Cerebral Palsy - What Is It?

Many people believe that cerebral palsy is a disease when it is actually a condition. These chronic conditions affect the cerebral palsy victim's muscle coordination, body movement, as well as their ability to think and learn.

A person with this condition has a difficult time moving and maintaining his or her posture and balance.

How do Children Acquire Cerebral Palsy?

In addition to resulting from abnormalities in - or injuries to - the brain, this particular condition can be the result of damage that an infant's brain sustained during childbirth. This damage could be the result of low levels of oxygen or trauma.

Typically a child who has this condition will begin to exhibit signs of this condition before he or she is three years old. More than 80% of cerebral palsy cases actually develop within the first month of a child's life.

Every year approximately twelve hundred to fifteen hundred pre-school age kids and eight thousand infants are diagnosed with cerebral palsy in the United States.

The severity of the condition varies from one person to the next. Some people who have cerebral palsy can easily manage on their own and require very little, if any, assistance.

With therapy and perhaps devices such as braces, crutches, walkers, or wheelchairs, others can acquire the necessary skills to be quite independent and mobile.

Then there are others who may need considerably more medical attention and education. And many people who have severe cerebral palsy may require assistance from social service organizations as well.

It can be very expensive to care for a child with this particular condition. Seven years ago the estimated lifetime cost of expenses that are related to cerebral palsy was approximately $921,000. Because of inflation these costs have probably increased.

In other words, a family would need approximately one million dollars or more to pay for medical expenses, lost wages, special education, and whatever modifications may be necessary to make cars and homes more accessible to a member of their family who has cerebral palsy.

Often cerebral palsy is caused by a medical mistake that was made before, during, or shortly after a child was born. And often a birth injury that was caused during the delivery process could have been prevented.

For example, medical professionals may have failed to identify and then responded to your baby's fetal distress in a timely manner. Or they could have not adequately resuscitated or cared for your child after he or she was born.

Whatever the cause, though, without professional help it would be highly unlikely for a parent to ascertain whether or not medical negligence was the cause of their child's cerebral palsy. For that they would need the help of an experienced cerebral palsy lawyer.