Fort Lauderdale Cerebral Palsy Lawyers
Cerebral palsy can change the course of your child’s life. While some forms of cerebral palsy develop as a result of infection during pregnancy or problems with the pregnancy itself, cerebral palsy can also occur as a result of oxygen deprivation during or immediately after birth, or head injury at birth.
If you know that a doctor’s negligence led to your child’s oxygen deprivation and, therefore, caused your child’s cerebral palsy, you may have the right to compensation for the suffering your child has faced and the challenges your family has dealt with due to that doctor’s negligence. An experienced child injury attorney can help you seek and, in many cases, acquire the compensation your family deserves.
Around one in 345 children across the United States has cerebral palsy. Most of those children receive a diagnosis by age one or two. In some cases, however, children may have relatively minor symptoms, which may mean that it takes several years before they receive a formal diagnosis. Whether you discovered your child’s diagnosis within their first two years of life or you discovered those symptoms several years later, a cerebral palsy attorney can help. Contact a personal injury attorney today to discuss your matter.
How a Personal Injury Attorney Can Help If Your Child Faces a Cerebral Palsy Diagnosis in Fort Lauderdale
Cerebral palsy can impact your child’s life and change your family forever. Personal injury attorneys understand the challenges you have faced, including the financial concerns that may have arisen after your child’s diagnosis. A firm with experience in cerebral palsy cases can help you seek the compensation your family may deserve for those injuries and losses.
A personal injury attorney can help evaluate whether you may deserve compensation for your child’s diagnosis.
For many children with cerebral palsy, the reason for the damage to the brain remains unknown. You may, however, know that your child suffered from oxygen deprivation or head injury shortly after birth, often resulting from negligence on the part of a care provider. A cerebral palsy attorney can help evaluate whether you have the right to seek compensation for your child’s diagnosis and the suffering faced by your family.
A personal injury attorney can help collect the evidence you may need to prove your claim.
A cerebral palsy diagnosis that comes later in your child’s life may make it more difficult for you to establish exactly when your child’s injuries occurred and how a doctor’s actions may have increased the risk that your child would develop serious illness. A medical malpractice attorney can work hard to establish how your child’s cerebral palsy may have occurred and to build the evidence you may need to help establish your family’s right to compensation.
A personal injury attorney can make sure their clients understand the compensation they can claim after a serious diagnosis.
In many cases, the doctor’s medical malpractice insurance provider may try to put you off, try to convince you that you do not really deserve compensation, or suggest that you accept a lower settlement offer than you know you really deserve for your child’s losses. A personal injury attorney makes sure their clients understand the compensation they deserve so they do not inadvertently accept a low settlement offer that fails to reflect the compensation they really deserve for those losses.
A personal injury attorney can help fight for their clients and their children.
A cerebral palsy claim can help provide for your child’s future. You have fought hard to make sure that your child gets the medical care necessary to increase their odds of making a full recovery. A cerebral palsy attorney can help fight for the compensation your child deserves for the suffering they may have faced, and may face in the future, due to a cerebral palsy diagnosis.
Cerebral Palsy: The Challenges Your Child May Face
Cerebral palsy includes a variety of symptoms. It can result from improper brain development while the baby develops, or it can result from oxygen deprivation before or during birth. Sometimes, cerebral palsy occurs as a result of trauma during the birthing process. Most often, oxygen deprivation occurs within the first 28 days of the child’s life. However, some children suffer from cerebral palsy as a result of trauma experienced more than 28 days after birth, often because of shaken baby syndrome or another injury from a caregiver.
Stiff, Jerky Movements
Most parents notice problems with a child’s overall movement and coordination first. A child with cerebral palsy may have jerky, uncoordinated movements. Often, patients with cerebral palsy suffer from rigid muscles or difficulty moving smoothly, which may show through those uncoordinated or difficult movements. Cerebral palsy may impact only one side of the body, which can cause the child to compensate by using one hand or leg more often than the other. For example, some children with cerebral palsy may only reach out and grasp items with one hand or attempt to crawl using only one leg to push.
Fine Motor Challenges
Many children with cerebral palsy may struggle with fine motor skills. Often, they may have a hard time buttoning clothes, tying shoes, or feeding themselves. As they get older, children with cerebral palsy may have more trouble writing or typing.
Oral Motor Delays
Sometimes, cerebral palsy can cause problems with oral motor development. Children with cerebral palsy may have trouble with speech, or they may have trouble eating normally. Those oral motor delays can cause substantial problems with certain textures. In some cases, children with cerebral palsy may have a hard time feeding themselves.
Developmental Challenges
Some children with cerebral palsy will struggle with slowed development in other areas, as well. They may suffer from learning disabilities or disorders, or they may reach some developmental stages later or more slowly than other children.
In addition, children with cerebral palsy may struggle with a variety of other challenges resulting from decreased brain development in some areas. They may suffer from significant behavioral problems or have sensory difficulties, including difficulty hearing or seeing normally. Children with cerebral palsy may also have changed touch perception or struggle with ongoing constipation issues.
