Cerebral palsy is a disorder that affects babies who have suffered some sort of brain damage. This type of brain damage might be caused by genetic abnormalities or complications during a woman’s pregnancy that could not have been avoided or prevented. However, medical malpractice during the labor and delivery of a child in any Chicago hospital can also cause an otherwise perfectly healthy baby to suffer brain injuries that could affect the child for the rest of his or her life.
Some injuries caused by negligence during the delivery and birth of a child might only have a minor impact on a child and the child’s parents. But when medical mistakes lead to cerebral palsy, oftentimes the damage is permanent and severe. Some symptoms of cerebral palsy include: paralysis, inability to control movements, seizures, learning disabilities, or speech, hearing and vision impairments.
While parents may take legal action in order receive compensation for a child’s birth injuries, their child will still be forced to live the rest of his or her life with cerebral palsy because there is no cure for the disorder, at least not yet.
In a recent study published in the journal Science Translational Medicine, researchers point out that cerebral palsy is caused when certain brain cells are damaged and inflamed. But then researchers questioned what would happen if they could create a drug that would help to reduce this inflammation in brain cells. Could reducing inflamed cells improve a child’s motor and cognitive skills?
Researchers tested this theory on rabbits who suffered from motor symptoms similar to the symptoms humans with cerebral palsy experience. Researchers gave anti-inflammatory drug treatments to one group of rabbits and placebo treatments to another group of rabbits that all had problems with motor skills shortly after birth. Treatments were given over a period of several days, and researchers discovered that rabbits receiving the treatments were showing improvements in motor skills. Rabbits receiving the placebo treatments showed no improvements.
Scientists noted that more research will need to be conducted in order to determine whether this type of treatment could help cure cerebral palsy. Right now, the best cure is to make sure that doctors and medical staff take every precaution necessary during the labor and birth of a child in order to avoid causing these types of permanent injuries.
Source: Fox News, “Cerebral palsy drug may offer hope for treatment,” Rachael Rettner, April 19, 2012
