Cerebral Palsy in Children

If your child is diagnosed with cerebral palsy and you would like to speak with an attorney about the possibility of recovering financial compensation, please call the Connecticut cerebral palsy lawyers at The Berkowitz Law Firm. We serve individuals and families in the Danbury area and beyond.

Cerebral palsy is an illness that a person is born with and almost always is noticed during infancy, although some symptoms may not become apparent until the child reaches about the age of 3. Although it is a movement disorder that shows up in abnormal movements that can involve most any part of the face and body, the problem does not begin with the muscles.

It is in the brain that these abnormal movements originate. Damage to different areas of the brain result in different types of cerebral palsy as well as where in the body it is evident.

Symptoms of Cerebral Palsy in Children

Symptoms of cerebral palsy are noticeable at different ages in the young child. Some signs are already present in infancy, and it is sometimes possible to detect cerebral palsy in the developing fetus using diagnostic techniques.

Parents and the physician may notice some of the following signs in infants:

  • Tremor
  • Abnormal reflexes
  • Floppy or rigid muscle tone
  • Drooling and problems swallowing
  • Developmental delays in such milestones as raising the head, rolling over, sitting, crawling and walking
  • Abnormal posture
  • Favoring one side of the body
  • Problems detecting where sound comes from

Other signs of cerebral palsy include a child’s inability to:

  • Smile at someone
  • Recognize the parents
  • Imitate sounds
  • Babble in single or multiple syllables
  • Understand at least a few words by ages six to ten months
  • Comply with simple commands like returning an object when asked to do so

Symptoms that are apparent before the age of 3 may include:

  • Problems with speech
  • Dragging a foot or leg
  • Difficulty walking
  • Hearing loss
  • Mental retardation
  • Difficulty seeing
  • Problems with small movement of the hands or fingers
  • Spasticity
  • Writhing movements

Programs to Help Children with Cerebral Palsy

Cerebral palsy is the most common developmental disability in the United States. More than 500,000 people have the disorder and nearly 5,000 babies and infants are diagnosed with it every year.

Scores of programs are available to help people with cerebral palsy and their parents. All of the following resources have sites on the Internet. Just a few of the many programs and resources available are:

  • United Cerebral Palsy Associations
  • National Information Center for Children and Youth with Disabilities
  • University hospitals and medical centers
  • PACER, Parent Advocacy Coalition for Education Rights
  • National Information Center for Children and Youth with Disabilities
  • Many blogs on the Internet
  • Physical therapists
  • Occupational therapists
  • Speech pathologists
  • Social workers

Contact a Connecticut Cerebral Palsy Lawyer

Another resource for affected children and parents are attorneys for cerebral palsy patients. A qualified lawyer can help you recover financial compensation if the injury is linked to a preventable mistake before, during or shortly after birth.

The money can help parents seek the best care for their child, as well as allow them to spend quality time with their kids without having to work extra to pay for necessary treatments and specialized care.

If your child is diagnosed with cerebral palsy and you are in Danbury, or a nearby area in Connecticut, our cerebral palsy lawyers would like to help you. Call our law office for more information.

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  • $3,000,000.00 medical malpractice settlement on behalf of a brain damaged newborn against a hospital as a result of the hospital's failure to timely deliver said newborn despite signs and symptoms of fetal distress.
  • $2,600,000.00 wrongful death verdict against a family practitioner and a urologist whose failure to timely diagnose prostate cancer led to the plaintiff's death.
  • $2,500,000.00 settlement against a radiologist for his failure to timely diagnose the plaintiff's spinal tumor which progressed to metastatic late stage cancer.
  • $2,450,000.00 total award against a hospital for its failure to properly restrain a hospital psychiatric patient who jumped out of a hospital window and fell three stories sustaining a permanent brain injury.
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