rosefox8 asked:


I have cerebral palsy and epilepsy, both of which have caused various other problems; like sciatica, arthritis, asthma, anxiety, hypersensitivity, occasional aphasia, sensory integration disorder, ADD, and dyscalculia. I have noticed that many adults with cerebral palsy whom I have talked to have epilepsy or some sort of seizure disorder, as well as one or more of the additional disorders mentioned. Are these two main disorders intertwined? Can anyone relate?

Pearl

Richard Hastings asked:


1. What is cerebral palsy?

It is a phrase that describes a group of disorders that affect the ability of a person to control their muscles. CP, as it often referred to, is a disorder of the brain that can cause a number of problems which may include:

* Problems in controlling muscles * Problems with walking * Problems using one’s arms or legs * Seizures

2. What are some of the medical mistakes that cause this problem?

Although there is no one single cause , it may be caused by mistakes made by doctors or hospitals. This situation can be caused in a number of different ways which could include:

* Excessive force used in the delivery of the baby including the use of forceps * A delay in the performance of a necessary C-section * Failing to recognize on a timely basis that the baby is in distress * Depriving the baby of oxygen during the delivery * Failure to order specific tests during pregnancy and/or not properly interpreting tests * Lack of oxygen to the brain or trauma to the head during labor and delivery

3. If my child is suffering from CP what should I do?

It is extremely important to have an experienced medical malpractice injury attorney who has expertise in the handling and presentation of birth injury cases.

An attorney should be contacted immediately if one suspects that this condition was caused by medical negligence.

4. How do I go about getting experts to help me with my case?

Your attorney will be able to suggest a team of experts that can range from private investigators to doctors to economists to help develop your case.

5. Who will pay the expenses of hiring all of these experts?

In most cases, the law firm or attorneys will advance all costs and expenses of the case as they are incurred. Once the case is concluded, they would be reimbursed for their costs out of the recovery. In some states, even if there is no recovery, the client is still responsible for the costs and expenses of the case even though the client owes no legal fees. In other states, if there is no recovery, the client will owe nothing for the costs and expenses, which will be absorbed by the law firm or attorney.



April

Low Jeremy asked:


Half a million members of the population in United States are suffering from one form of cerebral palsy to another. This is a wide spreading congenital disorder experienced by both children and adults. It is a disorder that hinders the ability of a person to move in a coordinated and determined way.

Infant cerebral palsy takes place even prior to the child’s birth or during the first three or five years of his life. This is a crucial stage in the life of a child because the disorder can lead to the impairment of hearing, vision, speech and learning disabilities.

The causes and treatments of cerebral palsy in infant are not definite. Although there are alternative cures such a therapy and surgeries available. These kinds of special treatments can help them alleviate the aggravating experience of a child with his living condition.

Cerebral palsy in infants can be diagnosed through the help of pediatricians and neurological specialists. They usually keep track of the lives of the child from birth up to a particular stage. Finding out that there is a developmental delay in the muscle function of a child, can be a great manifestation of cerebral palsy.

Other implications of cerebral palsy on a child are abnormal muscle tone, poor coordinated movement and persistent infant reflexes beyond a certain age. If you have also observed that your child has a difficulty in reaching for his or her toys at four to seven months after birth, then it is better to send the infant to a doctor for a series of tests.

Since the real cause of the disorder is undetermined, there is no way to prevent it as well. However, there are some possible ways to decrease the chances. First is for the moms to ensure a healthy pregnancy and as much as possible carry the baby on the right term. Premature babies are more likely to develop cerebral palsy.

Future or expectant mothers should also make sure that they should distance themselves from many different possible health problems like hypertension, diabetes and heart deficiencies that could inflict them. Immediately after a pregnant woman finds out that they are carrying a child inside their womb, proper prenatal care is very necessary.

Once the baby is born, brain damages should also be prevented. Avoid scenarios where the head of the child bumps into hard things. Never shake an infant as well because it can result to baby syndrome and brain damage.

The health of your child will depend on how you care for them. Cerebral palsy in infant can be prohibited only if you know how to avoid its probable causes.



Julia

Low Jeremy asked:


If you have a child that suffers from cerebral palsy disorder, most likely the spastic type is what you are dealing with right now. Being the most common type of cerebral palsy, it is accounted for almost 70 to 80 percent of entire cerebral palsy cases. Individuals that are suffering from this condition basically have stiff muscles which remain on an extended contraction state. Because of this muscle stiffness, normal movement becomes difficult, and it can result to permanent joint and muscle damage.

