As many as 10,000 children develop cerebral palsy as a result of medical mistakes each year. Usually caused by lack of oxygen to the baby’s brain during birth, it may take months or even years for cerebral palsy to be diagnosed.
Just over a third of babies who have cerebral palsy (CP) are diagnosed in infancy. Seventy percent will receive a diagnosis before they turn one, and some parents will not be told that their child has CP until he or she reaches the age of three or four.
If your child is diagnosed with cerebral palsy, it is important to seek the advice of a birth injury attorney as soon as possible after diagnosis. There are time limits for seeking damages from those responsible for injuring your child, and they vary based on when the diagnosis occurred and whether you or your child are seeking recovery. If you miss these deadlines you will not be able to seek the financial help you are going to need to ensure lifelong care for your child.
What is cerebral palsy?
Cerebral palsy is actually the name given to a group of disorders that affect mobility, balance and posture. There are four types of CP:
- Spastic Cerebral Palsy affects about 80 percent of people with CP. It manifests in stiff muscles and awkward movements.
- Dyskinetic Cerebral Palsy affects a person’s abilities to control the movements of their hands, arms, feet and legs. This disorder makes walking extremely difficult and can also affect the face and tongue, interfering with the ability to talk, suck and swallow.
- Ataxic Cerebral Palsy produces problems with balance and coordination. People with this type of cerebral palsy are unsteady on their feet and lack control with some movements making it difficult to write or reach for something.
- Mixed Cerebral Palsy occurs when someone has symptoms of more than one kind of CP. Spastic-dyskinetic CP is the most common type of mixed cerebral palsy.
For a legal consultation with a cerebral palsy lawyer serving Minneapolis, call 612-349-2729
What caused my child’s cerebral palsy?
Cerebral palsy can result from abnormal brain development while the fetus is in utero, or it can result from a lack of oxygen before, during, or after birth. For instance, if the baby spends too long in the birth canal, his or her head becomes compressed, resulting in traumatic brain injury and a lack of oxygen reaching the brain.
Too often, infants born with cerebral palsy are the victims of medical negligence. It is heartbreaking to think that so many children and adults could be living completely normal lives if proper medical care had been provided. In many instances the onset of CP was the result of one or more people providing medical care to you and your baby in a manner that was inconsistent with acceptable standards of care. Common types of negligent behaviors that lead to cerebral palsy include:
- The physician’s failure to properly diagnose and treat infections of the mother during pregnancy
- The medical staff’s failure to properly monitor the baby’s heart rate during the labor and birth process
- The medical provider’s failure to detect the fact that the umbilical cord was prolapsed and to address this emergent situation in time
- Improper use of medical instruments, such as forceps and vacuum extractors, during delivery
- Allowing labor to progress for too long a time and then failing to perform cesarean surgery (a C-section) when necessary
- Too few staff or unqualified staff attending the mother during labor and delivery
Minneapolis Cerebral Palsy Lawyer Near Me 612-349-2729
Why can it take so long to diagnose cerebral palsy?
In some instances cerebral palsy is suspected right away, as the newborn baby cannot initially breathe or eat on his or her own. Other parents notice the first signs that something is wrong when their baby falls behind in reaching certain physical developmental milestones like rolling over, sitting, and crawling. In some cases, symptoms can be more subtle, resulting in a delay in diagnosis until the child reaches preschool age.
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My child has cerebral palsy. What can I expect?
Symptoms of cerebral palsy vary widely, but some form of motor function impairment is always involved. The brain injuries that cause CP impact the motor cortex, the part of the brain that controls movement. The most common type of cerebral palsy, Spastic Cerebral Palsy, stiffens and permanently contracts muscles, reducing motor functions. Additionally, children with cerebral palsy often have additional health issues, including:
- Difficulty swallowing
- Difficulty speaking
- Vision and hearing problems
- Difficulty controlling bowels and bladder
- Difficulty breathing
- Learning disabilities
- Seizures
Cerebral palsy is a permanent lifelong condition. As you begin to wrap your mind around what having a child with CP means, you realize that you are going to need a lot of help going forward.
You will need doctors and nurses, physical and occupational therapists, and speech and language therapists, among other professionals to help your child succeed. You are going to need adaptive equipment like wheelchairs, special car seats, commode and bath chairs, and other accessible products.
You are left wondering how you will be able to pay for all of this care and equipment. You want to know what went wrong, how this happened to your child, and if it could have been prevented.
We understand your pain and your fear and it is our sincere desire to help. We encourage you to call our office today to learn more about how we can help.
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What types of compensation could I be entitled to?
The amount and types of compensation you recover in a medical malpractice lawsuit will depend on the facts of the particular circumstances surrounding your child’s birth and the cost associated with lifelong care. Generally speaking, however, a Minnesota medical malpractice case where birth injury resulted from negligence would result in recovery of costs for a lifetime of:
- Medical care and medication
- Occupational, physical, and physiotherapy
- Making any necessary accommodations to the home
- Adaptive and assistive equipment and technology
- Special education
- Lost wages to the parents (or loss of earning capacity if the child is the one bringing suit)
- Emotional pain and suffering
Minnesota does not have a cap on damages, meaning that you should be able to recover all of the costs that will be incurred for your child’s entire life without limit. Additionally, in some cases you could even recover punitive damages, which do not have to be linked to the actual costs of care but, instead, are designed to punish the people who caused the harm.
How will I know if I have a medical malpractice case?
The best way to determine if you have a case for medical malpractice and to determine what your recovery might be is to undergo a case review with one of our experienced medical malpractice attorneys.
A successful cerebral palsy lawsuit requires that your legal team collect evidence that your child’s condition is the result of negligent behavior on the part of the medical staff and/or the hospital and any other people or institutions responsible for the birth injury.
Call our Minnesota Medical Birth Injury Lawyer today at 612.349.2729.
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