpful. When it's used wrong, it's dangerous.
The problem is that Pitocin can cause contractions that are too strong or too frequent, which can cut off oxygen to the baby. Nurses are supposed to constantly monitor how the mother and baby are responding and adjust the dosage accordingly.
But I've seen cases where they cranked up the Pitocin and just left it there even when the mother was having dangerously intense contractions. That's called uterine tachysystole, and it puts the baby at serious risk for brain injury.
I know calling a lawyer probably isn't at the top of your list right now. You're dealing with your child's medical needs. You're emotionally drained. You've got bills stacking up. The last thing you want to think about is legal stuff.
But you shouldn't have to go through this alone. And here's the good news: you don't have to pay me anything to get started.
Families from all over Chicago—Wicker Park, Hyde Park, Andersonville, Bridgeport, everywhere—hire me to handle their labor and delivery cases. Here's why.
Birth injury cases cost a lot of money to pursue properly. You need medical experts. You need to get thousands of pages of medical records. You need lawyers who know this area of law inside and out.
You're not paying for any of that.
I front all the costs. Every single expense. You don't pay me a dime unless I win your case. And if I don't win? You still don't owe me anything.
That's my guarantee.
To win one of these cases, you need respected doctors who can review your medical records and explain to a jury what went wrong. Not just any doctors—you need obstetricians, neonatologists, and other specialists who have testified in court before and aren't afraid to call out hospitals and other doctors when they screw up.
I've spent years building relationships with some of the best medical experts in the country. These are people who've reviewed hundreds of birth injury cases. They'll go through your records with a fine-tooth comb—the prenatal visits, the fetal monitoring strips, the delivery notes, all of it—and give honest opinions about whether the standard of care was violated.
I've handled cases involving Northwestern Memorial Hospital, University of Chicago Medical Center, Rush University Medical Center, Advocate Christ Medical Center, Swedish Covenant Hospital, and plenty of others throughout the Chicago area.
I know their policies. I know how they train their staff. I know the games their lawyers play when they're trying to avoid taking responsibility.
And I know how to beat them.
Remember what I said about my father and how his lawyer treated him like garbage? That stays with me every single day I practice law.
When you hire me, I answer your calls. I explain what's happening in your case in normal language, not legal mumbo jumbo. I listen when you're worried about something. And I fight for you the same way I'd fight for my own family.
This isn't just another case file to me. It's your kid's future we're talking about. Your family's future. I take that seriously.
Most lawyers tell you to call during business hours. Not me.
You can call me at 2 AM on a Tuesday if you can't sleep because you're worried about your baby. You can call me on Christmas Day. You can call me on a Saturday afternoon. Whenever you need to talk, I'm here.
That's not marketing talk. That's how I actually run my practice.
Nobody likes talking about money when we're discussing a child's health. I get it. You can't put a dollar amount on your baby's suffering.
But here's reality: raising a child with a birth injury costs a fortune. Physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, medical equipment, home modifications, special education—it adds up shockingly fast.
Illinois law says the people responsible for your child's injury should pay for all of that. Here's what you can potentially recover:
This covers everything from the hospital bills right after birth to all the ongoing costs your child will need for the rest of their life. Therapy sessions, medications, surgeries, wheelchairs, adaptive equipment—all of it.
In severe cases involving cerebral palsy or serious brain injuries, lifetime medical costs can easily hit seven figures.
Many kids with birth injuries need decades of therapy. Some need full-time caregivers. That's incredibly expensive, and the responsible parties should be paying for it, not you.
Maybe you had to quit your job to care for your child full-time. Maybe you had to cut back your hours. Maybe your spouse did. All of that lost income can be recovered.
And if your child's injuries are severe enough that they'll never be able to work and support themselves as an adult, that lost earning capacity is compensable too.
Your child has to live with pain, limitations, and struggles that other kids don't face. That's compensable under Illinois law.
And you have to watch your child go through all of that. The emotional toll on parents is real and significant. You can recover compensation for that too.
Birth injuries rob kids of normal childhood experiences. Playing sports. Riding bikes. Going to school dances. Living independently as adults. Sometimes even simple things like feeding themselves or walking.
In Illinois, you can recover money for that loss of quality of life.
These don't come up in every case, but when a hospital or doctor's conduct was particularly reckless or egregious, Illinois law allows for punitive damages. These are designed to punish the wrongdoer and send a message that this kind of negligence won't be tolerated.
