Can a Medical Error Cause Cerebral Palsy at Birth?

Cerebral palsy is a term used to refer to a group of chronic conditions which affect body movements and muscle coordination.  Cerebral palsy is caused by damage to a part of the brain and usually results during fetal development or infancy.  Depending on the part of the brain affected, a person may lose the ability to walk, talk or eat, and depending on the seriousness of the palsy, a person might only occasionally have trouble with these tasks. 

Symptoms and Causes

People with cerebral palsy might experience any of the following symptoms:

• Nuscle tightness or spasm
• Involuntary movements
• Abnormal sensation and perception
• Sight, hearing or speech impairment
• Seizures

Generally speaking, the two main causes of cerebral palsy are 1. The brain does not develop properly and 2. Neurological damage to a child’s developing brain. Cerebral palsy can occur in varying degrees and affect different muscle groups. Bleeding into the brain of a premature baby causes significant damage to the brain. A lack of oxygen either while before the baby is born, or during the birthing process, can also cause brain damage and the longer a baby’s brain goes without oxygen, the more damage that can result.

Medical Error Can Cause Cerebral Palsy

In some cases, medical mistakes are responsible for the brain injury resulting in cerebral palsy.  It is almost impossible to know if a medical mistake was the cause of cerebral palsy unless you have a medical review of everything that happened during the pregnancy and birth which may have led to the brain damage.  A claim of medical malpractice can only succeed if the doctor, or medical staff, was negligent. 

Medical staff may be negligent if they do not perform their duties with the same reasonable care as would be expected under the specific circumstances of a case. For example, if a doctor does not detect that an embryo is not getting oxygen to the brain, but he should have detected it, then the resulting brain damage could be from his negligent failure to properly monitor the baby’s status during the birthing process. Similarly, if ultrasound equipment fails to show a baby’s condition while still in the womb, and bleeding to the brain goes undetected, the resulting brain injury could have been a result of the equipment failure.

Get Legal Help

Determining the cause of a brain injury will require thorough examination of the birthing process as well as the infant’s condition before birth.  Medical experts will be needed to assess the actions taken by medical staff and the equipment used in monitoring the baby’s condition throughout the pregnancy and birth.  There are so many modern forms of equipment used for monitoring infants during pregnancy that proper medical care should provide safety measures in preventing cerebral palsy. There are cases that are not a result of medical error though and consulting an experienced personal injury attorney will help you determine whether the brain injury was avoidable or was caused by medical mistake.