Cerebral palsy (CP) is a serious medical condition that often results from medical malpractice. Parents of children who have cerebral palsy not only face added financial expenses but also challenging emotional and psychological hurdles that may persist throughout the child’s life (including adulthood).
You deserve help if your child has cerebral palsy, and hiring an attorney is your way to accept that help. A cerebral palsy lawyer will determine the cause of your child’s CP and demand fair compensation from those who caused or failed to prevent the condition. Call the Cerebral Palsy Lawyer Alliance today to discuss how our network can help you and your child.
Cerebral Palsy Is Immensely Challenging for the Entire Family
As you know, finding out that your child has cerebral palsy is a life-changing revelation. For many, this news is devastating, as most parents expect (and pray for) their child to be healthy and without disability.
The full weight of cerebral palsy ranges far beyond financial costs, though expenses will undoubtedly be part of your claim or lawsuit. As the lawyers in our network lead your case for compensation, they will document:
The Difficulties a Child with Cerebral Palsy Endures
Those with cerebral palsy can live a happy life, but they must cope with challenges that most others do not. Some of the symptoms of cerebral palsy that can be immensely painful and challenging include:
- Muscular and coordination abnormalities: Muscle stiffness is one of the most common symptoms of cerebral palsy. This condition can be immensely painful, can prevent the person with CP from moving or completing basic tasks, and can be highly distressing for parents and loved ones to witness. Tremors, spasms, and seizures can also occur as symptoms of the condition.
- Delayed physical growth: Symptoms of CP, including muscle contracture, can slow the growth of the patient’s bones. Malnutrition, joint problems, and other issues can also prevent the individual with cerebral palsy from developing physically.
- Intellectual and learning disabilities: Some causes of cerebral palsy, including brain infections and abnormalities in fetal brain development, can contribute to intellectual and learning disabilities. The potential for CP to cause both severe physical and intellectual problems is what makes the condition so distressing for the child and parents alike.
- Physical pain: Muscle tension and spasms can be acutely painful. Cerebral palsy can also cause bone disease that worsens the patient’s pain. CP is associated with both acute and chronic pain, meaning parents have to suffer as they see their child in a near-constant (and unpredictable) state of distress.
- Difficulty with speech, eating, and other tasks that others take for granted: The all-encompassing symptoms of cerebral palsy can prevent your child (and adults) from engaging in tasks most of us take for granted. Cerebral palsy can profoundly disrupt the patient’s day-to-day life, from feeding themselves to brushing their teeth and holding a conversation.
- Emotional and behavioral issues: Cerebral palsy’s effects on the brain may directly contribute to poor mood, behavioral outbursts, and other psychological and behavioral abnormalities. Furthermore, the trauma and difficulty of living with cerebral palsy understandably lead to depression and other serious mental health deficits.
Symptoms of CP vary from one person to the next. In every case, though, the individual with cerebral palsy must deal with problems that diminish their quality of life.
The Trauma Parents Face When Their Child Has Cerebral Palsy
Parents have empathy for their children. When a child is suffering from the physical, emotional, psychological, and intellectual symptoms of cerebral palsy, parents also suffer.
It is common for parents of children with CP to face despair, depression, guilt (which they shouldn’t feel but often do), sleeplessness, and other symptoms of seeing their child in pain. Such pain and suffering may even cause physical symptoms in parents, leading to their own need for medical care.
The Medical Cost of Caring for a Child with CP
Medical professionals classify cases of cerebral palsy in several ways. Spastic, dyskinetic, mixed, diplegic, quadriplegic, and hemiplegic cerebral palsy are some of the classifications that your child’s condition may fall within. Such details will be important as your lawyers evaluate your child’s medical needs and associated costs.
An attorney will work with your child’s doctors and our own medical professionals to determine the cost of:
- Diagnostic procedures, including but not limited to physical and neurological exams
- Surgeries, which may help reduce the severity of spasms and serve other purposes
- Medications, which are another common means of addressing CP symptoms
- All doctor visits associated with your child’s cerebral palsy
Your child’s medical needs will be unique from other patients. The Alliance’s lawyers frequently work with doctors, so they understand the common diagnostic procedures and treatments for CP. This familiarity will allow us to accurately evaluate your child’s current and future medical needs.
Rehabilitation Costs
Occupational, physical, and speech therapy are common prescriptions for those with cerebral palsy. While these kinds of rehabilitation do not cure the underlying cause of CP, they may lessen pain, increase coordination, and give the patient a greater chance to live as normal (or exceptional) a life as possible.
The Cost of Caring for and Housing an Adult with Cerebral Palsy
Those with cerebral palsy often need help at a moment’s notice. While many people with CP live alone, many others need to live with their parents, a caregiver, or in a communal setting.
As your lawyer from the Cerebral Palsy Lawyer Alliance network seeks a fair financial recovery for you and your child, they will consider all caregiving costs associated with your child’s condition (including those that range into adulthood).
All Other Economic and Non-Economic Damages Related to the Cerebral Palsy
If you or your child face any other economic or non-economic damages related to cerebral palsy, The Alliance’s lawyers will document those damages and demand fair compensation for them.
Medical Malpractice Is a Common Cause of Cerebral Palsy
You may hire an attorney because your child’s cerebral palsy may have been preventable. Medical malpractice may be the sole cause of, or a contributing factor in, your child’s life-altering condition.
