Cerebral palsy comes about as the direct result of a brain injury. Baby brain damage that affects the part of the brain responsible for control over the muscles is the cause, and it means that the person affected with it will never really heal from the injury. Here are some things you might not know about it, however.
1: It Doesn’t Have Universal Severity
Brain injuries, just like any other injuries, don’t always involve the same amount of damage. Some people with cerebral palsy are almost completely debilitated for the rest of their lives. Other people don’t suffer as severe a level of damage from their injuries and, therefore, have less severe symptoms. It all depends on how much damage they suffered when the injury occurred, which is the result of their brain being deprived of oxygen at some time during the birthing process or while they were in the womb.
2: It’s Treatable
The actual brain injury cannot be treated in any way. However, the symptoms that people who have cerebral palsy suffer from can be treated. Increasingly, medical science is coming up with more effective treatments that offer better results for the people who undertake them. Many of the people who, in the past, may have suffered very severe symptoms now enjoy better control over their muscles and are able to participate in society more, due to better methods for speech therapy and better assistive devices for hearing and other sensory issues.
3: It’s Not Always Natural
There are cases where cerebral palsy occurs because of natural causes. There are cases, however, where cerebral palsy is the result of medical negligence of one type or another. There have been cases where infants should have been delivered by cesarean section and were not, and they ended up suffering from cerebral palsy. There are also cases where the child becomes pinned in a position where they are starved of oxygen during the birthing process or where they are choked by their own umbilical cord.
Parents who have children that suffer with cerebral palsy because of medical negligence sometimes end up pressing a lawsuit to seek damages. These lawsuits sometimes pay out millions of dollars, which is usually awarded to the child so that they can pay for the costs of their treatment as they progress into adulthood.