Complications of Cerebral Palsy at Birth

• Cerebral Palsy
• Complications of Cerebral Palsy at Birth

What Are Complications of Cerebral Palsy at Birth?

When the baby experiences oxygen deprivation around the time of birth, it may cause a hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE) injury, which could lead to cerebral palsy. Parents should be alert to the following early signs of complications at birth, which are indicative of a possible brain injury which can cause cerebral palsy:

• Breathing difficulties, including the need to be resuscitated
• Pale or bluish skin and lips
• Movement abnormalities
• Slow or missing reflexes
• Weak or floppy muscle tone
• Dilated pupils
• Low alertness
• Weak cries
• Irritability
• Difficulty feeding or taking milk/formula
• Irregular heartbeat
• Seizures

Other common birth complications of newborn babies include a low APGAR score. The obstetrician and labor and delivery nurses should perform the APGAR test soon after birth to examine the baby’s heart rate, breathing, skin color, muscle tone, and reflexes. Each category will be scored from 0 to 2. If the APGAR score is less than 7, it indicates the need for immediate medical attention.

About APGAR Scores

The effects and complications of cerebral palsy will become more noticeable as the baby grows and develops. Parents should know that not all babies that eventually are diagnosed with cerebral palsy will have the same complications at birth.

Longer term complications of cerebral palsy range from musculoskeletal disabilities (musculoskeletal is related to muscles, tendons, ligaments, bones, joints, and cartilage), neurological disorders (such as epilepsy and seizure disorders), intellectual disabilities, vision, hearing and cognitive impairments, facial-motor, and feeding problems.

Each case of cerebral palsy is unique, and it’s crucial to know the underlying causes of the condition and the extent of birth complications in order to provide timely and appropriate care to the child.

Musculoskeletal Disabilities and Developmental Delays

The baby’s altered or delayed growth and development, particularly in the developing muscles and bones, is one of the most serious complications of cerebral palsy. According to the CDC data, more than 42% of children with cerebral palsy are unable to walk independently. Children with CP usually fail to achieve the same development milestones as others in their age group.

Babies with cerebral palsy may not gain weight as rapidly as their peers, and may be abnormally short height during childhood and beyond. Muscles as well as bones in their hands, arms, legs, feet and extremities may not grow to normal length, resulting in weaker, thinner and shorter limbs. Children with cerebral palsy may also experience delayed puberty.

Painful contractures (muscle getting stuck in an abnormal position), chronic pain due to poor spinal growth or deformities in the spine, osteopenia (low bone density) and osteoporosis (brittle bones) due to painful, misaligned, and deformed joints are also associated with cerebral palsy.

Neurological Complications

Cerebral palsy usually occurs from a brain injury that the baby suffered around the time of birth. Brain damage may also lead to neurological complications, such as epilepsy and seizure disorders. As many as one in two children with cerebral palsy will experience seizures, while two in five children will have epilepsy.

Seizures may last from a few seconds to a few minutes, causing the child to breathe heavily, move lips or eyes involuntarily, have dilated pupils, bite the tongue, twitch, jerk, stare or move uncontrollably. Sometimes the child having seizures may lose consciousness or have an altered consciousness (feeling outside their physical body).

Seizures affect the child’s daily activities and increase the risk of physical injuries. Other neurological complications of cerebral palsy include sleep disorders, which affect about 20% of all children with CP. Moreover, about 7% of the individuals with CP are on the autism spectrum.

Intellectual, Learning, and Language Disabilities

An estimated 30 to 50% of the children with cerebral palsy will have an intellectual or cognitive disability. The risk increases when the child suffers from epilepsy along with cerebral palsy. Learning disabilities, difficulties with processing information, and a poor sense of direction are also associated with CP. Some children with CP struggle with speech.

Data from the Cerebral Palsy Foundation shows that about 20% of all children with CP cannot talk, and significantly larger percentage has other types of speech and language disabilities. Slow language development is seen in about one-third of all children with CP.

Vision and Hearing Impairment

Severe visual impairment affects about 10% of the children with cerebral palsy, while about 5% will have a severe hearing impairment. Cross eyes, which limit depth perception, are commonly found in children with CP. Blurriness and inability to see things from a distance are associated with this condition. Oxygen deprivation to the brain around childbirth may also cause hearing problems, ranging from partial hearing impairment to complete loss of hearing.

