Texas Cerebral Palsy Law Firm | How Do I Know If My Child Has CP?

How Do I Know If My Child Has CP?

If you are in the process of filing a cerebral palsy lawsuit, part of what the lawsuit will depend upon is the investigation into how your child came to suffer with cerebral palsy. You really only have the option of filing a lawsuit if medical negligence or a defective product played a part in your child suffering cerebral palsy. If it was a naturally occurring case of cerebral palsy, there is little that can be done in the way of taking legal action. In some cases, it takes quite a while before parents realize that their child has cerebral palsy. New technologies, however, play a part in detecting cerebral palsy much faster than was oftentimes the case in the past.

Medical Scanning

If doctors suspect that something is wrong with an infant, they typically order scans right away. This enables them to get important diagnostic information that they can use to offer the type of assistance the child needs right away. When doctors have the advantage of fast information, they can order the treatments that may help the child to avoid the worst of their condition. In the case of cerebral palsy, unfortunately, the brain damage is permanent no matter how fast it is discovered. CAT scans and MRIs scans are common ways that doctors detect the brain-damage that causes cerebral palsy.

Blood Tests

Doctors will oftentimes order laboratory blood tests to determine if cerebral palsy is an issue. The lab work has to be done to officially make the diagnosis. It will sometimes be done right away upon the birth of the child and sometimes may be ordered later on when the child starts exhibiting other signs of having a birth injury that caused cerebral palsy.

Physical Signs

In the past, the physical symptoms of cerebral palsy were usually the only ways that parents knew that something was wrong. These are fairly characteristic signs. The child will usually feel uneven in terms of their muscle tone. They may be extremely rigid in one part of their body and extremely floppy in another part of their body. It may also take them much longer than expected to do things such as rollover or start picking their head up and looking around.

A Texas cerebral palsy lawyer can get the expertise you need to look through your child's medical history and find out how their cerebral palsy injury originated and how much you should seek in damages and a court of law.