Daniel R. - $10,500,000.00
Cerebral Palsy
Cerebral Palsy Highlights
- Trauma at birth accounts for 80% of cases.
- Affects a child's ability to coordinate body movements.
- Cerebral Palsy affects between two and four of every 1,000 live births.
About Cerebral Palsy
Cerebral palsy is a term for a group of disorders that can involve brain and nervous system functions such as movement, learning, hearing, seeing, and thinking. Cerebral Palsy appears during the first few years of life and affects a child's ability to coordinate body movements. Cerebral palsy can cause muscles to be weak and floppy, or rigid and stiff.
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Cerebral Palsy is one of the most common causes of chronic childhood disability. It affects between two and four of every 1,000 live births. The United Cerebral Palsy Association estimates that more than 500,000 Americans have Cerebral Palsy.
Cerebral palsy is caused by injuries or abnormalities of the brain. Most of these problems occur as the baby grows in the womb. Evidence supports theories that infections, birth injuries, and poor oxygen supply to the brain before, during, and immediately after birth are the greatest causes of cerebral palsy. Getting the proper prenatal care is essential in reducing the risk of cerebral palsy. Congenital cerebral palsy occurs at birth and accounts for 80% of cases.
Conditions Caused By Cerebral Palsy
- Severe oxygen deprivation to the brain (hypoxia) or significant trauma to the head during labor and delivery. May result from leaving the child in the birth canal too long, breech births (with the feet, knees, or buttocks coming out first), or failure to detect a prolapsed cord (the umbilical cord can wrap around the child's neck, cutting off oxygen to the brain)
- Excessive use of vacuum extraction or improper use of forceps
- Failure to respond to changes in the fetal heart rate/fetal distress
- Failure to plan a C-section when one was appropriate (a high birth weight infant could compromise normal, spontaneous, vaginal delivery)
- Vascular or respiratory problems in the infant during birth
- Failure to diagnose bleeding in the brain
- Failure to diagnose brain infections (encephalitis, meningitis, herpes simplex infections) in the infant
- Failure to treat seizures shortly after birth
- Failure to timely diagnose and treat severe jaundice in the infant
- Failure to diagnose Rh incompatibility between mother and infant
- Infections in the mother during pregnancy (rubella, varicella, Cytomegalovirus, Toxoplasmosis, Syphilis)
- Failure to respond to mother’s changing conditions, such as high blood pressure or toxemia
Side Effects & Symptoms
- Parents may notice that their child is delayed in reaching, and in developmental stages such as sitting, rolling, crawling, or walking.
- Muscles that are very tight and do not stretch. They may tighten up even more over time. Joints are tight and do not open up all the way (called joint contracture).
- Abnormal walk (gait): arms tucked in toward the sides, knees crossed or touching, legs make "scissors" movements, walking on the toes.
- Abnormal movements (twisting, jerking, or writhing) of the hands, feet, arms, or legs while awake, which gets worse during periods of stress. Floppy muscles, especially at rest, and joints that move around too much
- Tremors
- Muscle weakness or loss of movement in a group of muscles (paralysis).
- The symptoms may affect one arm or leg, one side of the body, both legs, or both arms and legs.
