Marshall Galpin Solicitors - Oxford - Clinical and Medical Negligence Solicitors -

This is not one condition but is a group of disorders which generally involve either impairment of movement or loss of other nerve functions causing physical and/or mental disability. These disorders are caused by injury to the brain, usually during fetal development and may be due to clinical negligence occurring during labour and delivery.

Classically a person with cerebral palsy (“CP”) has decreased muscle tone known as spasticity and in addition, there may be partial or full loss of movement, sensory abnormalities, and defects of hearing and vision. Intellectual function may range from normal to severe mental retardation.

Symptoms of CP are usually evident before the age of three years and in severe cases may appear in the first three months after birth. As the disorders are due to brain damage they are not-progressive ie. the damage to the brain has already occurred and therefore the condition does not get worse as the patient gets older (unlike, for instance, Alzheimer’s disease or Parkinson’s disease). However, often the full extent of the symptoms will not become apparent until the child starts developing and increasingly complex milestones need to be reached.

Typical instances when CP has been held to result from clinical negligence during delivery include:

· lack of oxygen to the brain due to extended period in the birth canal

· failure to recognise and treat seizures in the new born child

· inappropriate vacuum extraction or inappropriate use of delivery forceps

· delay in performing a caesarean section

· foetal heart rate changes ignored

· inadequate planning for potential large birth weight

· inadequate consideration of maternal high blood pressure or toxaemia

· failure to recognise jaundice or meningitis or certain other dangerous infections

· prolapsed umbilical cord causing oxygen deprivation to the brain

There are three main types of CP which may also be present in a mixed form:

·        Spastic CP is the most common form, affecting about 80% of sufferers. Patients have
        stiff and jerky movements as a result of the muscles remaining in a constant state of
         increased involuntary reflex

· Athetoid CP affects less than 20% of patients and produces uncoordinated, involuntary,
purposeless movements, especially in the face, arms, and trunk.

·        Ataxic CP affects less than 10% of patients and is characterised by poor muscle tone
        and altered sense of balance and depth perception, leading to slow, uncoordinated,
          unsteady and shaky movement.