Cerebral palsy brain injuries sometimes occur due to circumstances that could not have been prevented. This is not always the case, however. In many cases, birth injuries are the direct result of medical malpractice. It may be malpractice on the part of the doctor or medical staff, but midwives, medical supply companies, and healthcare facilities themselves are sometimes to blame. Understanding cerebral palsy can be difficult because of the complexity of the information involved, but negligence is not so hard to understand.
Doctors and CP
When doctors give care to a pregnant woman, there are many factors that they have to consider. Sometimes, the pregnancy will be fraught with problems and the doctor will have to work hard with the mother to make sure that the child is born as healthy and happy as possible. There are cases, however, where doctors fail in this duty—it is, from a legal standpoint, a duty—and they end up exposing themselves to being sued for negligence.
In order for the doctor to have been negligent, they need to have taken actions (or failed to take action) that fell below the accepted level of care which negatively impacted on the health of the child. In one New England claim, a family was awarded millions by a jury because a doctor failed to realize that the woman’s fetus had insufficient amniotic fluid in the womb, and because of that, the child suffered a brain injury, leading to the development of severe cerebral palsy.
In another case in Washington, a child was exposed to contaminated medical supplies and suffered a post-birth infection that caused brain damage, resulting in cerebral palsy. This claim involved the medical supply company (as opposed to the doctor), so you can see that there are different entities that may legally be at fault, even if the damage occurred within the hospital or healthcare facility.
Talking to a Lawyer
A lawyer is your best resource for understanding how these brain injuries occur and what can be done to remedy the situation financially speaking. There is currently no cure for brain damage, but there is much that can be done to treat the symptoms of cerebral palsy and new treatments are becoming available all the time. If you have questions, talk to a cerebral palsy attorney about your potential claim.