The 10 Scariest Things About Cerebral Palsy Attorneys
How to Make a Successful Cerebral Palsy Claim
A diagnosis of cerebral palsy will have profound effects on the child and their family. Compensation can help them live a fuller life, with access to medical equipment, care and support.
Many cases of cerebral palsy arise from medical negligence. This could be due to inadequate care during pregnancy, problems during birth or other events.
Causes
Early diagnosis and treatment of CP can help improve a child's abilities. Doctors diagnose CP by observing the child's muscle coordination and tone. They can refer a child to specialists such as neurologists, pediatric orthopedists and physiatrists who will assist in managing symptoms and increase the quality of life.
Everyone suffers from cerebral palsy in a different way. It can be moderate and have only a slight impact on a child's abilities or severe and cause impairments in every body part. The symptoms could include a neck that is floppy (floppy neck) as well as a muscles that are stiff and uncontrolled and walking difficulties, or problems with speech and other functions. If a child has cerebral palsy on one side of the body, this is known as hemiplegia. On both sides, it's known as diplegia. The severity of CP may lead to locked in (spastic) condition, which is characterized by muscle spasticity. This can limit the person's mobility and create difficulties with speech and eating.
Medical mistakes in childbirth are a frequent cause of CP. Midwives, doctors and nurses should be extra cautious when delivering babies because damage to the brain can cause serious problems. If a medical error causes oxygen deprivation or other brain damage that causes cerebral palsy, the physician could be held responsible for malpractice. This is the case when scheduling or performing a C-section in a hurry or failing to monitor and increase an intense labor.
Symptoms
If your child has cerebral palsy, he / is likely to experience an array of physical symptoms. These could include tight or stiff joints and limbs, a limp, erratic movement, and issues with balance and posture. Other issues include speech delays, intellectual disabilities as well as hearing and vision issues.
The symptoms of cerebral palsy are caused by damage to the brain's maturation. This is usually the case during infancy or the early years of childhood. A slowing down in reaching milestones such as standing up, crawling or walking is a typical symptom of CP. Children with CP are also more likely to experience difficulty swallowing and may require a feeding tube.
A variety of factors can cause a brain injury that leads to CP. This includes diseases like toxoplasmosis, or rubella in the womb, high blood pressure during pregnancy and genetic predisposition. A severe lack of oxygen to the brain (asphyxia) during pregnancy or birth is the main cause of CP as is bleeding in the brain from blocked or broken blood vessels.
Depending on the type of cerebral palsy, the symptoms may vary from mild to severe. Spastic cerebral palsy (characterized by stiff muscles) is the most commonly encountered type. Dyskinetic cerebral palsy (also called choreoathetoid, or athetoid) is characterized by slow, uncontrolled flailing movements of the arms, legs and the body. Other types of CP could include ataxic cerebral palsy lawsuit palsy, which is characterized by an unstable motion, or paraplegic cerebral palsy that affects the arms and legs are affected.
Treatment
The specific symptoms of cerebral palsy are different, the majority of people suffering from the condition are required to manage stiffness and loss of muscle control. They may also have issues with coordination and balance. The kind of problems they suffer from depend on the part of the brain that was injured as well as the extent of the injury.
Many people with CP require specialized physical therapy that helps them improve their mobility and muscle tone as well as stretch and exercise their joints and muscles. It can also relieve the discomfort and prevent contracture. It can include exercises, special braces or other treatments.
Musculoskeletal conditions like patella alta, hip dysplasia, cervical stenosis and scoliosis are common in CP. These conditions can cause major issues in mobility, which decreases life expectancy.
Speech and therapy for language are a way to assist children who are unable to communicate effectively. This can help them to discover new ways to communicate and could involve signing language, communication boards or voice synthesizers.
The use of medications can relax overactive or stiff muscles, reduce abnormal movement, alleviate pain, and to control seizures. The medications are administered by mouth or injected into the affected muscles or into the fluid around the spinal cord.
Compensation
A successful cerebral palsy claim could result in compensation for your child to pay for specialist care, equipment and treatment. The amount will be determined upon the physical and mental effects of your child's illness, as well as on any losses or expenses you may have suffered. This could be a loss of earnings due to having to stop working to care for your children, home adaptations and transport expenses.
Depending on the severity of your child's injury the lawyer may recommend an expert in disability care to develop a "lifecare plan' that clearly defines their needs from the time of their diagnosis until adulthood. This can help you determine an accurate amount of compensation. This is usually in the form of a lump sum as well as regular annual payments which may be indexed to keep pace with inflation.
It is important to be aware that the compensation resulting from a successful legal claim isn't a windfall. It's an acknowledgement of the injustice that occurred due to the fact that a medical professional did not meet their duty of care in labour, pregnancy and the delivery.