When punitive damages are on the table, they can significantly increase what your family ultimately recovers.
Find Out What YOUR Case Might Be Worth...for free.
I'm not big on bragging, but I think you should know what's actually possible in these cases. Here are some real results from labor and delivery malpractice cases right here in Illinois:
$53 Million Verdict - A Cook County jury awarded this after a child developed cerebral palsy because the medical team didn't respond properly to fetal distress.
$40 Million Verdict - This was a record verdict outside of Cook County for a young woman who suffered permanent injuries when doctors delayed her C-section.
$29 Million Settlement - This was for a child who suffered brain damage because physicians failed to perform a C-section in time.
$20 Million Verdict - A Chicago family received this after their child suffered preventable hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy at birth.
$14 Million Verdict - Awarded when a child suffered brain injury due to lack of oxygen because hospital staff ignored fetal monitoring warnings.
$11.5 Million Settlement - For a child born at a military hospital who suffered catastrophic brain injury from negligent resuscitation.
$6.5 Million Settlement - A young girl with cerebral palsy received this after physicians failed to perform a timely C-section.
These numbers show what's possible when you have a lawyer who knows what they're doing and isn't afraid to take on hospitals.
Legal proceedings can sound intimidating if you've never been through one before. Let me break down what happens if you decide to hire me.
First, we have a conversation. You tell me what happened during your labor and delivery. I listen and ask questions. Then I give you my honest opinion about whether I think you've got a case.
This consultation costs you nothing and there's zero pressure. If I don't think you have a case, I'll tell you straight up. If I do think you have a case, I'll explain what comes next.
Either way, we're going to end the conversation as friends.
Once you hire me, I'll obtain all the relevant records from your hospital or birthing center. Prenatal care records, labor and delivery records, fetal monitoring strips, nursing notes, physician notes, postnatal care records—everything.
Then I go through all of it looking for deviations from the standard of care.
I send your records to trusted medical experts—obstetricians, neonatologists, and other specialists. They review what happened and provide their professional opinions.
They'll answer questions like: Did the medical team follow proper protocols? Were there warning signs that got ignored? Could this injury have been prevented? What should've been done differently?
Illinois requires something called a certificate of merit in medical malpractice cases. Basically, I need a qualified medical expert to sign a document saying they reviewed your case and believe there's a reasonable basis for your claim.
I handle all of that for you.
Once we have the necessary expert opinions and certificate of merit, I file your lawsuit in the appropriate Illinois court. This officially kicks off the legal process.
After the lawsuit is filed, both sides engage in something called discovery. This includes depositions (recorded interviews under oath), written questions, document requests, and expert witness disclosures.
This phase can take several months to over a year, but it's crucial for building a strong case.
A lot of labor and delivery cases settle before trial. If the hospital and doctors make a fair settlement offer, we can resolve your case without going to court.
But here's my promise to you: I will never pressure you to settle for less than your case is worth. If they won't offer fair compensation, we go to trial. Period.
I'm not scared of trial. In fact, I've invested over $100,000 in advanced trial training with some of the best lawyers in the country. I'm a graduate of Gerry Spence's Trial Lawyer's College and a program called "The Edge."
If your case goes to trial, I'll present your story to a Chicago jury, bring in expert witnesses, and fight for every dollar you deserve.
In Illinois, you generally have eight years from the date of your child's birth injury to file a lawsuit. If your child has a disability, that deadline might get extended until they turn 22.
But here's my advice: don't wait. The sooner you call me, the sooner I can start investigating, preserving evidence, and building your case. Evidence disappears. Witnesses forget things. Medical records sometimes get lost. The earlier we start, the better.
As a personal injury law firm serving Chicago and the surrounding areas, I handle more than just labor and delivery cases. If you or someone you love got hurt because of someone else's negligence, I want to hear from you.
I also handle:
Birth Injury Cases - All types of preventable birth injuries
Medical Malpractice - Surgical errors, misdiagnosis, hospital negligence
Nursing Home Abuse - Protecting elderly loved ones from neglect and abuse
Catastrophic Injuries - Serious injuries that require lifetime care
Wrongful Death - When medical negligence or someone else's actions result in the loss of life
Brain Injuries - Traumatic brain injuries from accidents or medical malpractice
Car Accidents - Motor vehicle crashes that cause serious injury
Truck Accidents - Commercial vehicle accidents
Workers' Compensation - Injuries that happen on the job
Slip and Fall - Premises liability cases
Dog Bites - Animal attack injuries
No matter how you got hurt, if it was someone else's fault, give me a call.
