Pregnant Wife Hit By Car And Forced To Induce

Long time reader because law interests me, but NAL and never needed to post. I appreciate any advice! I’m in Texas.

I (husband/dad) was recently driving through a parking lot with family in the car and was t-boned at low speed. The other driver admitted fault and I have a dash cam. Everyone seemed ok at first, so swapped info and we went home. Within an hour, my wife (35F) (37 weeks pregnant) started having regular contractions. We called the doc who said to go to the hospital to get checked out since we were in an accident.

The OB ER was about to send us home because contractions had slowed, but they discovered she had preeclampsia (edit 1: They didn’t officially diagnose preeclampsia. They kept us because her blood pressure remained too high for too long. They weren’t 100% sure it was preeclampsia, but just that she had hypertension. They did protein tests and it was low to borderline preeclampsia. Docs were torn if it was preeclampsia or not. But the blood pressure was concerning and is why they induced. She ended up having to take IV meds to reduce it at one point because it was really high. So it was really about the blood pressure. I tried to simplify my explanation and that caused issues, sorry). There is a strong chance she got the preeclampsia due to the stresses caused by the wreck (no history of any kind with high blood pressure, even this pregnancy). That meant we weren’t leaving and we had to induce and have the baby. Labor was harder than previous children because her body wasn’t really ready to deliver since we were early, but generally went alright.

Baby came and is healthy now, but lost more weight than normal and had extra pediatrician appointments to get normal, doesn’t seem to be any real issues though now.

My wife is having to take blood pressure meds now because preeclampsia/hypertension can linger a bit after the pregnancy. Im worried about potential long term issues. Still waiting to talk to our doctor about that.

The other driver’s insurance has accepted 100% liability and is handling the car part just fine. I verbally told them everything that is listed above (tried to be vague since I’m NAL) and they said they could settle for $10k-$15k right now. I didn’t accept because I want to know my options.

I have all of the medical stuff documented in hospital records, but have not given the other insurance company any documentation (and I’m assuming I shouldn’t without a lawyer). I want to make sure we aren’t out any money should there be any long term side effects for my wife that requires treatment or something like future high risk pregnancy.

Also, Baby was born end of 2024 but due in 2025, so now I have to pay 2024’s medical deductible in addition to the planned 2025 deductible due to other medical expenses. We have a high deductible plan (~$7k deductible and ~$14k out of pocket max)

We aren’t just looking for the next payday and I would prefer not to sue to avoid the hassle and would prefer to settle, but want to protect ourselves from potential long term expenses. Your expert advice is greatly appreciated. What are the chances I could get a max payout for the insured amount based on these facts? What’s the max they’d settle for before having to file a suit? Am I missing something? Am I super ignorant?

Note: My wife suing me to get an insurance payout is not something we are interested in.

Thanks to all!

Edit 1: see above in post related to me using preeclampsia and high blood pressure incorrectly. That was bad. I’m not a doctor, I’ve learned a lot from Helpful posts.

Edit 2: My post was not saying I WANT to pursue legal action to milk the insurance for anything I can. The person that hit me asked not to go through insurance at first so I got a quote to have my car fixed as a favor to the person who hit me. They opted to go through insurance due to cost of fixing the car. I did not ask insurance for money (beyond fixing my car) or threaten legal action. When they found out we went to the hospital at the doctor’s direction and had the baby, they offered to settle right then and there. I said I wanted to do research before answering. My intention of this post was that in the case that there are long term medical side effects, I wanted to be somewhat informed on how to proceed. We have a follow-up scheduled with the doctor and we’re going to ask about it then. I was asking about max payout vs max settlement because of Texas minimum liability insurance amounts that helps me understand if a lawyer would be worth the expense should we need to pursue legal action or if settling and cutting my losses would just be better. Now that I know we can get free consults, we will do that (only if there are long term medical issues).

I’ve learned from many helpful people that the high blood pressure may not have been caused by the wreck and even if it was, it’d be very hard to prove. We have no intention of pursuing legal action unless our doctor can positively link my wife’s current medical condition to the wreck (we do not expect this) and said medical issue will have future expenses.

I have a newborn and am just coming out of some other personal stressful things in life; the last thing my wife and I want right now is a law suit. Please don’t assume the worst in people.