This is a great video discussing the decisions ( risks and benefits ) involved in determining to use cord blood stem cells to treat cerebral palsy in children. Additionally, the video discuses children that have benefited by cord blood stem cell treatment at Duke. Finally, the video briefly touches on the process parents and children go through at Duke University.

On Wednesday the March of Dimes released its first “report card” on premature birth rates in the United States. With many States receiving failing grades and a national average of 12.7% the overall grade for the U.S was a “D.”

Premature birth defined here as delivery before 37 weeks gestation affects 530,000 children each year and is major cause of cerebral palsy, blindness, jaundice, hearing loss and other serious conditions.

The goal of the study was bring awareness and to determine what States are doing and need to do to lower the rate of premature babies to reach the goal of 7.6% by 2010 set by The National Healthy People.

For more information on individual States and what you can do to help please click here.

In Dekalb County Illinois a family recently settled a medical malpractice lawsuit for $15.35 million in what is believed to be one of the largest birth injury settlements in the County. The complaint alleged that the delivering doctor attempted to deliver the child unsuccessfully 18 times in a one hour period with a vacuum extractor ignoring evidence of a slowed fetal heart rate indicating fetal distress. The child was eventually delivered via an emergency Cesarean section ( C-Section). During the attempted delivery the child sustained a severe brain injury.

After a three week trial a Wisconsin jury recently awarded the family of a boy with cerebral palsy $11.4 million in a medical malpractice lawsuit.

The complaint filed in 2006 alleged that a nurse and a nurse midwife at Gunderson Lutheran Medical Center in La Crosse were negligent and their negligance resulted in the child’s birth injuries.

Scientist at Wright State University's Boonshoft School of Medicine, Kettering Medical Center and Children's Medical Center of Dayton are studying the affects of Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT) on children with spastic cerebral palsy.

This study involves high concentrations of oxygen to be delivered to children with spastic cerebral palsy utilizing a pressurized chamber. The study is being offered at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base and is free to participants as part of a federally funded project.

So far the researchers have studied 48 children; however, they are currently seeking more participants between 3 and 8 years of age.

If you would like more information please contact Connie Bruns at (937) 641-4279 and as always if you have any questions regarding your child please feel free to contact me directly at (888) 456-4658 or Robert@dioriofirm.com

The narrator of the video below is describing the anatomy of the brachial plexus. The video explains what nerves affect different portions of the arm, hand, elbow and shoulder.

Children's Hospital’s Dr. Gregory Borschel, recently performed a nerve transfer on the brachial plexus of a child. A nerve transfer has been around for several years; however it was not performed on children until recently.

Prior to the nerve transfer, surgeons typically performed what is called a nerve graft on children with brachial plexus injuries. A nerve graft takes healthy nerves from elsewhere in the body and grafts them around the damaged nerves. This procedure has several downsides including leaving a “numb spot” in the location where the nerves were taken for the graft.

The nerve transfer, a six hour microsurgery, involves cutting the crushed nerves that send messages to the arm, hand and shoulder and reconnecting them to an undamaged or healthy, redundant nerve.

Washington University School of Medicine's chief of the division of plastic and reconstructive surgery Dr. Susan Mackinnon called the results “spectacular.”

The Virginia Birth Injury Fund was designed as an alternative to medical malpractice lawsuits against obstetricians, healthcare providers and hospitals involved in the birth of an injured child.

The program takes away the families right to litigation as a means of receiving compensation for past and future medical expenses and is supposed to provide lifetime medical payments to eligible children that have neurological injuries that occurred at birth, most commonly cerebral palsy.

Financial studies demonstrate that the promise of lifelong care was becoming less certain as new children enter the program, leaving some families wondering how they are going to pay for their child’s needs in years to come. This fear is now compounded by the market turmoil diminishing the value of the fund from $186 million to $166.5 million in less then one month and over $35 million in the last year.

The following video provided by CP Discovery, discusses physical therapy for children with cerebral palsy.

The video includes topics such as, how long children will need physical therapy, benefits of therapy and goals that can be achieved with therapy.

Last week a Washington jury returned a verdict of $4.25 Million for a child with cerebral palsy. The complaint alleged that the mother suffered a placental abruption (Placenta separated from urterine wall) and that the child was not delivered for over 20 minutes after the abruption. This delay caused the child to be deprived of oxygen which led to her cerebral palsy.

The verdict includes $350,000 for past medical expenses, $ 2.5 Million for the future expenses that may be incurred and $1.4 Million for pain and suffering.

This video was made by CP Discovery and explains what to look for when determining which Hippotherapy center is best for your child with cerebral palsy.

The United Brachial Plexus Network, Inc (UPBN) recently announced the annual Brachial Plexus Injury Awareness Week (October 19 thru 26). The purpose of Brachial Plexus Injury Awareness is to promote public awareness of Brachial Plexus injuries, sometimes called Erb’s Palsy, to infants during childbirth. For those of you unfamiliar with brachial plexus injuries, they are injuries to nerves that affect the hand, shoulder, and/or elbow often leaving one or both arms with some degree of paralysis.

To promote awareness of the injury, below please find several risk factors for Erb’s palsy.

If you are an expecting Mom or your child has erbs palsy please read this, erbs palsy can most likely be prevented if you and/or your doctor are aware of the risk factors.

Erb’s Palsy is caused by a number of factors throughout the pregnancy, labor and/or delivery. During the prenatal period risk factors may be present that should indicate to your doctor that a cesarean section (C-section) is necessary due to the risk of shoulder dystocia (the child’s shoulder getting stuck on the mothers pubic bone). These risk factors include but are not limited to: history of gestational diabetes, maternal weight gain of 35 pounds or more, prior shoulder dystocia, birth weight over 8 lbs. 14 oz., unusually formed pelvis and/or short or small stature of the mother.

Additionally a prolonged second stage of labor may indicate the need for a c-section even if none of the risk factors above were present.

Finally, erb’s palsy may be a result of you doctor not properly handling shoulder dystocia during delivery. Here, there may have been no indications of the risk of your child experiencing shoulder dystocia, however, once encountered the doctor may not have performed the necessary procedures. These procedures often include but are not limited to an episiotomy followed by the McRoberts maneuver, Woods maneuver and/or suprapubic pressure.

Please feel to call or e-mail me if you have any questions regarding your childs injury.

robert@dioriofirm.com

(888) 456-4658 (ask for me, Robert, directly)

The video below, made by CP Discovery takes an in depth look at Hippotherapy and the benefits of horse therapy for children with cerebral palsy.

For more information on Butterfly Dreams Farm in Watkinsville, GA. or Peggy Curran please visit their website www.butterflydreamsfarm.org.

This is an inspirational video of Paul Fejtek who has erbs or brachial plexus palsy and his mission to climb the largest mountains on each of the seven continents to raise awareness for the Challenged Athletes Foundation (CAF).

This video was just released from the University if North Carolina. It further discusses cerebral palsy, premature babies and magnesium sulfate / Epsom salt.