Facial-Motor and Oral Complications

Some children with cerebral palsy will have poor muscle control in their face, eyes, mouth, lips, tongue, jaw, and throat. Rapid blinking or uncontrolled eye movements can interfere with the child’s sight, while weak control over mouth muscles can cause drooling and problems with swallowing or chewing.

Poor control over oral muscles can cause dental hygiene problems, leading to oral health issues. Facial-motor and oral complications may also contribute to malnutrition, leading to poor weight gain and inadequate growth.

Chronic Illnesses and Psychological Complications

Lung disease, heart disease, and kidney disease are more likely to occur in children and adults with cerebral palsy because of poor use of organ muscles. Cerebral palsy also increases the risk of mental health conditions, such as anxiety, mood disorders, and depression.

Is Your Child’s Birth Injury the Result of Medical Malpractice?

Parents whose children suffer birth injuries want and deserve answers as to whether mistakes by the doctors and nurses contributed to the injury. At Miller Weisbrod Olesky, our award-winning birth injury attorneys have represented families all over the United States in their time of need after a birth injury. We use our skills and expertise to obtain for you and your child a medical malpractice settlement that will help provide specialized medical therapy in order to maximize the quality of life and independence of your child throughout their life.

• Were there signs of birth injury or birth complications during the pregnancy, labor, and delivery process, or presence of risk factors, which were either not recognized or properly treated?
• During the labor and delivery, were there clear indications that the baby was suffering from fetal distress, but appropriate actions were not taken by the maternal fetal specialists, obstetrician or nurses?
• Was there a delay in diagnosis of a likely premature birth that led to later complications, including brain injury?
• Did the medical team fail to order a series of tests to diagnose this birth complication in a timely manner?
• Was the decision to perform a cesarean delivery delayed leading to birth trauma during vaginal delivery or labor?
• Did the neonatal resuscitation team fail to quickly begin important breathing support?
• Should brain cooling (also called “hypothermia therapy”) have been provided to your baby, but the doctors and nurses failed to perform the appropriate tests or ignored the results of the tests?

Our birth injury attorneys have recovered millions of dollars in settlements for families of children that have suffered a birth injury. At no point in our legal intake process will we ask you to pay anything. The medical review of your case and the consultation are free. We only receive payment when you do, no matter how long or tough your case is.

Registered Nurses and Nurse-Attorneys Are a Vital Part of Our Birth Injury Team…and Yours

Most birth injury law firms will employ one or two nurses to assist the review of cases and medical research. But Miller Weisbrod Olesky offers an unmatched number of nurses and nurse-attorney employees support to both the birth injury attorneys and our clients.

Our team of registered nursing staff and nurse-attorneys bring a deep level of medical and personal insight to every client’s case. Our nursing team includes both an experienced labor and delivery nurse as well as an ICU nurse. Working closely with the rest of the team, they investigate the reasons behind a birth injury and how medical professionals breached their standard of care.

Why Should You Talk with the Highly Capable Attorneys at Miller Weisbrod Olesky?

The only way to find out if you have a birth injury case is to talk to a lawyer experienced in birth injury lawsuits. It’s not uncommon that a birth related complication results in a preventable birth injury, including cerebral palsy, but it takes a detailed expert review by a birth injury attorney of the medical records from your child’s birth to determine if the birth injury was the result of medical malpractice.

At Miller Weisbrod Olesky, a team of committed lawyers, nurses and paralegals uses our detailed medical negligence case review process to assess your child’s potential birth injury case. We start by learning more about you and your child and the status of meeting/missing developmental milestones. Then we gather medical records to determine what happened before, during pregnancy. We call in documented and proven medical experts who review your records and let us know if they think medical errors could have caused your child’s injuries.

If we feel medical negligence caused or contributed to wrongful birth in your case, we meet with you to discuss how you can receive compensation from the medical professionals who made the errors. Our birth injury attorneys have recovered millions of dollars in settlements for families of children that have suffered a birth injury.

At no point in our legal intake process will we ask you to pay anything. The medical review of your case and the consultation are free. We only receive payment when you do no matter how long or tough your case is.

Contact Our Birth Injury Lawyers