Brainpalsy.com – Helping Parents Combat Cerebral Palsy

There are thousands of attorneys who handle cerebral palsy cases. However, having an attorney who is also a doctor can be extremely advantageous to your case.

A doctor is trained and understands labor and delivery. When a child is born with cerebral palsy, there are usually problems with the child’s heart rate prior to birth. A trained doctor understands how fetal monitor tracings should read. They are aware of unreassuring patterns can lead to decreased oxygen and cerebral palsy. A lawyer who is also a doctor is aware of how attending physicians and nurse are to deal with birth related issues that can result in cerebral palsy. Unlike an ordinary attorney, a doctor/attorney knows the standard of care and can recognize when this has been breached. Doctors are knowledgeable in pediatrics, obstetrics, radiology, and neurology as well. They understand the normal developing fetus and how to recognize any complications that can lead to cerebral palsy.

A doctor/lawyer can “read between the lines” in your delivery and prenatal records which can help determine if your child’s cerebral palsy or developmental delay is as a result of medical malpractice.

The familiarity with the terminology and procedures recorded in your medical records means that a doctor/lawyer can tell if you have a case the same day that these records are reviewed.

You only have one chance when you proceed with a cerebral palsy case. Many families have hired attorneys who are not doctors and the results have been far less than satisfactory. However, there is documentation that shows how having a lawyer who is also a doctor can generate record verdicts on cerebral palsy cases.

The most simple answer as to why a child is suffering from cerebral palsy is because they have suffered some form of damage to their brain. Normally such damage will have occurred before, during or after the child has been born. But in order to find out which kind of injury to the brain and the causes of cerebral palsy a doctor will need to carry out various medical and neurological tests on the child.

Unfortunately when medical professionals are investigating why the child has suffered a brain injury find it difficult to know what for sure had caused it. Because they are unable to discover what has caused the initial injury to the childs brain they also find it difficult to have ways of preventing it in the first place. But in many cases where a child is suffering from cerebral palsy there are two injuries to their brain which can be the cause of them suffering from this particular condition.

The first is because the childs brain has been unable to develop properly and is commonly referred to as developmental brain malformation. Unfortunately with this kind of injury to the brain there is very little chance available medically to help prevent such an injury occurring.

The other cause for a child to suffer brain damage whilst still in their mothers womb or as they are being born or after they have been born is through a recognized injury. The kinds of injuries that fall in to this category are infections (such as meningitis), blood has been allowed to bleed into the brain or the child has not been provided with sufficient amounts of oxygen to their brain. Around 10 to 15% of all children who suffer from cerebral palsy will have been caused by such injuries.

Also a large proportion of the cases of cerebral palsy to be found in young children today have been caused through medical mistakes and could therefore have been easily prevented. Often a large number of children who have cerebral palsy will have suffered from some kind of brain damage when they were being delivered and therefore could easily have been prevented.

But just how bad a childs cerebral palsy is will depend on how severe the damage to their brain was. For a baby who is born prematurely and suffers from an intraventricular haemorrhage (bleeding into the brain) will suffer from very extensive brain damage.

Above we have explained some of the causes of cerebral palsy in children today and on average around 6,000 new cases are presenting themselves in the USA each year. Currently the medical bill to cover the costs of caring for such children in the USA alone is running at around $20 billion a year. But the biggest question being asked by many parents today whose child suffers from cerebral palsy was if it could have been prevented or not?

Though cerebral palsy has been known to have its cause in the fetal developmental stage itself, yet, medical negligence cannot be entirely ruled out. This is the reason why cerebral palsy litigation has become a specialized branch of its own. Legal firms dealing in cerebral palsy litigation employ medical professionals to do medical sleuthing for them. This is because the medical field is very specialized and it is not possible for a legal person to know all the ins and outs of treatment and birth procedures. With time, their expertise does improve; still the help afforded by a trained medical eye is very essential.

An unbelievable $120 million verdict was awarded for a delayed breech delivery. The ruling said that an earlier delivery would have prevented the permanent brain damage that the child suffered. Damages of $103 million were awarded in favor of another child victimized due to a delayed delivery. The delay caused a lack of oxygen supply to the child’s brain that resulted in cerebral palsy.

If the attending doctors fail to recognize a symptom in the mother that could be a potential cause for cutting off oxygen supply to the fetus, he or she can be held responsible for the child’s condition. In one such case, the attending doctor failed to recognize abdominal pain as a symptom of the placenta separating from the uterus. This condition is known as a placental abruption and a delay in attending to the mother resulted in the child’s brain getting insufficient oxygen. As a result the child had permanent brain damage.

At times there is a failure to detect and treat a newborn’s jaundiced condition in time. This causes bilirubin levels to reach dangerously high levels and lead to permanent brain damage. There have been cases where compensation has been awarded on these grounds.

While most medical institutions and medical personnel take utmost care while performing their duties, mistakes can and do happen. And as per the law of the land if the mistake is proven, the guilty has to pay for his or her mistake.