Is Cerebral Palsy Caused by Medical Negligence?

South Carolina Medical Malpractice Attorney Explains

Video Transcript:

Rob Rosenthal:

Can cerebral palsy be caused by medical error? That’s what we ask South Carolina lawyer Randy Hood for this AskTheLawyers™ Quick Question.

Randy Hood:

Cerebral palsy can absolutely be caused by medical error. Cerebral palsy can be caused by hypoxia. Hypoxia is usually caused by the failure of a doctor to appropriately monitor a child, or to appropriately deliver a child in a timely manner when they're undergoing some type of stress and it's necessary.

Think about it this way. A uterus is like a building and the baby is in that building, and if the building begins to burn and there's some smoke, or in this case, a fetal monitor strip that shows a lack of variability or deceleration, and it's beginning to burn, you need to get the person out of the burning building. They need to get the child out of the womb and deliver that child, and if they don't, the child can suffer hypoxia. And if the child is hypoxic, many times they will develop cerebral palsy.

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