Cerebral Palsy Symptoms: Signs to look for

If your child exhibits cerebral palsy symptoms and medical or doctor malpractice was the reason for your child’s condition, then you shouldn’t be responsible for the astronomical cost of lifelong care.

Cerebral palsy is diagnosed in approximately 8,000 children each year. The cost of caring for children who suffer from cerebral palsy can be financially catastrophic.

See a cerebral palsy attorney

A cerebral palsy lawyer will determine whether you a strong case that doctor malpractice was the cause. Cerebral palsy lawyers will be able to recognize if there may be a claim.

In most cases, cerebral palsy symptoms are easy to recognize. Here are the most common cerebral palsy symptoms:

Speech

Just as patients have problems with muscle control in their arms and legs, they also have difficulties controlling their tongue, mouth, lips, jaw, and breath flow. As a result, patients exhibiting this type of cerebral palsy symptom might have problems with speech. The most common speech problem is called dysarthria. This condition causes speech to be slow and slurred and, in some cases, hypernasal (too much air flow through the nose) or hyponasal (not enough air flow through the nose).

Drooling

Fortunately, there are a number of treatments available to combat the problem of drooling:

• Surgery
  
• Anticholinergics, or drugs that reduce saliva flow
  
• Biofeedback that allows patients to know when they are drooling.

Eating

This cerebral palsy symptom involves the muscle groups in the face and jaw, which can lead to difficulty eating. Patients with this type of cerebral palsy symptom will often – especially in severe cases – end up becoming malnourished. This always leads to poor growth and development.

Incontinence

This cerebral palsy symptom is more commonly known as poor bladder control. This can take a number of forms, including Enuresis, or bed wetting, urination during physical activity, or a slow leak from the bladder.

Your cerebral palsy lawyer and your legal rights

Cerebral palsy is a brain disorder that affects a person's motor skills. This affliction is usually acquired before, during, and after birth and will tend to stay throughout the child's lifetime.

There are many types of cerebral palsy symptoms. Cerebral palsy treatment and therapy are available to make cerebral palsy patient’s lives more normal.

Cerebral palsy can alter the lives of children and their family. If your child exhibits cerebral palsy symptoms be prepared. Your child's condition can drastically change the way you live your life forever.

Most families don’t have the financial capability to cover the cost of treatment and therapies for their child who has Cerebral Palsy.

For this, you can consult a cerebral palsy lawyer to get the medical compensation that you deserve and in some cases, get you discounts on medications and treatments in the hospital.

For additional help, you may join Cerebral Palsy Associations. However, these associations can only do so much. Oftentimes, because of the large number of cerebral palsy patients that are in need of financial support they tend to make you wait for your turn.

Cerebral Palsy Associations will conduct an investigation whether or not your child has acquired the condition because of mishandling during birth that in turn caused brain damage so they can file a medical lawsuit against the doctor or the hospital.

If you want the proper medical compensation, you can obtain it by hiring a cerebral palsy lawyer.

If you think that there has been birth or delivery mistakes that may have caused the child’s condition, you should immediately contact a cerebral palsy attorney in order to get you the right medical compensation.

The money that medical lawsuits can provide is more than enough for the treatment and medication for your child who has cerebral palsy.

Another great thing about cerebral palsy lawyers is that you owe them nothing until they've helped you get your medical compensation.

Mishandling a child during birth is a very common cause of cerebral palsy. So, you should not erase this on the list of possible causes and you can really make the doctor or the hospital pay for what they are responsible for.

You can also hire a cerebral palsy lawyer to let the hospital give you a cheaper treatment fee for your child. This can really benefit you because cerebral palsy treatment is often long term and entails a lot of expenses.

Always remember that cerebral palsy treatment can be expensive. You can always seek help from Cerebral Palsy Lawyers to get you the proper medical compensation and also significantly lower the treatment fee for your child with cerebral palsy.

Child with quadriplegic CP receives $7.5 M medical compensation

Following an intense mediation process, the family of a baby born with quadriplegic cerebral palsy was awarded $7.5 million medical compensation.

It was determined during the mediation process that the child’s debilitating condition was due to medical or doctor malpractice.

