Cerebral palsy is a generic name for a range of brain injuries which cause difficulties with movement and co-ordination.
Symptoms of cerebral palsy often include impairment with:
- Mobility
- Motor control
- Understanding
- Speech
- Swallowing and feeding
- Bowel and bladder control
- Hearing and vision
- Behavioural problems
Medical Negligence And Cerebral Palsy
Cerebral palsy can be caused non-negligently, by abnormal brain development while the child is in the womb. Damage can also be caused by brain haemorrhage or a lack of oxygen to the child’s brain.
However, there are cases where these causes can unfortunately happen due to negligent medical care during the labour or delivery of the child.
This can happen if a child is unnecessarily deprived of oxygen during birth, or if there’s a delay in the delivery while the child is in distress. The condition can be made worse if a child has not been properly cared for or resuscitated immediately following the birth.
Delays in diagnosing various brain infections, such as meningitis and encephalitis can also result in cerebral palsy.
If members of medical staff don’t spot these serious infections quickly, they can spread to the brain and cause irreversible brain damage.
What If I’m Unsure Whether It Was Negligence?
If you’re unsure about the cause of your child’s cerebral palsy, but are concerned that it may have been caused by medical negligence, please contact us for a free initial chat about your case. We’ll take full details about what happened and advise you if we can investigate it for you.
If we believe that you have a claim, we’ll review your child’s medical records, before asking a medical expert to provide their opinion on the likely cause of your child’s condition.
Can I Claim Again, As The Full Nature Of The Condition Develops?
The compensation you are awarded is usually in full and final settlement of the claim. This means that the payout you’ll get will also consider your situation should your child’s condition get worse.
As the full extent of the effect of cerebral palsy is often unknown until the child develops, one option which is commonly used in birth injury claims is a “stay in proceedings”. This means that your claim is placed “on hold” so we can understand the likely care and support that your child may need in the future.
If medical professionals admit that mistakes were made, we could help you access payments to help pay for essential care and rehabilitation while the claim is on hold.
We’ll let you know if this is a possibility during your claim for compensation.
Medical Negligence Cerebral Palsy Claims – Free Initial Consultation
If you have further questions or concerns about claiming compensation and if the cerebral palsy was due to negligence, you can call our team for free on 0800 121 6567 for a free consultation or contact us online and we’ll get back to you. Alternatively see our Cerebral Palsy Claims page for more information.
The above information relates to the law in England and Wales.
All Scottish cases will be handled by the Scottish law firm with which we are associated, Irwin Mitchell Scotland LLP. The law relating to funding is different in Scotland and you will receive separate advice about what that means as well as a separate funding agreement.