Cerebral Palsy - Who is Responsible?

Cerebral palsy is a term which is used to denote a number of disorders in the functioning of the brain. These disorders affect the movement of the body in some way. Generally, this type of disorder develops at the early age of body development, and in most cases, its symptoms in a child are quite evident by the age of three.

There can be a number of causes for cerebral-palsy. Approximately 20% of the cases of cerebral palsy show the cause of this disorder to be some accident or infections at early ages of the child. In some cases, it is hard to diagnose at early ages, as the symptoms might be so subtle that they are not easy to be noticed.

However, a large portion of cerebral-palsy disorder is caused during pregnancy or at birth. Such type of cerebral-palsy is called congenital cerebral-palsy and is the most common type of cerebral-palsy. This kind of cerebral palsy can also be caused if the infant is jaundiced and does not receive proper treatment.

Sometimes, cerebral palsy can be caused due to the negligence of the doctor. If proper procedures are not followed and the doctor is negligent towards the patient, such disorders can be caused and are termed as birth injury. It is the duty of the doctor to follow all the procedures carefully and pay due attention to the patient.

Sometimes, the doctors show negligence, which can result in various birth injuries, and cerebral-palsy is one such disorder. It might be caused by various clinical mistakes before the birth of the child during pregnancy stage, during child birth or after it. In any case, if the doctors are found guilty of clinical negligence, which caused cerebral-palsy, the child is entitled to compensation from the doctors for his misfortune.

Also, after the birth of the child, it is the duty of the doctor to perform a thorough check-up to make sure that the infant does not have infections or disorders of any sort. If some infections are left untreated, they can later develop into severe problems. Cerebral-palsy can also be caused by such an infection.

Various complications might be caused during pregnancy, and the doctors are responsible for diagnosing the problems and providing the patient with prompt treatment. Even though most doctors are very cautious about these issues, sometimes they might show professional negligence, which can result in cerebral palsy. A doctor should be able to recognise potential symptoms of cerebral palsy, and if prompt treatment is provided, it might be possible to prevent the development of this disorder at an early stage.

If the doctor is found to be guilty of negligence, the family of the child can file a law suit against the doctor and claim compensation for the damage that was caused by his negligence. However, in some cases, it is hard to detect such disorders and also trace their root cause. Therefore, a compensation claim can only be successful if there is sufficient evidence supporting the claim.

Find more about Cerebral palsy here.