Whenever parents hear the words “cerebral palsy”, they naturally think the worst. Where cerebral palsy is concerned, in fact, the worst can be very bad. Some people with CP are permanently disabled, spend their lives in wheelchairs, cannot swallow their own food and suffer other effects that are equally significant. Many people with cerebral palsy, however, are not so severely affected mentally or physically and live normal lives. Others live lives that are likely extraordinary, considering what most people likely expect the life of someone with CP to be like.
Dr. Jan Brunstrom-Hernandez works with children with CP and she, herself, has CP. She started the Cerebral Palsy Center at St. Louis Children’s Hospital in 1998. Profiled in an article on FoxNews, the physician says that she became interested in starting a cerebral palsy clinic in 1997, after realizing that the treatments that children were receiving then were not remarkably different than the ones that Brunstrom-Hernandez had received herself in the 1960s.
Today, her clinic is the only one in the US that works only on cerebral palsy. The clinic sees patients of any age and helps children to find relief from the symptoms of their conditions. Some of them are able to realize remarkable improvements in their quality of life because of the treatments offers at the clinic.
CP and Quality of Life
CP symptoms will always have some degree of impact on the life of the person who endures them, but they are not universally severe. Some people with CP not only end up not suffering from the mental impairments that sometimes go along with this condition, but outpace their peers in terms of accomplishments and intelligence. No two people with CP are really alike, just as is the case for everyone else.
Some of the treatments that are available for CP are much more advanced than they were in the 1960s, thanks to places such as the Cerebral Palsy Center at St. Louis Children’s Hospital and others where research is conducted.
Despite the advances in medical treatments for CP, the causes are oftentimes not only predictable, but are preventable. When physician negligence causes CP, filing a lawsuit with the assistance of a cerebral palsy law firm may enable your child to get compensation for their injuries, and it could be enough to pay for the most advanced treatments available for the condition.