Cerebral Palsy Research Paper
Cerebral Palsy in Action
You are in the hospital. You have a brand new baby in your arms staring up at you. You look back at them with pride glistening in your eyes and excitement in your heart. You realize that you have started on a new adventure and that you feel ready for all of the challenges this little bundle will throw at you. At least that’s how you feel until you get the news. It has been a few weeks since you have come home from the hospital and you just answered a phone call from your doctor. He tells you to sit down and you listen, not quite knowing what to expect. Then you hear something that just about crushes you. Your child has just been diagnosed with cerebral palsy.
Because cerebral palsy is so life altering and challenging, …show more content…
According to an article in “Cerebral Palsy 1”, the definition of cerebral palsy is “... the term used for a group of nonprogressive disorders of movement and posture caused by abnormal development of, or damage to, motor control centers of the brain.” The same article states that eight thousand babies and infants and one thousand five hundred preschoolers are diagnosed each year. As of 2009, approximately seven hundred and sixty four thousand people in the U.S. have cerebral palsy-like symptoms (“Cerebral Palsy 1”). This means that approximately one out of every five hundred people have cerebral palsy. That does not seem like much, but if you take that as in school population wise, and the school has approximately has one thousand students, then each school in the United States has about two people with cerebral …show more content…
(Luitjens) Even though the surgeries that cerebral palsy patients go through are fully paid for by the hospital, they are excruciatingly painful. The pain lasts for multiple weeks. Another way that cerebral palsy is costly to the families is through having to purchase wheelchairs. “Each wheelchair costs about $10,000” (Luitjens). To get a house renovation done so that they can move around easier costs about $26,000 out of pocket. If everything was paid for out of pocket, it would cost the family over $1,000,000
You are in the hospital. You have a brand new baby in your arms staring up at you. You look back at them with pride glistening in your eyes and excitement in your heart. You realize that you have started on a new adventure and that you feel ready for all of the challenges this little bundle will throw at you. At least that’s how you feel until you get the news. It has been a few weeks since you have come home from the hospital and you just answered a phone call from your doctor. He tells you to sit down and you listen, not quite knowing what to expect. Then you hear something that just about crushes you. Your child has just been diagnosed with cerebral palsy.
Because cerebral palsy is so life altering and challenging, …show more content…
According to an article in “Cerebral Palsy 1”, the definition of cerebral palsy is “... the term used for a group of nonprogressive disorders of movement and posture caused by abnormal development of, or damage to, motor control centers of the brain.” The same article states that eight thousand babies and infants and one thousand five hundred preschoolers are diagnosed each year. As of 2009, approximately seven hundred and sixty four thousand people in the U.S. have cerebral palsy-like symptoms (“Cerebral Palsy 1”). This means that approximately one out of every five hundred people have cerebral palsy. That does not seem like much, but if you take that as in school population wise, and the school has approximately has one thousand students, then each school in the United States has about two people with cerebral …show more content…
(Luitjens) Even though the surgeries that cerebral palsy patients go through are fully paid for by the hospital, they are excruciatingly painful. The pain lasts for multiple weeks. Another way that cerebral palsy is costly to the families is through having to purchase wheelchairs. “Each wheelchair costs about $10,000” (Luitjens). To get a house renovation done so that they can move around easier costs about $26,000 out of pocket. If everything was paid for out of pocket, it would cost the family over $1,000,000