NICU Errors in San Francisco

Neonatal Malpractice Claims Backed by Record-Setting Results

When a newborn requires intensive care, every hour matters. The margin for error in a neonatal intensive care unit is essentially zero: delayed treatment, a misread monitor, a mismanaged line, or a missed diagnosis can cause permanent brain damage in minutes. When that harm results from a provider’s failure to meet the standard of care, families have legal recourse. Bostwick & Associates has spent more than 40 years building and litigating neonatal injury cases, and our results in this category are documented.

We secured a $17 million settlement for a brain-injured baby after providers failed to treat a pregnant mother’s infection before it became septic. That recovery is believed to be the largest medical malpractice recovery, verdict, or settlement in California history (present value, 2019). The year prior, we secured a $14 million settlement for a child who suffered brain injury from a surgical error performed when the child was just three days old, itself then the largest medical malpractice settlement in California history. We also recovered $5 million for a premature infant whose brain injury resulted from a mismanaged PICC line in the NICU, and $11 million for premature triplets who suffered blindness injuries from a failure to diagnose. These are past results, not promises. They reflect what can happen when NICU negligence cases are built and tried with the right resources.

If your baby was harmed in a NICU in San Francisco or anywhere in California, call us at (888) 831-8448 for a free, confidential consultation. You pay nothing unless we win your case.

Common NICU Errors That Cause Permanent Harm

NICU negligence takes several distinct forms. Understanding the most common categories can help families recognize whether their child’s injury may have resulted from preventable errors.

Breathing Assistance Errors
Improper ventilator settings can cause hypocarbia, a condition in which carbon dioxide falls too low, constricting blood vessels in the brain and reducing blood flow. This can lead to periventricular leukomalacia (PVL), a form of white matter injury closely associated with cerebral palsy. A ventilator-caused pneumothorax left untreated without a timely chest tube can also cause hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE), a brain injury resulting from reduced oxygen and blood flow.

Failure to Resuscitate
Resuscitation clinicians must be immediately available at every birthing center. Delays in resuscitation or improper intubation deprive the newborn’s brain of oxygen and can cause HIE or cerebral palsy. Even brief oxygen deprivation during this window carries serious consequences.

Undiagnosed HIE & Failure to Provide Cooling Therapy
Hypothermia cooling therapy, administered for 72 hours, is the established standard of care for HIE. Treatment must begin within six hours of the brain insult. Failure to diagnose HIE and initiate cooling in time can constitute negligence. Missing this window cannot be undone.

Failure to Monitor & Treat Neonatal Seizures
HIE is the most frequent cause of newborn seizures, and seizures in newborns often have no visible outward signs. Babies suspected of HIE must be monitored by EEG. Untreated seizures cause additional, cumulative brain damage, compounding the original injury.

Infection Mismanagement
NICU patients face serious infection risks including group B streptococcus sepsis, E. coli meningitis, and herpes simplex encephalitis. Failure to diagnose and treat these infections promptly can cause brain damage and cerebral palsy. These are known risks in the neonatal population, and the protocols to address them are well established.

Jaundice & Kernicterus
When elevated bilirubin levels go untreated, bilirubin crosses into brain tissue and causes kernicterus, a form of permanent brain damage that frequently results in cerebral palsy. High bilirubin is straightforward to diagnose and treat. Failure to do so can be a preventable error.

Neonatal Hypoglycemia
Glucose is the brain’s primary energy source. When blood sugar falls to unsafe levels in the days after birth and isn’t promptly corrected, brain cells die. The result can be brain damage, seizures, and cerebral palsy, all from a condition that is readily detectable and treatable.

Medication Errors & Line Mismanagement
Misplaced feeding tubes, malpositioned IVs, and mismanaged central lines can cause stroke and brain damage. Medication dosing errors carry heightened risk given a newborn’s size and fragility. These errors reflect breakdowns in protocols that exist precisely to prevent them.

Brain Bleed Mismanagement
Babies who experienced difficult deliveries involving forceps or vacuum extractors are at elevated risk for intracranial hemorrhage. Failure to recognize and treat brain bleeds, including timely transfusions and surgery for significant subdural hematomas, can cause lifelong disability.

Why San Francisco Families Choose Bostwick & Associates for NICU Malpractice

Hospitals and their insurers deploy defense teams whose sole focus is limiting liability in NICU negligence claims. Matching that defense capability requires medical depth, litigation resources, and a track record that commands respect in settlement negotiations and at trial.

James Bostwick holds board certification as a Board Certified Medical Malpractice Specialist by the American Board of Professional Liability Attorneys, one of very few attorneys in the country to hold this credential. He is a member of the Inner Circle of Advocates, an invitation-only organization limited to the nation’s top 100 plaintiff trial lawyers, and has been included in The Best Lawyers in America since its first edition in 1983. These aren’t marketing claims. They reflect more than four decades of sustained performance in exactly this category of case.

Our team has taken more than 80 cases to jury verdict. Defendants know we don’t accept inadequate settlements when the evidence supports more. We have achieved record-setting results in five states and have broken California’s own record for the largest medical malpractice settlement twice since 2018. James Bostwick has also spent decades using fetal heart rate monitoring records as retrospective evidence to reconstruct what happened and when, a skill that is central to proving causation in neonatal injury cases. We work with leading medical professionals and investigators to build the evidentiary record that turns a family’s account into a compelling legal claim.

Compensation in a California NICU Malpractice Case

Because NICU injuries so frequently cause permanent brain injury, economic damages are often the largest component of a family’s potential recovery. Those damages may include past and future medical bills, long-term care and therapy costs, assistive devices, accommodations, and the child’s lost earning capacity. Under California law, economic damages carry no statutory ceiling.

California’s Medical Injury Compensation Reform Act (MICRA) caps non-economic damages such as pain and suffering in medical malpractice cases. The 2026 cap is $470,000 for injury cases and $650,000 for wrongful death claims. These limits increase annually and are set to adjust for inflation beginning in 2034. Families should consult with an attorney for figures applicable to their specific situation. Wrongful death claims are available to families who lost a baby due to NICU negligence and carry their own damages framework under California law.

Talk to Our Team About What Happened to Your Baby

We offer free, no-obligation consultations for families whose babies suffered harm in a NICU in San Francisco or anywhere in California. If we take your case, we work on a contingency fee basis and advance all litigation costs. You pay no attorney fees unless we win.

To schedule your free consultation with Bostwick & Associates, call (888) 831-8448 today.