Kentucky expectant mothers hope for the best when they are preparing to have a baby. Unfortunately, you cannot always predict what will happen during labor or birth. In some instances, a child may suffer from a birth injury.
One of the most common birth injuries is known as Erb’s palsy. This type of palsy can impact newborns for many reasons. It is crucial to understand how this palsy manifests and how it could affect your baby.
How Erb’s palsy affects a child
According to Ortho Info, Erb’s palsy is a brachial plexus palsy. It affects the brachial nerves, which control the arm. It can affect anywhere from the shoulder to the hand.
Some children can experience a severe level of Erb’s palsy if they suffer from a birth injury. Some cannot lift their arms at all. Others have a limited range of mobility. In mild cases, a child may just have trouble holding or grasping things.
What causes Erb’s palsy?
One of the leading causes of this condition is damage to the brachial plexus nerves. The damage often happens during childbirth. The doctor may move a child’s neck or head in a way that stretches the nerve clusters. In severe cases, the nerves may even tear. This is sometimes an accident due to a rushed delivery. In other cases, the injury may stem from negligence on the part of the medical staff.
Fortunately, the prognosis for Erb’s palsy is not hopeless. Many victims experience full recovery within months or years of the injury. Often, those with this condition have great success with physical therapy. The sooner a child is able to go through therapy, the smoother their recovery will be.
However, recovery can still be a costly process, and there are no guarantees that Erb’s palsy will go away quickly or entirely. In an event such as this, it is important for parents to understand what legal options they have available that could help with compensation for their child’s birth injury.