Some types of medical malpractice that can cause or contribute to cerebral palsy include:
- Failing to closely monitor the mother during pregnancy
- Failing to diagnose umbilical cord-related problems during pregnancy
- Failing to diagnose any other prenatal conditions that can contribute to cerebral palsy
- Prescribing treatment courses that prove dangerous
- Failure to diagnose an infection in the mother
- Failing to monitor and respond appropriately to signs of fetal distress
- Failure to detect a lack of oxygen to the child’s brain
- Surgery or anesthesia errors
- Failing to order or properly perform a C-section delivery once it’s clear the mother or child are in distress
- Causing brain trauma while using forceps, a vacuum device, or hands during delivery
CP-related medical errors may occur during the mother’s pregnancy, during labor and childbirth, and just after the child is born.
While no medical provider wants to cause or contribute to a child’s cerebral palsy, negligence is all too common in the healthcare field. Providers who are not qualified, thorough, or acutely conscious of the child and mother’s safety expose patients to an unacceptable risk of cerebral palsy and other preventable health problems.
Can I Get Financial Assistance for the Cost of My Child’s Cerebral Palsy?
If medical malpractice contributed to your child’s CP, you are likely entitled to compensation that can improve your child’s and your own quality of life. While money cannot undo the cerebral palsy your family copes with each day, a settlement or verdict may:
- Help you pay for (or totally cover) the cost of all your child’s medical needs, including into adulthood
- Help you pay for your child’s therapy and rehabilitation
- Cover the cost of caregivers (or the cost of you leaving or adjusting your career to help care for your child)
- Cover mental health services for both your child and yourself
- Account for the pain and suffering your child and you have undoubtedly experienced because of their medical condition
Every child and family’s experience with cerebral palsy is unique. Attorneys work closely with clients, listen empathetically to their stories, and account for all their damages when handling cerebral palsy cases.
Accept Help from the Cerebral Palsy Lawyer Alliance (Here’s Why)
Most of our clients whose children have cerebral palsy have little time to spare. Many of them are emotionally drained and in despair due to their child’s pain and hardship. These alone are reasons to let a cerebral palsy attorney from our network lead your case.
We want you to understand fully the value of working with the Cerebral Palsy Lawyer Alliance network:
- You cannot afford to forego a fair financial recovery: The cost of cerebral palsy is monumental, and The Alliance’s lawyers don’t just mean the financial expense. The weight of this cruel ailment weighs on the child and parents’ hearts, minds, and bodies. You need compensation to cover medical needs, mental health services, and the financial costs that you did not deserve to face in the first place.
- The lawyers in our network will represent you and your child without any upfront payment: The Alliance’s lawyers do not accept or receive compensation unless they obtain compensation for you. It is a humane and stress-relieving arrangement for parents facing heavy financial burdens related to CP.
- Negligent medical providers (and their lawyers) fight hard: Even when medical providers know they caused a child’s cerebral palsy, they say otherwise. Hospitals and other medical institutions want to avoid financial liability at virtually any cost. For this reason, The Alliance’s lawyers almost always face a contentious fight when seeking compensation for our clients. Let us lead this fight while you care for your child and yourself.
- Our network’s attorneys have extensive backgrounds representing families struggling with cerebral palsy: You know more than you should have to know about cerebral palsy. However, you probably know little about lawsuits related to CP. Your lawyers understand the legal realities of seeking compensation for you and your child. Let us leverage our legal training and experience on your behalf.
Lawsuits are not pretty, but they are necessary. This is especially true when someone with CP needs extensive medical care and rehabilitation and faces an uncertain future. Allow our team to carry responsibility for your case from start to finish.
How Attorneys Fight for the Rights of Children and Parents
Cerebral palsy attorneys want you to be with your child and focus on the road ahead. Your attorney will:
- Document any malpractice that led to cerebral palsy: Your lawyer will gather all records, expert opinions, and other evidence proving that medical malpractice contributed to your child’s cerebral palsy.
- Detail your child’s and your own damages: Our team will obtain all evidence of cerebral palsy’s economic and non-economic costs. Medical records, your own accounts, expert insights, and several other forms of documentation will be helpful.
- Calculate precisely how much compensation you and your child deserve:
- Seek a settlement: Your lawyer will weigh all of your and your child’s damages to determine the value of a fair settlement. This value must include the cost of any caregiver services, medical care, and other future damages your child will face.
- Fight for your family in court if necessary If liable insurers, medical providers, or other defendants fight us during settlement talks, your lawyer will represent you in court.
We never forget the trauma and heartaches that clients face. Your lawyers are empathetic, respectful, and connected to clients. When you choose the Cerebral Palsy Lawyer Alliance to lead your case, expect to be treated like a human worthy of fair compensation and justice.
Call the Cerebral Palsy Lawyer Alliance Today for Your Free Consultation
Being the parent of a child with cerebral palsy is a tall task. Let us ease your burden by starting the fight for justice today. A financial recovery can be a much-needed silver lining to an unfathomably difficult circumstance, and we want to deliver that silver lining for you.
Call the Cerebral Palsy Lawyer Alliance today at 888-894-9067 for a free consultation about letting our team fight for your family.