Cerebral palsy is a dangerous yet highly common disability that affects millions of people worldwide. It involves damage to the cerebral cortex, which is the section of the brain that controls a person’s voluntary movements. As such, it is classified as a neurological disorder and is often seen in conjunction with physical trauma to the brain, birth defects, abnormal growth of parts of the brain, infections, gene mutations, and delivery room errors.
Was your child diagnosed with cerebral palsy? If yes, the costs of caring for your child can be significant—the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates the costs can be up to 26 times higher than for children without cerebral palsy.
You owe it to your family—especially your injured child—to find the care and treatment needed. Cerebral palsy is a permanent condition, so your child may require lifelong care and assistance to perform routine actions. Port St. Lucie families can call the Birth Injury Lawyers Group for guidance regarding the steps they can take and to learn what to do going forward. Call now at (800) 222-9529 to get started.
Causes and Symptoms
Cerebral palsy correlates with various health issues such as genetic mutations and physical injury. There is no known cause of cerebral palsy, and we only know a little about the factors that can increase its incidence rate or are seen alongside it.
Some of the risk factors the National Institutes of Health (NIH) identifies are:
- Gene mutations that hamper proper brain growth during the mother’s pregnancy
- Trauma such as a physical impact on the brain
- Infections that cause the baby’s brain to swell, leading to various forms of brain damage
- An inadequate supply of oxygen leading to cell death (from umbilical cord issues)
- Brain bleeds caused by a stroke in the unborn fetus, or high maternal blood pressure that damages the cerebral cortex
- Low birth weight or premature birth
Doctor distraction, inexperience, or other birthing errors can also lead to a birth complication, aggravate an injury, or pose other health threats to the baby.
You must determine which of the factors above contributed to your child’s cerebral palsy before initiating the treatments needed to help them come to terms with—and hopefully overcome—the disabilities and health issues they face.
Call the Birth Injury Lawyers Group at (800) 222-9529 for a free case evaluation with a team member. A Port St. Lucie cerebral palsy lawyer from our team can initiate the discovery and investigation phase of your case so you can get your life back on track as quickly as possible.
"If your child was born with a birth injury, or cerebral palsy, we can help."
Medical Malpractice
Doctors, nurses, and other caregivers are held to a high standard when treating and caring for their patients. They must take preventive measures to avoid complications, test for potential sources of health issues, and respond quickly and competently while making the right decisions if an emergency procedure is needed or a birth complication arises.
Doing this involves multiple tiers of prevention. First, the medical team must be vigilant and actively monitor the mother and her child at regular intervals during the mother’s pregnancy and throughout the delivery period. Next, they must perform certain tests to rule out the possibility of certain birth complications. Blood tests to identify infections and imaging scans to identify the possibility of a breech birth are some of the tests that should be performed ahead of time. Diabetes screening is another important test to administer.
The care team should also have the requisite expertise, skills, and knowledge to handle a delivery—not just a normal delivery, but an emergency delivery should one be required. A failure here may be grounds to hold the hospital or the caregiver liable for allowing unqualified personnel to perform medical procedures.
If the medical team missed any potential complication that could have or should have been identified or screened, and this omission leads to a birth injury, all those involved could be guilty of medical negligence. Errors that could contribute to a birth injury include:
- The improper use of assistive devices
- Administrative errors
- Dispensing an incorrect amount of medication
- Report mix-ups, or misreading scans or test results
- An incorrect or delayed diagnosis
- Direct physical injury via squeezing, twisting, or stretching the baby during birth
Caring for the mother and her baby and treating them with the expertise, competence, skill, and knowledge expected of anyone in the medical community is called the duty of care. It is the provision of care at a level that any competent healthcare worker would do when faced with similar circumstances. If the care your child received fell below this minimum threshold, the responsible providers can be held liable for the damages that result from their negligence.
Port St Lucie Cerebral Palsy Lawyer Near Me (800) 222-9529
Covering Costs
There are many costs associated with health issues. With cerebral palsy, however, the costs can last a lifetime since cerebral palsy is a permanent condition. Here are some of the costs you may face while caring for your injured child:
- Lost income
- Physical therapy
- Assistive devices
- Special schooling
- Home improvements for ease of access
- Surgery
- Medications
- Testing
You need to determine what caused your child’s disabilities to treat them, and you need to connect those disabilities to specific costs. You must also keep track of your expenditures. A Port St. Lucie cerebral palsy lawyer can use this information and work to recover damages from the party or parties who caused your child’s birth injury.
"We know first-hand what you are going through."
How We Help
The Birth Injury Lawyers Group assists patients with cerebral palsy and their families to identify the cause of the child’s injuries, prove that negligence was a cause of those injuries, and show that specific costs were suffered as a result.
A Port St. Lucie cerebral palsy lawyer from our firm can also help you understand your rights, walk you through what you need to know about filing a claim, and keep you up to date with the progress of your claim every step of the way. Statutes of limitation apply to medical malpractice cases, so you might want to act soon. Call us today at (800) 222-9529 to move forward with your case.
"We are committed to helping families who have suffered medical negligence."