Although the muscles of the legs and arms are the most affected body parts of an individual suffering from spastic cerebral palsy, its involvement may differ. The following are some of the possible variations:

• Spastic diplegia- it is a type of spastic cerebral palsy where the legs’ muscles are severely affected that results in the legs to turn in and cross at the knees. Individuals affected by spastic diplegia can experience stiffness of their legs once they tried to walk.

• Spastic hemiplegia- it is another type of spasm where the limbs of the half part of the body is severely affected. This type may be diagnosed once a physician examines an infant fro so-called hand preference. An infant aging less than one year old does not show any hand preference. However, if an infant is affected with spastic hemiplegia, it shows hand preference on the affected side of his body.

The treatment for individuals that is affected with spastic cerebral palsy involves combination of surgery and physical therapy. The joints as well as the muscles are exercised to block them from falling into the state of immobility. Once unexercised muscles and joints is combined with abnormal and poor posture, there is a large tendency that muscles be shortened, resulting in much limited flexibility and movements.

In most cases, therapist normally uses muscle-relaxing substances such as botolinum toxin. It is injected on a certain group of muscles that will be prepared for a surgery or physical therapy. If further mobility and flexibility is till unachievable for about a particular therapy session, there will be a need for the patient’s spinal cord and nerves for an operation to decrease the transmission of nerve impulses on particular muscles, thus relaxing them. There will also be a need to use orthopedic devices to help keep the limbs in its proper position and enhance movement.

It is important that you are aware of spastic cerebral palsy in order to know what are the necessary treatments to ease the pain that your child or loved one affected by it.



Emma

Andrew Brereton asked:


I personally experienced this situation twenty one years ago when a consultant paediatrician calmly announced that my son would suffer severe cerebral palsy for the rest of his life, before coolly ushering us out of his office. We travelled home and looked up the meaning of cerebral palsy in a medical dictionary! Now, you would use the internet, but should you have to? Why should you be treated in this way?

When one considers the devastation, which the deliverance of news such as this can cause, one would imagine parents would be informed as tactfully and discretely as possible. One would also hope parents would be informed together, in warm, hospitable surroundings and be given as much time as necessary to absorb the magnitude and complexity of the information. This certainly does not seem to be the experience of many parents and to this date, there are many research articles in the literature, which demonstrate the disclosure of such diagnosis by medical professionals to be an ongoing difficulty.

One mother related a particularly bad example of how the ‘news’ was broken to her when she explained to me;

“We were sitting in the paediatrician’s office and I asked his opinion of Ryan’s progress. He just sat there with a cold expression and said; - ‘I’m afraid Ryan is showing early signs of having cerebral palsy. I’ll see you in one month’s time.’ – With that we were asked to leave.”

Another mother described to me the way in which she was informed about her little girl’s problems.

“The best thing you can do is to take her home, keep her warm and comfortable and try to have a proper baby next time.”

Out of the myriad of parents to whom I have spoken down the past few years, only once have I ever met parents who were satisfied with the way in which this situation was handled. These assertions are supported by research, which demonstrates that only twenty percent of parents are satisfied with the way in which the news of their children’s problems was broken to them. It is possible to do this task properly though, as is proven by the study carried out by Nursey, (1991). She achieved a one hundred percent satisfaction rate in an experimental group of parents, who were informed of their children’s’ problems together, in private and in a direct, honest and sympathetic way and who were given immediate and easy access to support services.

A system, which leaves a delicate task as breaking such news, to people who are trained to be cold, calculating clinicians, when precisely the opposite traits are required, is seriously flawed. Would it not be more appropriate in such a situation to have someone available who is not such a ‘cool, calculating clinician,’ someone who is trained to deal with people on a more human level, who could deliver the news in a more tactful manner? The professional resource is certainly available to do this and utilising it would save parents from having to deal with the trauma of receiving such shocking news, delivered in such a dreadfully incompetent manner. Psychologists and other counselling professionals abound and are qualified to deal with every conceivable stressful situation. This professional resource should be tapped, with experienced professionals on hand to talk parents through this dreadfully sensitive situation and beyond. They should act as the parent’s ‘advocate’ with the medical profession and as such would be in a position to provide first hand information and support to new parents. They would be able to guide the family through the emotional minefield, which is to come.