Quadriplegic cerebral palsy is considered one of the most severe forms of cerebral palsy. Throughout the patient’s life, round-the-clock care is required, as patients afflicted with this type of cerebral palsy won’t be able to sit, walk, eat and, in some cases, breathe on their own.

The child’s mother, a healthy young woman, arrived at a hospital to deliver her baby a few years ago. She was expecting a typical delivery, as she had, up until this point, experienced a normal pregnancy.

The initial fetal monitor readings indicated that her baby was healthy. However, within two hours of arriving at the hospital, the baby started showing signs of distress.

In another two hours the nurse would call the obstetrician. At this point, the baby's heart rate had already dropped dangerously low.

Falsified medical records

The OBGYN performed a C-section. Upon birth, however, the baby was not breathing and had no heartbeat. Although medical records indicated that a pediatrician had been present at the birth, later, an attending nurse admitted that this wasn't the case and that no pediatrician was present.

After trying to resuscitate the baby for six minutes, a respiratory therapist finally administered a breathing tube, which was placed in the baby's stomach, rather than in the lungs where it should be.

If only a pediatrician were present, the mistake would have been corrected immediately. It eventually took ultimately took 26 minutes for the baby to achieve a normal heart rate. Permanent damage had already been done, as the baby had developed quadriplegic cerebral palsy due to lack of oxygen during and after the birthing process.

The $7.5 million settlement awarded in this cerebral palsy case will go towards paying for the vital lifelong care this baby needs to survive.

Cerebral palsy causes

Cerebral palsy is an incurable, devastating condition that impairs speech, coordination, movement and health brain function. Fetal development problems and/or medical mistakes made during (and after) delivery typically cause the brain damage that results in cerebral palsy.

While any medical mistake that deprives a baby of oxygen will contribute to cerebral palsy, some of the most common cerebral palsy causes include:

• excessive use of vacuum extraction

• failure to perform immediate C-section

• unrecognized (or untreated) fetal distress

• use of certain medications during the delivery process

If you have a family member living with cerebral palsy see a medical attorney or cerebral palsy lawyer for information regarding your legal rights.

Cerebral palsy and medical lawsuits

Cause of action

You have a legal cause for medical or doctor malpractice if any or both conditions are true:

• Your baby has been diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy and you have reason believe that the doctors', nurses', and hospital staff's actions or omissions were the cause of your child’s present condition.
• You have been informed that the diagnosis or symptoms indicate that a birth trauma or birth injury may have injured your child.
  

Elements of medical or doctor malpractice:

• There must be a negligent act and/or omission by any medical professional, which includes doctors, hospitals, nurses and other health care provider.
• The negligent act or omission must be the proximate cause or contributed to the injuries or damages to the child.
• there must be a departure from the generally accepted standard of care that caused the injury.

Medical expert witnesses must be hired to help prove the negligent act or omission and to explain what the generally accepted standard of care is and whether there has been a departure from the standard of care that caused the child’s injuries.

Damages

Other experts are also needed ranging from nursing experts, economists, future life care planners (cost of past and future medical treatments, nursing care, education, evaluations, home care, modifications, etc.) to other experts needed to prove the injuries and damages suffered by the child and the parents.

Cerebral palsy attorneys' fees

All cases are handled on a contingency fee basis. This means that unless a recovery has been made, the cerebral palsy attorneys will not charge for their time, expenses or other costs incurred in pursing the case. If a settlement has been made, then the cerebral palsy attorneys will receive their fee and legal costs expended on the case. All attorney's fee contracts should always be in writing, clearly stating the terms of the contract.

Other expenses and costs

The client's file contain a record of all expenses and costs in the case. The record is open for viewing and backed up by written documentation. In the majority of cases that involve severe injuries to a child, the local court judge will assign an attorney (often at the defendant's cost) to review the facts, allegations, and evidence of the case and the expenses.

This attorney will actually appear before the court and present to the judge his or her recommendation to the settlement.

This procedure is designed to protect the child’s interest, to prevent parents or guardians from taking advantage of the settlement and to insure that the money set aside for the child will always be available when the child needs them and not wasted by others.