Cerebral Palsy Birth Injury and Filing Malpractice Claims
Cerebral palsy is a general term that is used in reference to a group of disorders that start during the early stages of life. Cerebral palsy affects the ability of your child to coordinate body movements.
These disorders result from damage to the brain of your child, early during the course of development. This damage can take place during fetal development, the birth process or the first few months after the birth of your child. Cerebral palsy is a disorder that may range anywhere from mild to severe.
There are three main kinds of cerebral palsy:
Spastic cerebral palsy is what most children have. This kind of cerebral palsy causes muscles to stiffen making movement difficult.
Athetotic cerebral palsy is what about one in five people with cerebral palsy have. It is also referred to as extrapyramidal cerebral palsy. It affects all of the body and usually causes slow, uncontrolled movement.
Ataxic cerebral palsy is the rarest form of cerebral palsy. It affects coordination and balance.
Cerebral palsy results from an injury to or an abnormality in the cerebrum. The cerebrum is the largest part of the brain. It is the area of the brain that controls voluntary motor sensation and function. Cerebral palsy affects movement, but the underlying problem is in the brain, not the muscles.
The cause of cerebral palsy cannot always be identified. However, hypoxia (oxygen deprivation) to the brain is the thing that is most responsible for a child getting cerebral palsy. This is hypoxia that takes place during labor and delivery.
Oxygen deprivation may occur as a result of things that are not medically preventable. On the other hand, your child’s cerebral palsy may have come about because of medical malpractice during your labor and delivery.
Medical malpractice
Medical malpractice is professional negligence as shown by an act or omission on the part of a health care provider. Medical malpractice is treatment that falls below the accepted standard of practice in the medical community that results in injury or death to the patient and in most cases involves medical error.
Negligence on the part of a health care provider may have led to your child’s cerebral palsy. Examples of negligence that may contribute to your child’s condition are:
Failure to do a cesarean section when it is necessary
Failure to monitor dangerous fetal heart patterns
Improper use of forceps
Misreading sonograms
Misreading electronic fetal monitor strips
Improperly using vacuum extractors.
When it comes to determining if medical malpractice was the cause of your child developing cerebral palsy, it is extremely difficult for you to do this by yourself. A personal injury attorney can investigate and evaluate the details of your child’s circumstances in a way that you will not be able to do. A personal injury attorney will probably be able to determine if medical malpractice was what brought about your child’s cerebral palsy.
This is something you should not try to handle yourself. While nothing can undo the medical wrong that was done, legal compensation can help provide support if you are struggling with medical costs and cost of living concerns in the future.
