West Palm Beach Cerebral Palsy Birth Injury Lawyer

Birth injuries can have significant, long-term consequences for your child’s health and your finances. Sadly, cerebral palsy is a condition that is often associated with medical malpractice. Many cases of cerebral palsy are a result of a doctor’s failure to anticipate foreseeable difficulties during the childbirth process, resulting in children suffering from birth injuries such as cerebral palsy, and families struggling to provide for their children.

If your doctor failed to anticipate foreseeable risks that resulted in a birth injury such as cerebral palsy, contact a West Palm Beach cerebral palsy birth injury lawyer. A distinguished birth injury lawyer can help pursue justice and compensation families need for ongoing care and treatment of their child.

Defining Cerebral Palsy

Many people believe that cerebral palsy is a single condition. However, to the contrary, cerebral palsy is a group of non-progressive motor conditions that generally result in physical and mental disabilities. Cerebral palsy is generally caused by damage to the motor control centers of a child’s brain during development. It can develop during pregnancy, during or after childbirth, and can occur until approximately three years old. Some common types of cerebral palsy include Spastic Cerebral Palsy, Ataxic Cerebral Palsy and Athetoid or Dyksinetic Cerebral Palsy. If someone believes that their child’s cerebral palsy may be a result of medical malpractice, they should seek legal assistance from a West Palm Beach cerebral palsy birth injury lawyer.

There are many other types of cerebral palsy, and because of the unique characteristics of each of these conditions, it can take doctors a considerable amount of time and evaluation to determine the exact type of cerebral palsy a child may have. However, regardless of the type of cerebral palsy a child is diagnosed with, many of these conditions could be entirely prevented or avoided altogether, and commonly are the result of a doctor or other medical professional not exercising the appropriate care during pregnancy and childbirth.

What are the Unique Characteristics of Common Cerebral Palsy Conditions?

Spastic cerebral palsy is a common type of cerebral palsy associated with very stiff and tight muscles, making movement and development hard. This condition may also be referred as bilateral spasticity. Ataxic cerebral palsy is not a common form of cerebral palsy. However, this type of cerebral palsy is typically the result of damage to the cerebellar structures of the brain. This form of cerebral palsy often results in children struggling with coordination, and children often suffer from decreased muscle tone. Athetoid cerebral palsy or dyskinetic cerebral palsy (ADCP) is a type of cerebral palsy that has been associated with lesions that form during brain development to the basal ganglia. This condition is characterized by children being unable to control muscles and a lack of muscle tone.

Causes of Cerebral Palsy

Cerebral palsy is a serious medical condition that can affect a child’s entire life. Cerebral palsy is a group of conditions. The most common causes of these conditions are a result of a lack of oxygen supply to the brain, known as hypoxia, asphyxia, because of premature delivery, or because of a birth injury. West Palm Beach cerebral palsy birth injury lawyers have seen common medical malpractices include:

• If doctor fails to detect or treat an infection (such as meningitis) of the pregnant mother
• If the doctor does not properly monitor the heart rate of the fetus during labor and delivery process
• If the umbilical cord has fallen out of place and the doctor fails to detect it
• If the doctor does not go for a cesarean section delivery despite the baby’s large size for the birth canal
• If the doctor delays or fails to perform a planned C-section, resulting in head-first delivery and complications
• Wrong or negligent usage of vacuum cup or forceps during the delivery, causing damage to the infant’s head

Pursuing a Lawsuit

Children and families have viable medical malpractice cases for causing birth injuries when a doctor or medical provider has deviated from generally accepted medical standards, and that negligence caused or contributed to your child’s injury. To determine if you have a case, an attorney will obtain the medical records of both the mother and child to review what happened. Medical experts in contact with West Palm Beach cerebral palsy birth injury lawyers can conduct independent reviews as well to see if an individual has a case.