Causes of Cerebral Palsy

Cerebral Palsy is caused by brain damage, which affected to the developing of brain. Why does your child have brain damage? There are many possible answers to this question, bellow are described of some reasons why the children can sustain brain damage.

Acquired cerebral palsy

Causes of acquired cerebral palsy is results from brain damage that occurs in the first two years of life. The common cases usually the disorder may result from brain infections like bacterial meningitis or viral encephalitis, or from head trauma sustained from an accident, fall, or inflicted injuries.

Congenital cerebral palsy

Causes of congenital cerebral palsy is often results from brain damage during pregnancy or around the time of birth. However, birth complications account for only about 3–13% of congenital cerebral palsy cases.

- Infections during pregnancy. Some of virus such as toxoplasmosis, rubella (German measles), cytomegalovirus, and herpes can infect the developing fetus in a pregnant woman that result a damage to the developing nervous system and causing cerebral palsy. Other potentially damaging infections include cytomegalovirus and toxoplasmosis.

- Jaundice in the infant. Untreated jaundice (hyperbilirubinemia) can cause a neurological condition known as kernicterus, which kills brain cells and can cause deafness and cerebral palsy.

- Brain hemorrhage or bleeding can occur in the fetus during pregnancy or in newborns around the time of birth which result from a medical malpractice. These hemorrhages are a type of stroke that may be caused by broken, abnormal, or clogged blood vessels in or leading to the brain causing neurological problems as caused of cerebral palsy.

- Medical malpractice or physician error (negligence) also may responsible for thousands and thousands of cerebral palsy cases. In which, during labor and/or delivery the medical team may make a mistaken such as excessive use of vacuum extraction, fail to follow the necessary steps to ensure a safe delivery and failure to perform a timely cesarean section may result in damage to the motor centers in the brain.

But it's impossible for a parent to determine if a medical mistake caused their child's cerebral palsy or brain damage. Only through the concerted efforts of a legal/medical team (medical lawyer) that can answer the question.