Cerebral palsy is a condition where brain injury impairs a child’s muscle function and fine motor skills. Cerebral palsy can be caused by birth injury and is usually recognized early in a child’s life. Although cerebral palsy can be severe and may result in difficulty learning to walk and talk, many cases are less severe, involving restricted movement and stiff muscles.
There are four types of cerebral palsy:
- Spastic Cerebral Palsy – stiff, permanently contracted limbs that make movement difficult
- Arthetoid Cerebral Palsy – slow, uncontrolled movements of hands, feet, arms, or legs
- Ataxic Cerebral Palsy – poor balance and coordination
- Mixed Cerebral Palsy – involves two or more types of cerebral palsy
The severity of each case of cerebral palsy often depends upon the type of cerebral palsy, as well as the symptoms being exhibited.
Causes of Cerebral Palsy
Cerebral palsy is caused by brain damage that hinders a child’s ability to send messages to the body indicating how to move. This brain damage can be due to a number of factors, including:
- Birth asphyxia or other birth injury
- Genetic factors, including maternal seizures and maternal mental retardation
- Infections, such as human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), cytomegalovirus, and rubella
- Head injury
- Reye’s syndrome
- Exposure to toxic chemicals
While the cause of cerebral palsy varies from case-to-case, prenatal causes, such as birth asphyxia and genetic factors, are more common than post-natal causes, such as head injuries, infection, and exposure to toxins.
Cerebral Palsy Risk Factors
There are various risk factors closely associated with the development of cerebral palsy, including:
- Premature birth
- Low birth weight
- Multiple births
- A five-minute Apgar score of less than 5
- Birth defects, such as malformation of the spinal cord
- Breech birth, where feet or buttocks are delivered first
While these conditions do not automatically mean that your child has cerebral palsy, if they exist, you should monitor your child closely to make sure that he does not later develop any of the symptoms of cerebral palsy.
Symptoms of Cerebral Palsy
Cerebral palsy is most commonly diagnosed in children between the ages of four months and two years. Symptoms of cerebral palsy include:
- Stiff muscles
- Difficulty learning to crawl, smile, walk, or talk
- Abnormal or decreased muscle tone
- Involuntary movements
- Poor coordination
- Difficulty speaking, swallowing, or eating
- Excessive drooling
- Vision or hearing problems
Some children diagnosed with cerebral palsy may also suffer from seizures, mental retardation, or learning disabilities.
Cerebral Palsy Treatment
Although there is no cure for cerebral palsy, your child can be treated by a physician to reduce the symptoms associated with CP. Treatment may include:
- Physical therapy to improve coordination and muscle strength
- Speech therapy to improve impaired speech
- Occupational therapy to learn how to complete daily activities and to create a sense of independence
- Medications, such as muscle relaxers or anticonvulsant medication
- Special equipment, such as braces, casts, and splints
- Orthopedic surgery to relieve stiff muscles, to strengthen loose muscles, and to increase overall mobility
- Counseling to assist with behavioral challenges
Although raising a child with cerebral palsy can be a difficult and frustrating process, it is often good to find hope in the fact that, with the proper treatment, many children with cerebral palsy live long and productive lives, with few developmental delays.
What to Do If You Think Your Child May Be Suffering from Cerebral Palsy
If you think that your child may be suffering from cerebral palsy, you should contact a doctor who can thoroughly examine your child. You should immediately seek medical care if child experiences the following:
- Seizures
- Unusually jerky, abrupt, uncoordinated, slow, or writhing movements
- Excessively tense muscles
- Inability to sit up unsupported by seven months of age
- Inability to speak by twelve months of age
- Strabismus (one eye turned inward or outward)
In addition to seeking medical care, you should also contact a Virginia, Maryland, or Washington DC brain injury attorney who is experienced in birth injury and cerebral palsy cases. Our attorneys have years of experience recovering compensation from responsible parties to cover the costs of providing treatment to children with cerebral palsy. Your child’s condition may have been wrongly caused by the actions of another. If this is the case, you should be compensated for this injustice. Contact a Maryland, Washington DC or Virginia medical malpractice attorney at Koonz, McKenney, Johnson, DePaolis & Lightfoot, L.L.P., today for help in recovering compensation for your child’s injuries.
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