Many parents have to come to terms with the fact that cerebral palsy is something their child will live there for the entirety of their life. This injury can happen before, during, or right after birth, and it affects the brain. This brain injury can drastically change the child’s quality of life, and it may even reduce their expected lifespan. Of course, most parents put the focus on helping their child build independence and develop abilities, but that doesn’t mean the same parents aren’t upset at the fact that a birth injury was possibly caused because of a medical professional.
The medical community has long tried to mask the injuries that lead to cerebral palsy. Most doctors will say that there is no way to have a definitive determination or to pinpoint what led to this brain injury. Many parents are told that cerebral palsy just happens. That’s not true. Determining the cause can be extremely important to understanding the treatment and therapy options available to the child, and they can help the medical community better treat and understand the condition.
How Cerebral Palsy Happens
Cerebral palsy can happen in a number of ways, including the brain being subjected to an infection either in the womb over shortly after birth. It’s also possible for an infant to sustain cerebral palsy as a result of head trauma during the birthing process.
It’s likely that you’ll need a team of medical professionals to assess what elements played a role in your child’s development of cerebral palsy. In most situations, it’s clear that a medical professional or entity should take some responsibility. For example, if you mentioned during a doctor’s appointment that you’ve been experiencing certain symptoms and the nurse or doctor brushes it off, that sickness may have led to the brain infection, which caused cerebral palsy. The lack of a diagnosis may make that medical professional responsible.
Additionally, if a doctor used birthing tools such as forceps or contributed to any head trauma during birth, it’s possible that the doctor or hospital is responsible.
Possible Treatments
The treatments for cerebral palsy vary as much as the causes. Often children with cerebral palsy will undergo years of physical therapy to help train their muscles and develop strength, balance, motor development, and flexibility. During their teenage years and into early adulthood, they may undergo occupational therapy.
Perhaps the three most common therapy types for cerebral palsy include speech therapy, language therapy, and recreational therapy. But the idea behind the news is that they can help improve the person’s quality of life by improving communication abilities and more.
Your child’s needs will largely determine what therapy options they need. There are medication options available for mild or moderate cases, which can help reduce muscle spasms. They may also need specialized support devices to improve stability or even surgery to address deformities.
Specialized Treatments
While most discussions on injuries talk about recovery, cerebral palsy is not something that most people recover from. Instead, it’s an injury that your child will live with for the remainder of their life. They may need to undergo specialized treatments at different times in their life in order to improve their quality of life or allow them to make better use of their abilities.
These specialized treatments are often expensive, and many times, health insurance networks will fight against paying for them, acknowledging that they’re voluntary or optional. However, doing your civil lawsuit, you may be able to include the option of specialized treatments or specialized future treatments as part of the demand.
It may be possible for you to address that specialized treatments should be expected as the injuries resulted from the medical professional or medical entities’ failure to provide a duty of care. To include specialized treatments in your demand, you may need to confer with medical experts and assess which treatments would most likely benefit your child.
Understanding How Personal Injury Attorneys Work Birth Injury Cases
When it comes to birth injuries, many parents don’t understand their options or know how to take that first step. If your child sustained cerebral palsy as a result of bad medical practices, then you may need additional help to sort out how you and your family can grow together through this experience. It’s likely that medical professionals will play an active role in Your entire family from now on.
However, legal professionals can assist your family, as well. If there was negligence to any degree, then it’s possible to hold the doctor, medical network, hospital, or other medical entity responsible for their lack of care. Contact Christian Morris Trial Attorneys of Henderson, NV, for support from a local personal injury lawyer in addressing all birth injury concerns.
