Cerebral Palsy is a brain injury which is often caused by failures by the medical profession, during the delivery of a child.

There can be a number of causes which lead to Cerebral Palsy, and which should have been detected, and corrected, by hospital staff.

A major cause of the injury is the starvation of oxygen to the baby, caused by a delay in the delivery process. However, there are other possible causes such as failure to diagnose and treat low blood sugar, jaundice and even meningitis.

So, what can you do to claim compensation?

Naturally, compensation is small recompense for the devastation caused by this injury. It can, however, make life a little more comfortable for both the child and the parents. Bringing up a child with Cerebral Palsy will incur extra expense due to the additional care and attention that will be needed.

Although you may, initially at least, feel some reluctance to claim medical negligence compensation; it is important that you at least arrange a consultation with medical negligence solicitors who have expertise in this area. As you might imagine, health organisations have access to professional legal teams, so simply hiring a local solicitor is likely to result in failure, unless they have specific expertise in claiming medical negligence compensation.

It is important that you do not make a direct formal complaint to the hospital. This can lead to a time consuming, and frustrating process; something that you will want to avoid with the extra stress that is likely to occur through having a child with Cerebral Palsy. It is therefore very important that you take advice from medical negligence solicitors before doing anything else.

A good solicitor should be able to obtain legal aid for the child relatively quickly, perhaps in the space of a month. Medical records will then be obtained from the relevant health providers. Once these are in place, experts are usually brought in to assess the case. This often starts with an obstetrician who will be able to advise if errors were made during the delivery of the baby. Unfortunately, because of the nature of these cases, progress can be slow and reaching this stage can take 9 months or more.

If negligence is indicated, brain scans can be obtained and will be examined by a neurologist and possibly a midwife, should the midwife care be brought into question.

If the evidence provided backs up the claim for medical negligence compensation, a barrister is appointed who will prepare the relevant papers in preparation for a court hearing. After this stage, the hospital will have a period of time to respond to the claim; currently this is three months. They may, at this stage, accept responsibility and offer compensation. Your solicitor will advise you regarding the suitability of the offer. If the case goes to court, you may win more compensation but there will always be a risk of defeat, and it will also possibly delay access to any compensation by a few years.

It is unfortunate that medical negligence compensation claims are so long winded and laborious, but the very nature of the claim does mean that investigations have to be carried out very thoroughly. For this reason, it is absolutely essential that specialist medical negligence solicitors are employed to take up the case from the start.

Ben Greenwood is writing on behalf of Pearson Hinchliffe, medical negligence solicitors experts in cerebral palsy compensation.

Ben Greenwood is writing on behalf of Pearson Hinchliffe (http://www.ph-medicalnegligence.co.uk), medical negligence solicitors and experts cerebral palsy compensation.

Author Bio: Ben Greenwood is writing on behalf of Pearson Hinchliffe, medical negligence solicitors experts in cerebral palsy compensation.

Category: Legal
Keywords: medical negligence claims, medical negligence solicitors, medical negligence compensation