Damaged Cerebral Cortex Causes Cerebral Palsy

If your child has been diagnosed with cerebral palsy, you’re not alone.

Generally speaking, the most common type of cerebral palsy, spastic cerebral palsy, affects from 70 to 80 percent of patients diagnosed with it – including babies at birth. Unfortunately, if your baby has a difficult delivery, or something went wrong during the labor, the child’s cerebral cortex may wind up being badly damaged. This means not only that you need to speak to a Cleveland medical malpractice lawyer immediately, but that you need information on how to cope with your child’s disability.

This kind of a disability may mean around-the-clock care for the rest of your child’s life; something that is a significant financial burden to most families. If negligence played a part in your child being born with spastic cerebral palsy (and not genetics) you may have cause to file a medical malpractice lawsuit. If that is indeed the case, a lawyer will outline the types of damages you may be able to claim in your lawsuit.

Spastic cerebral palsy is usually widely recognized and defined by how it affects the muscles in the body. Typically, muscles tend to work in pairs, as a team if you will, and when one group contracts, the other loosens. This lets the person move whichever way they choose. With spastic cerebral palsy, the movements are not normal because the brain can’t send the right signals to the body’s muscles to tell them how to properly coordinate. Since the muscles don’t work the way they are supposed to work, they are constantly tense, otherwise referred to as spastic.

Interestingly enough, despite the fact that the muscles are involved, this condition is a brain disorder and will not change over the course of a lifetime. Unfortunately, the muscle tension does get progressively worse, meaning those with this disorder must have therapy to keep them from becoming more rigid. These are the kinds of facts that you will find out when you are talking to a Cleveland medical malpractice lawyer; whether or not your child acquired spastic cerebral palsy as a result of a birth injury.

Most children who have been born with spastic cerebral palsy don’t have deformed legs or arms. This does tend to develop over time though because of the muscles contracting. If a person with this type of cerebral palsy gets too anxious or over exerts themselves, their condition gets worse making stress and plenty of rest vital for them; all the more reason to keep their therapy and training sessions short.
While there are treatments out there for children and adults with spastic cerebral palsy, there is no cure for it despite extensive research being done in this area. One other rather controversial option is Botox injections in the spastic muscles, something that apparently lasts up to four months. Unfortunately, it only takes just one misplaced needle loaded with Botox to cause a whole host of other problems, including death.

Christopher Mellino is a Cleveland Malpractice Lawyer specializing in Cleveland Medical Malpractice cases in Ohio. To learn more, visit Christophermellino.com.

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