Here are some of the most common questions I get from families dealing with birth injuries.
Good question because people confuse these all the time.
A birth defect is something that develops while the baby's still in the womb. Things like Down syndrome, spina bifida, or congenital heart defects. These are usually genetic or developmental conditions. They're typically not caused by anything the doctor did wrong.
A birth injury happens during labor, delivery, or right after birth because of something the medical team did or didn't do. Birth injuries are often preventable.
If your baby was diagnosed with a condition and you're not sure whether it's a defect or an injury, call me. I can help you figure it out.
That's exactly what I'm here to figure out. Medical negligence in a labor and delivery case means the doctor, nurse, or hospital failed to provide the accepted standard of care, and that failure caused harm.
Some red flags that might indicate negligence:
If any of these things happened, you might have a case.
Nothing. Zero. Zilch.
I work on contingency, which means you don't pay me anything upfront and you don't pay me anything unless I win your case.
If I do win, I take a percentage of whatever we recover (typically 33⅓% in medical malpractice cases). But if I don't win, you don't owe me a penny.
I also advance all the costs—getting medical records, paying expert witnesses, court filing fees, everything. You never pay anything out of pocket.
It depends. Some cases settle within a year or two. Others take longer, especially if we go to trial.
Most Illinois medical malpractice cases take somewhere between two and four years from start to finish. I know that seems like forever, but building a solid case takes time. And I'd rather take the time to do it right and get you what you deserve than rush through it and leave money on the table.
No. A lot of families worry about this, but consent forms don't give doctors permission to be negligent.
Consent forms are supposed to explain the risks of certain procedures. They don't protect doctors who deviate from the standard of care or make preventable mistakes.
If you signed a consent form but the doctor was still negligent, you can absolutely file a lawsuit.
Yes, and I'm so sorry you're even asking this question.
If your baby died due to medical negligence during labor, delivery, or shortly after birth, you can file a wrongful death lawsuit.
These cases are heartbreaking. Losing a child is something no parent should ever experience, especially when it was preventable.
Illinois law allows parents to recover compensation for funeral expenses, medical bills, and the emotional suffering caused by losing their child.
If this happened to you, please call me. I'll do everything I can to help.
If your child got hurt during labor and delivery at a Chicago hospital, you've probably got about a million questions running through your head right now.
Could this have been prevented? Who's responsible? How am I going to afford my child's medical care? What do I do next?
I'm here to answer those questions and help your family get the justice you deserve.
Call me whenever. Day, night, weekend, holiday—doesn't matter. I'm available.
The consultation is completely free and there's no obligation to hire me. We'll talk about what happened, I'll answer your questions, and I'll give you honest advice about your options.
You don't pay me anything unless I recover compensation for your family. I cover all the investigation costs, expert fees, everything.
There's zero financial risk to you.
I've dedicated my career to helping Illinois families get justice after medical negligence. Your child's future matters to me, and I'll fight to get them the resources they need.
Even though you have several years to file a lawsuit in Illinois, don't put this off. Evidence can disappear. Witnesses forget details. Medical records get misplaced.
The sooner you call me, the sooner I can start working on your case.
Call Scott DeSalvo now at (312) 500-4500 for your free consultation. I'm available any time, day or night, to talk about your labor and delivery case.
Your fight is my fight. Let me help you.
Hiring Scott was one of the best moves I have made in my life. Scott is a down to earth person and attorney. Scott is a 5 star first class act who really knows his stuff. The Judge said his presentation was one of if not the best he had ever seen. Take my advice, hire Scott I’m sure you’ll be 200% satisfied I was.
Scott not only cares about the case, but he truly cares about his clients and that makes him the best lawyer I have ever met and hired! He won my case! He is thorough in everything he does. I highly recommend Scott, and will always refer him to family and friends.
I hired Scott DeSalvo upon a friend’s recommendation. His office kept me informed of developments as they happened, and I felt the settlement reached was fair considering my injuries. I would highly recommend Scott DeSalvo to represent your personal injury case.
Main Office:
1000 Jorie Blvd Ste 204
Oak Brook, IL 60523
New Cases: 312-500-4500
Office: 1 312-895-0545
Fax: 1 866-629-1817
service@desalvolaw.com
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