North East Law Firm Supports World Cerebral Palsy Day

Medical law experts from Irwin Mitchell’s North East office are backing World Cerebral Palsy Day which takes place this year on 7^th October.

World CP Day is also being backed by Kirstie McCormick, an Irwin Mitchell client whose five-year-old son has severe cerebral palsy and is significantly disabled.

Oscar McGill who was born on 5^th August 2010 at James Cook University Hospital in Middlesbrough is now fully dependent on his parents for 24-hour care.

During Kirstie’s labour, syntocinon was given to increase the frequency of Kirstie’s contractions. She was given too much syntocinon which resulted in developing hypoxia (lack of oxygen to the brain) in Oscar and Kirstie had to be rushed for an emergency caesarean section.

Oscar was already in a poor condition when he was born but unfortunately, there were further delays in resuscitating him and although he was born at 9.02pm, he was not successfully intubated for another three hours. During this period, there were several attempts by medical staff to insert the tube to help him breathe and had to be treated with face mask ventilation instead.  He suffered brain damage due to the deprivation of oxygen.

Kirstie and David McGill, of Redcar, instructed specialist medical negligence lawyers at Irwin Mitchell to investigate their son’s care and treatment from the South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust but hope that World Cerebral Palsy Day will help prevent other families having to face the same difficulties which their family are now having to deal with.

Angela Kirtley, a Partner and medical negligence lawyer at Irwin Mitchell who specialises in cerebral palsy claims and represented Kirstie, said:

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“Traumatic births are far more common that people realise and although the outcomes are varied, they are all deeply distressing for the families involved.

“Our clinical negligence team handles a number of cases involving traumatic births, often where babies have been left, stillborn or severely disabled at birth. In all cases, huge levels of support are required to help people through, not only in dealing with the demands of a disabled child but also negotiating their way through the various organisations who try to provide help but who are limited in what they can do by restricted resources.” Angela Kirtley - Partner

Kirstie said: “Raising Oscar has been a huge struggle from the very beginning and people really have no idea what you go through as a parent of a disabled child.  I hope World Cerebral Palsy Day can help more people understand what our family and others like ours go through every day.

“It is hard to make life as normal as possible for Oscar. He continues to experience seizures and has needed a tracheostomy to assist with his breathing.  He is also completely tube fed.

“I hope that through our fight for justice and by helping to support World Cerebral Palsy Day we can raise awareness of the devastating impact that birth trauma can have on families.”

Cerebral palsy is the most common physical disability in childhood and is also one of the least understood. Irwin Mitchell has partnered with CP charity Brainwave to create an online resource to raise awareness of the challenges of living with cerebral palsy. 

Visit http://www.irwinmitchell.com/living-with-cerebral-palsy for more information.