Cerebral Palsy and Medical Malpractice

Did you know?

- According to the United Cerebral Palsy Association, approximately 500,000 Americans currently have the disease.
- Each year, approximately 10,000 babies are born with cerebral palsy in the United States.

What is cerebral palsy?

Cerebral palsy is a condition caused by faulty development or damage to the area of the brain called the cerebrum. The cerebrum is the largest portion of the brain that controls higher mental faculties as well as motor skills, sensations and voluntary muscle activities. When a child’s cerebrum is damaged, it will disrupt the brain's ability to control movement and posture. It can also result in the loss of nerve functions in various areas.

Cerebral palsy is incurable and non-progressive, meaning it will not worsen over time.

What are the symptoms?

Symptoms are usually apparent in a child before the age of 2. Symptoms can include such things as difficulty with fine motor tasks and maintaining balance or walking and involuntary movements. Also, an estimated one-third of children with the disease are mildly intellectually impaired and one-third are moderately or severely impaired.

Although the symptoms vary, the most common include:

• Delays in motor development
• Difficulty feeding and sucking
• Involuntary movements
• Slow overall development
• Delay in crawling, walking, pushing up on all fours
• Poor head control
• Lying in awkward positions
• Easily or frequently startled
• Favoring of one hand over the other
• Abnormal crawling
• Overdeveloped or underdeveloped muscles (child will seem either floppy or stiff)
• Ataxia (loss of coordination and balance)
• Athetosis (involuntary writhing movements)
• Spastic paralysis (abnormal stiffness and contraction of muscles)
• Motor impairment (writing and other coordinated tasks)
• Speech, hearing, or vision difficulties

What will life be like? About half of those afflicted with cerebral palsy need braces, walkers or wheelchairs. Depending on the severity, there may be a need for specialized medical care as well as educational and social services. The estimated lifetime care costs for a child with cerebral palsy may be over $3,000,000. Sometimes much more.

How does this happen? Cerebral palsy can be caused by infections during pregnancy. However, hypoxia, a lack of oxygen to the brain, also seems to be a main cause. So, while many cerebral palsy cases are the result of genetics, many are also the result of medical malpractice.

Some things that can go wrong during delivery include:

• Leaving the child in the birth canal too long resulting in a lack of oxygen to the brain
• Improper use of forceps
• Not responding to changes in the baby’s heart rate
• Failure to respond to a spike in blood pressure or toxemia of the mother
• Not recognizing and treating seizures following delivery
• Failure to detect if the umbilical cord was wrapped around the baby's neck, cutting off oxygen to the brain
• Failure to perform a C-section when it would have been proper

Now what?

If you believe that your child suffers from a condition that was caused by medical malpractice during delivery, it is highly recommended that you consult with an experienced birth injury attorney. If medical malpractice did occur, your attorney will work with you to ensure that you are properly compensated for past and future medical and other costs.

Keep in mind that there are time limits for commencing a lawsuit so it is highly recommended that you speak with an attorney as soon as possible. Most birth injury cases have eight year time limits, but there are some exceptions.

Also, bring your medical records to the consultation. It is important that such evidence is preserved. Also, bring the names and contact information, if you have it, of all witnesses, such as nurses and other personnel. Write down whatever you can remember from before, during and after delivery, including observations of your child since birth.

If you’re not sure where to find a birth injury attorney, call us. We are free. We are confidential. We can help you find the right attorney for your case.