Who Bears Liability for a Cerebral Palsy Diagnosis in Fort Lauderdale?
Cerebral palsy has many potential risk factors, including some risk factors that no one can control. However, it can also occur for a variety of reasons that remain within the control of medical care providers or the child’s caregivers.
Brain Injury Due to Abuse
Shaking a baby can result in brain damage that can cause the symptoms of cerebral palsy, especially in a young infant. If a care provider or other individual, including a daycare worker or nanny, shakes a baby, that individual may bear liability for your child’s cerebral palsy diagnosis. Since you may have no idea of the damage your child has suffered until long after the initial incident, documenting the incident clearly and speaking to a lawyer as soon as you recognize the injury your child may have suffered can go a long way toward helping you seek the compensation your child deserves later.
Oxygen Deprivation at Birth
During childbirth, both mother and baby become incredibly vulnerable. A doctor must carefully monitor the baby’s vital signs to reduce the risk of potential birth injury. The doctor may need to engage in specific interventions, including assisted delivery or C-section, to help deliver the baby before unnecessary damage, including potential brain injury, occurs. A provider who fails to adequately monitor the child, or who does not move promptly to intervene when the child’s distress becomes obvious, may bear liability for any injuries, including cerebral palsy, sustained as a result of that negligence.
Brain Injury at Birth
Sometimes, cerebral palsy results from a brain injury at birth: a child who gets dropped, or who receives unnecessary interventions that lead to a birth injury. If a care provider allows a child to suffer serious injuries, including injuries due to unnecessary interventions or failure to intervene, that care provider may bear liability for the child’s future diagnoses.
Jaundice
Many infants develop jaundice in the days immediately after birth. It can take a few days for the liver to start processing toxins properly, especially in breastfed babies. However, if an infant develops extreme jaundice, doctors should intervene quickly to lower the risk of a serious condition. If a doctor sees obvious signs of jaundice but fails to intervene, later resulting in serious brain injury for the child, the doctor may bear liability for cerebral palsy that results from that negligence.
Maternal Infection
Some infants develop cerebral palsy because the mother experiences an infection before birth. If the mother’s care provider fails to properly diagnose and treat those infections, increasing the odds that the child will face a severe diagnosis, the doctor may bear liability for any condition, like cerebral palsy, developed by the infant as a result of that failure to provide adequate treatment.
How Much Compensation Can I Claim After a Fort Lauderdale Cerebral Palsy Diagnosis?
Cerebral palsy may require aggressive intervention to provide your child with the best odds of increasing their overall function and comfort. You may need to visit multiple medical professionals regularly, especially if your child has deficits in more than one area. Cerebral palsy can change the way your family operates, including one parent’s ability to work as you care for your child. You may have financial worries and struggles. While a child injury claim cannot restore your child’s health, it can help provide some of the funds you need to care for your child.
Medical Care
Your child’s diagnosis may require substantial medical care, including multiple appointments with care providers and ongoing appointments with therapists. As part of a child injury claim for cerebral palsy in Fort Lauderdale, you can claim compensation for those medical costs. A lawyer can help you determine what the future cost of medical care for your child might look like, including the ongoing support your child may need.
Mobility Devices
Some children with cerebral palsy can walk on their own. Others, however, may need assistance from mobility devices to help them get around. As part of your Fort Lauderdale cerebral palsy claim, you may include compensation for your child’s mobility devices and other aids.
Tutors or Educational Support
Some children with cerebral palsy may require additional educational support to increase their odds of academic success. As you put together your child injury claim, an attorney may encourage you to claim compensation for the future cost of educational aid for your child.
Future Lost Earnings
Cerebral palsy may prevent your child from having a normal job in the future. As part of your claim, talk to your attorney about whether you may have the right to claim compensation for the earning potential your child may have lost due to their diagnosis.
Home Health Care
Sometimes, parents cannot provide all the support a child with cerebral palsy needs. Other times, one parent may give up working to provide as much care as possible for the child. Home health care can add up immensely, especially over time. An attorney can help you calculate the ongoing cost of home health care as part of your claim.
Pain and Suffering
Cerebral palsy may mean considerable ongoing pain for your child. Since cerebral palsy often causes tight, shortened muscles, it can mean that physical pain remains a daily part of your child’s life. The tremors and twitches that sometimes accompany those tight muscles can also cause considerable emotional anguish for your child. A lawyer can help you pursue compensation for the challenges your child may face.
Contact a Fort Lauderdale Cerebral Palsy Lawyer Today
Did your child face a cerebral palsy diagnosis due to the negligent actions of a care provider at birth? Do not delay in pursuing the compensation your family deserves. Contact a cerebral palsy attorney near you today to discuss your potential right to compensation.
The Levin Firm Personal Injury Lawyers | Fort Lauderdale Office
820 NW 7th Terr
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33334
954-715-3260