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Cerebral palsy is a condition that is caused by damage to the brain before or during birth, or in early infancy. Cerebral palsy affects a child's ability to control motor function and may result in mental retardation. The condition often impairs a child's hearing, sight, and speech. Spastic cerebral palsy, the most common form of cerebral palsy, causes the body's muscles to contract stiffly. Roughly 70 percent of brain injuries that cause cerebral palsy occur while a child is in the uterus. It is essential to realize that cerebral palsy occurs even without malpractice, under the best possible medical care, where there was nothing that should have or could have been done by the health care providers to avoid the injury. Unfortunately, however, it is often the case that the injury could have been prevented altogether or it may have been made considerably less severe if timely and appropriate intervention by the health care providers had occurred.
About 20 percent of brain injuries occur during delivery, and 10 percent occur during the early years of a child's life. During pregnancy cerebral palsy can be caused by a mother's kidney or bladder infection, Rh incompatibility, German measles, and other infections and injuries. During delivery cerebral palsy is most often caused by a lack of oxygen to the baby. A complicated, long delivery may place a baby at a higher risk of experiencing a brain injury. If a baby develops severe jaundice, suffers a head injury, or contracts a brain infection such as meningitis or viral encephalitis following birth, cerebral palsy may result. In cerebral palsy cases it is essential that measures be taken promptly to preserve evidence, review the medical procedures in question, and to enable physicians or other expert witnesses to thoroughly evaluate the birth record and injuries. If you or a loved one suffers from cerebral palsy, call us today.
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