Discovering your baby has cerebral palsy can be devastating as parents. Once you have got past the initial shock of the news, you might start to wonder why it happened to your baby out of all the babies in the world.
One question you might have is whether something went wrong in the hospital when they were being delivered:
Most cases are congenital
Cerebral palsy is not always obvious at birth and it is not even always present at birth. This can lead to confusion over when it occurred. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reports that between 85 and 90% of all cerebral palsy cases are congenital – the baby was born with it.
While it may be down to genetics, it could be down to something that happened during the birth or before the birth. In some cases, it is a mixture of the two factors. As you can see, it can be extremely challenging to work out.
It may be that medical staff were wholly or partly to blame, or it may not. Things they might have done wrong that could potentially have caused it include:
- Failing to detect or treat an infection
- Failing to ensure the baby had sufficient oxygen during the birth
- Failing to notice problems in the baby or mother
- Failing to enact a necessary cesarean section
There is no cure for cerebral palsy and it is going to have a big effect on your lives as parents as well as that of your child. If you believe medical errors may have been involved, then consider legal guidance to examine your case and see if you have grounds to pursue compensation.