What you need to know about Cerebral Palsy
Cerebral Palsy is brain damage caused during pregnancy, labor or delivery. Cerebral palsy is not a disease.

The direct cause of the brain damage is a lack of oxygen before, during or immediately after childbirth.

Many circumstances can lead to cerebral palsy, each affecting brain function, movement and bodily control. They include:

• a lack of oxygen to the brain or head trauma during labor and delivery,
• anoxia (problems with the umbilical cord, strangulation, carbon monoxide poisoning, smoke inhalation and near-drowning),
• injury as a result of improper medical care, or injury to the brain during the birthing process,
• not implementing a cesarean section properly, or failure or delay in performing a C-section,
• failure to notice the baby was having problems during labor,
• the doctor not reading the fetal monitor strip properly,
• improper positioning during birth,
• not applying vacuum extraction adequately and
• other medical mistakes.

Such events result in loss of control in movement and posture, lack of proper brain functioning, impaired speech, impaired vision and impaired hearing.

The doctors and nurses caring for the pregnant mother must provide adequate care. If the proper procedures are not followed, or if there has been failure to react and respond to ever-changing conditions posed during labor, your child may suffer with cerebral palsy.

Take Immediate Action
Just because a medical procedure may have a bad outcome, it doesn't necessarily mean that it is medical malpractice. Medical malpractice is an extremely serious act. Malpractice can be ignorance, negligence or improper use of method and practice. The result of malpractice is injury and/or loss to the patient.

A malpractice case usually involves a doctor's, nurses' or an institution's failure to perform professional obligations. This includes failure to diagnose an illness in a timely professional manner or causing any loss or injury by not performing professionally.

Medical procedures do not always have happy outcomes. Children are born with birth defects every day, but it is possible that some of these birth defects could have been avoided. We can help you determine whether you had an unfortunate case or one that involved substandard care by a medical professional.

What we can do for you
If you suspect that you may have a case of malpractice, we can help. Our expertise in both medicine and law will help you determine whether your child's injury is due to negligent care. First we will need to know basic information about what happened. Later we will need medical records and additional information.

Sometimes cerebral palsy is due to an accident occurring labor and delivery, in which case you would have justifiable cause to take action. If your child's disability is due to negligent care, we can give you the proper and professional legal assistance to proceed.

Click here to contact us. There is no cost or obligation for us to review your case.