One of the most common types of birth injuries is cerebral palsy. Cerebral palsy is frequently caused when children experience a lack of oxygen during labor. During labor fetal monitors are routinely used by hospitals to detect high frequency sound waves produce by the baby’s heart. Customarily the fetal heart rate is printed on fetal monitor strips that form a part of the hospital records.

Lack of oxygen to the brain can be detected by decelerations, accelerations and irregularities in the fetal heart rate–fetal distress. When the pattern of the baby’s heart rate shown on the fetal monitor suggests lack of oxygen to the baby’s brain, normally the standard of care for obstetricians and other health care providers mandates the performance of an emergency caesarean section operation. Failure to comply with the standard of care is medical negligence–commonly called medical malpractice.

Promptly securing the prenatal, labor and delivery medical records of both the mother and the child, including the fetal monitor strips, is critical in investigating the cause of cerebral palsy in children. Having the medical records and fetal monitor strips evaluated by an experienced obstetrician and/or nurse is the initial step in determining whether the obstetrician or other health care provider deviated from the standard of care by failing to promptly diagnose the baby’s fetal distress. According to a study reported in The New England Journal of Medicine in 1986, generally a baby is considered safe if the heart rate stays below 160 and above 120 and it does not become irregular.

If your child is born with cerebral palsy it is advisable to contact an attorney experienced in birth injuries lawsuits At the Scanlan Law Group we have the expertise and medical experts to determine whether medical malpractice is the cause of your child’s cerebral palsy.

Cerebral palsy is caused by the motor control centers of the brain being damaged. Lack of oxygen to the brain caused by a failure to promptly diagnose fetal distress is a common cause of this damage.

According to a study by Thames Valley Children’s Centre–Cerebral Palsy–Causes and Prevalence (Aug. 23, 2007), the incidence of cerebral palsy is about 2 per 1000 live births. The economic cost for people with cerebral palsy is $921,000 per person including earnings as reported by the United States Cerebral Palsy Research and Education Foundation: “Summary of the Epidemiology of cerebral palsy: incidence, impairments and risk factors “ (July 5, 2007). Costs include specialized medical care, home nursing care, physical therapy, speech therapy, medications to alleviate pain and relax muscle spasms and cognitive therapy. Indeed some children are so profoundly disabled that they require a lifetime of residential nursing home care.

Birth injuries have many other causes such as prescribing medication harmful to the fetus, improper use of forceps, and failure to diagnose cephalic pelvic disproportion–baby’s head too large to fit through mother’s pelvis. Umbilical cord prolapse is another cause– cord around baby’s neck– and can also cause fetal distress leading to oxygen deprivation and brain damage.

In November 2010, an Illinois medical malpractice case alleging birth injuries as a result of misreading fetal monitor strips settled for $6.5 million. The damages from birth injuries can be catastrophic and the verdicts and settlements can be very substantial.

Properly assessing whether medical malpractice is the cause of your child’s birth injury is best accomplished by consultation with an attorney experienced and skilled in investigating, preparing, and trying catastrophic medical malpractice cases. Feel free to contact the Scanlan Law Group and Edmund J. Scanlan and they will promptly discuss with you at no charge whether your child’s birth injuries merit further investigation and whether a medical malpractice lawsuit is warranted.