Cerebral Palsy Case Study

The words “He will always be ‘one of those kids’” are the words that left my family empty and torn, feeling helpless. Braden Lee Neal, an aspiring eleven year old, is my brother who suffers from Cerebral Palsy (CP). Adopted from a drunken, strung out sixteen year old mother of three, Braden is a miracle and should not have made it out of the womb, or the hospital. My passion, Cerebral Palsy, has changed my outlook on life and will bring more awareness to living life with Cerebral Palsy.

Just a little background about CP; Cerebral Palsy is the most prominent childhood disability, and also has no cure. There are more than one strand of the disease: Spastic, Athetoid, and Ataxic. Braden suffers from the Spastic strand, often getting leg cramps,
It becomes an obstacle in muscle movement, a result of an inhibited muscle longitude due to the gene carried by CP causing issues in protein synthesis. Therefore, as patients develop skeletally, their muscles do not keep pace and grow normally. Although it seems like a very muscular drawn disease, there is a part of the brain that is affected, the motor control area, which controls the legs. Emotionally, Cerebral Palsy causes doubt in those affected, by simply leaving them often wondering why they are the ones who live with this condition. However in some people, such as my brother, it nurtures a higher faith and dependence upon God. While some effects are negative, others are positive. It creates a tighter family unit, which brings me to my next point: the emotional effects on the family of an affected child. I can not express how deeply it cuts to be wheeling my brother down the mall or even sitting with him in the play area and watch people literally follow him with their eyes as they walk by. As a big sister, I am very protective of my brother and of his feelings. There have been many times where I have asked, “Haven’t you ever seen a child in a wheelchair?” because I know that it hurts his soul to know that people “stare at him funny”. Another effect that my family personally struggles with is accusations of using Braden’s disability for special privileges. It is so painful for me as well as my family to know that people would think that we are so crooked to use his disability. We have to live with him, see him, and struggle with him. It cuts deep to look into my baby brother’s eyes and see pain caused by his inability to participate in activities going on around