What is Cerebral Palsy?
Cerebral palsy is a birth injury affecting thousands of babies every year. It occurs when the baby’s brain does not receive a proper supply of oxygen during delivery and the baby suffers anoxic brain injury. Children suffering from cerebral palsy experience developmental issues associated with movement, muscle tone, and posture.
You can generally start spotting the warning signs that your child has cerebral palsy during the first three years of life. One of the most common symptoms is a delay in the development of certain motor skills such as crawling, sitting up alone, smiling, or walking. Other symptoms include:
- Muscle tone issues – either muscles that are too rigid or too floppy
- Lack of muscle coordination
- Tremors or involuntary movements
- Favoring one side of the body
- Difficulty walking
- Excessive drooling
- Difficulty eating or swallowing
- Delays in speech development
- Posture issues
In many cases, cerebral palsy is caused by medical malpractice. Common medical errors which lead to this serious birth injury include:
- Keeping the baby in the birth canal too long
- Excessive use of vacuum extraction
- Improper use of forceps
- Failure to recognize signs of fetal distress
- Failure to order a timely Caesarean section
- Failure to act on dangerous fetal heart rate fluctuations
- Improperly administered medications
- Failure to properly monitor newborns
The experienced medical malpractice lawyers at the Yost Legal Group have been fighting for the rights of victims of birth injuries for more than 20 years. We have seen firsthand the devastation caused by these tragic events, and we will work tirelessly to help you hold the negligent healthcare professional accountable for your child’s damages.
Please contactthe Yost Legal Group today to schedule your free initial consultation. We serve clients in Baltimore, Maryland.
This entry was posted on Monday, December 19th, 2011 at 6:03 pm and is filed under Cerebral Palsy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.
