Cerebral palsy (CP) can affect your child's life in many different ways and degrees of severity depending on the type and the part of the body that is affected. Your child's chance of recovering and living a normal life is largely dependent on the treatments you can afford. When cerebral palsy is the result of medical malpractice, just compensation can mean access to the best and newest treatments available.
In spastic CP, the muscles are too tight; spastic CP can affect just one limb or the entire body. When the entire body is affected, there is a high likelihood of mental retardation and seizures.
Ataxic CP causes the muscles to be too weak creating problems with balance, walking, and motor skills.
Athetoid CP results in the muscle fluctuation from being too tight to too weak. Some muscles can be too tight at the same time as others are too weak. The result is involuntary movements. This type of cerebral palsy can be so severe that your child cannot sit upright on his own. Athetoid CP does not cause cognitive impairment.
Mixed CP is common and simply means that there are symptoms of more than one type.
The type of CP a child develops and the parts of the body that are affected depend on the area of the brain that is injured. Only about 50% or less of children with CP experience cognitive impairment, but when motor skills are severely impaired, accurate testing of cognitive skills can be very difficult.
Need legal assistance with a cerebral palsy issue? Call (215) 278-4449
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