Bringing such a system into the ‘front line’ instead of tolerating a situation where overwrought, confused parents have to find information and access to support services on their own would eradicate other difficulties. -



Many parents who are dissatisfied with the explanations and information concerning their child’s problems, given to them by the doctor (and there are many!), might be satisfied.





Input from various disciplines could be more accurately tailored to parental need.





Parents would be more expertly guided through the trauma of coming to accept their child’s problems, than they ever could be by someone whose training was purely clinical.



Will the medical profession heed these words? No! I predict that parents will still be voicing the same complaints in twenty years time.

Andrew Brereton



Milton

vicky30pa asked:


Does anyone know of any alternative therapies for Cerebral palsy?

Christian

hnybzthms asked:


Hi my son is 6 1/2 months old and has been diagnosed with cerebral palsy (hemiplegia) left side.

What I wanted to know has any one been through the same and is there anything I can do to help with his development.

Also if you have been through it, did it delay their milestones and if so was it by much.

We are waiting for physio.

Suzanne

Paul Hata asked:


Cerebral Palsy is a non progressive neuromuscular disorder causing mild to severe disabilities throughout life.This condition is manifested as a group of persisting qualitative motor disorders which appear in young children due to damage to the brain during delivery or due to some pathological conditions in the intrauterine life.The neuroligical problems are multiple but non progressive in nature.Approximately 2 per 100 live birth is having this problem.This disease is having no hereditary tendency.

Causes of Cerebral Palsy

1.Injury to the brain during delivery.

2.As a complication of forceps delivery.

3.Lack of oxygen supply to the baby during delivery.

4.Infections during delivery.

Signs and symptoms of Cerebral Palsy

The signs and symptoms may not be similar in all babies affected.Depending upon the damage to the brain there may be mild to severe lesions.

1.Mild cases - 20% children will have mild disability.

2.Moderate cases - 50% cases are having moderate disability.

The affected children require self help for assisting their impaired ambulation capacity.

3.Severe cases -About 30% of the affected children are totally incapacited and bedridden.

They always need care from others.

Abnormal findings of Cerebral palsy

1,Abnormal neonatal reflexes.

2,Stiffness of all muscles with awkward motion.

3,Extention of extremities on vertical suspension of the infant.

4,Scissoring of the lower limbs due to spasm of the adductor muscles of the thigh.

5,In severe cases the back bend backwards like and arch.

6,May have total or partial paralysis.

7,Arrest of neurological and behavioral developement.

8,Swallowing may be difficult in some cases.

9,Drooling of saliva.

10,Mild to severe mental retardations.

11,Abnormal movements are seen in some cases.

12,Tremors with typical movements.

13,If cerebellum is affected there will be loss of muscle tone with difficulty in walking.

14,Complete or partial loss of hearing.

15,Speech may be affected.

16,Squint and other visual problems may be associated.

17,Convulsions may be seen in some children.

Cerebral palsy is diagnosed by detailed clinical examination and by eliminating other similar diseases like brain tumour, progressive atrophy ect.All investigations like CT scan,MRI and routine investigations are needed to ruleout other diseases.

Management of Cerebral Palsy

1.General Management - This includes proper nutrition and personal care. Symptomatic medicines are needed to reduce convulsions and muscle stiffness. Diazepam can reduce spasticity and athetosis.

Dantrolene sodium helps to relax skeletal muscles.

2.Physiotherapy - Here massage,exercise, hydrotherapy and ect are needed.Special training is given to train walking,swallowing and talking.The affected children are also trained to hold articles for routine activities.

3.Rehabilitation - Moral and social support should be given to these children.They should be send to special schools where special training can be given by trained staff.Mentally retarded children need special training.Depending up on the disabitity special instruments and machines are given for locomotion and to assist their daytoday activities.

4.Occupational Therapy - This is given by occupational therapists.They train the disabled people to do some suitable works so that these people can have their own income.



Micheal

Bobby C asked:


Why are Women afraid to date or get close to someone who was born with Cerebral Palsy. ?

Viola

Spade_4 asked:


My brother is an adult male with cerebral palsy due to birth trauma. I have heard of some interesting research being done regarding the use of stem cells in curing cerebral palsy. Could anyone provide me with a contact for more information or a site where the procedures are discussed more in depth? Thanks.

Amy