Military families deserve excellent care at Virginia's Army, Navy, and Air Force medical facilities during pregnancy and birth. Medical mistakes at Military Treatment Facilities can cause lifelong birth injuries to children and families. Virginia's military hospitals serve thousands of families each year.
Birth injuries happen at military medical centers across Virginia, including Navy, Marine Corps, Army, and Air Force facilities. Our founding attorney at the Archuleta Law Firm is both a lawyer and a doctor. We understand military birth injury cases and medical care standards at federal facilities. We can spot medical errors others miss and explain complex medical issues clearly.
If your child was injured at a Virginia military hospital, federal laws protect your rights. You can file claims under the Federal Tort Claims Act and National Defense Authorization Act. These claims target the U.S. government, not individual doctors. Federal claims have special rules and deadlines unlike civilian cases.
What Causes Birth Injuries at Virginia Military Hospitals?
Birth injury claims against military treatment facilities generally involve labor and delivery management rather than an unforeseeable event:
- Failure to recognize fetal distress: Category II and III fetal heart rate tracings require escalation; non-reassuring patterns that are not acted on lead to oxygen deprivation.
- Delayed cesarean delivery: When the decision to proceed to cesarean is made late, or the operating team cannot be assembled promptly, hypoxic injury can result.
- Improper use of vacuum or forceps: Excessive force or repeated attempts at operative vaginal delivery can cause skull fracture, intracranial bleeding and brachial plexus injury.
- Shoulder dystocia mismanagement: Failure to anticipate dystocia or to apply recognized release maneuvers can permanently injure the brachial plexus.
- Untreated maternal conditions: Preeclampsia, gestational diabetes and infection require monitoring and treatment; uncontrolled, they place the newborn at risk.
- Inadequate neonatal resuscitation: Delay in establishing an airway, or in recognizing and cooling a newborn with hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy, compounds the initial injury.
Virginia Military Facilities Where We Handle Birth Injury Cases
Birth injury claims against the federal government arise at military treatment facilities with obstetric services, not at VA medical centers. In Virginia, those include:
- Naval Medical Center Portsmouth (Portsmouth) — one of the Navy's largest medical centers, with labor and delivery and neonatal services for service members and military families across Hampton Roads.
- Alexander T. Augusta Military Medical Center (Fort Belvoir) — the military medical center serving Northern Virginia, formerly Fort Belvoir Community Hospital.
- 633rd Medical Group (Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Hampton) — military treatment facility serving personnel and dependents in the Hampton area.
- Naval Health Clinic Quantico (Quantico) — clinic serving the Marine Corps base community, with obstetric care coordinated through regional military and network facilities.
Where prenatal care was delivered at one facility and delivery occurred at another, identifying which federal providers were involved — and whether any care was rendered by a network civilian provider — is an early and important step in the claim.
View all Virginia VA & Military Facilities
Warning Signs of Birth Injury Medical Malpractice?
Some birth injuries are unavoidable. The following circumstances are the ones that warrant review by a lawyer working with a medical expert:
- Fetal monitoring showed a concerning pattern for an extended period before anyone intervened.
- A cesarean was discussed or ordered, and a substantial delay followed before delivery.
- Vacuum or forceps were used repeatedly, or your records note difficulty delivering the shoulders.
- Your newborn required resuscitation, was admitted to the NICU, or was evaluated for therapeutic hypothermia (body cooling).
- Apgar scores were low, or cord blood gas results showed acidosis.
- Your child was later diagnosed with cerebral palsy, a seizure disorder, hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy, or a brachial plexus injury such as Erb's palsy.
- A maternal condition such as preeclampsia or infection was documented but not treated or monitored as the records indicate it should have been.