At the Boston Marathon in April, father and son team Dick and Rick Hoyt will complete their 1,000th race - a considerable feat given the challenges Rick faces. He was diagnosed with spastic quadriplegia, a severe form of cerebral palsy that has left him confined to a wheelchair and unable to speak.

A Significant Decision
During birth, Rick suffered oxygen deprivation due to a prolapsed umbilical cord (when the cord is wrapped around the neck). Specialists told Rick’s parents that his situation was hopeless and that “he should be institutionalized.”

Dick and Jane Hoyt chose instead to raise their son at home with their other two children, a choice that had significant results. Rick graduated from high school and went on to earn a degree in special education from Boston University.

Wanting to Make a Difference
In 1977, Rick heard about a 5-mile race to raise funds for a local athlete who became paraplegic after a car accident. He wanted to prove to the athlete that life goes on after disability, so his father pushed him the five miles in a standard wheel chair and that was the beginning of Team Hoyt.

The father and son team have competed continuously since, though they now use a more streamlined wheelchair. In triathlons, Rick sits in a seat above the front wheel of the bike and in a dingy behind his father, who pulls him while swimming.

To learn more about the duo, visit their website at TeamHoyt.com

A child with cerebral palsy often spends more time in doctors’ offices and medical settings than most other children.  Doctor’s visits, dental appointments, emergency care - all of these can cause a special needs child to experience anxiety, and anxiety can impair a child’s ability to cope.

For this reason, it’s important that parents understand the ways in which they can help to minimize their child’s anxiety prior to a visit to the doctor or a medical procedure. Below are some basic tips for helping prepare your child for any kind of medical encounter:

• Make sure you understand what the appointment is going to entail as this will help you to explain to your child what to expect.
• Be sensitive to your child’s fears and anxieties, but also be honest about whether a procedure is going to hurt or not. Try to provide your child with examples of what something might feel like-for instance, if they’re getting a shot, you might want to explain that it feels like a pinch; that it will hurt for only a few seconds.
• Explain to your child that medical care is good for them and helps them to get better, even if it hurts sometimes.
• Introduce your child to some of the equipment they may encounter during their doctor’s visit. Show them the purpose of different medical instruments such as a stethoscope, thermometer, needle, or x-ray machine. There are many ways you can do this, including by way of books at your local library or by taking your child to a local hospital or medical facility.
• Encourage questions and discussion. Allow your child to talk about his/her feelings, and try to provide some comfort.
• Bring books or games to the appointment. This will help ease anxiety while you’re waiting for the doctor and may also help distract your child during a painful procedure.
• Be sure to keep your anxiety to a minimum. Of course it’s natural to worry about your child, but children are extremely adept at sensing their parents’ stress. If you feel stress, your child will be more likely to feel stress too.

The family of 7-year-old Roberto Morales, Jr. reached a cerebral palsy settlement for $6.5 million this week. Diagnosed with cerebral palsy after his birth in 2001, Morales now suffers from limited mobility and requires continued health care. The settlement will help with his ongoing health care costs.

Inadequate Oxygen to the Brain
Roberto was delivered at Provena Mercy Medical Center. Attorneys working on his behalf argued that the obstetrician and delivery nurse failed to respond to fetal distress and Roberto suffered a lack of oxygen as a result.

He was born with hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy, a type of brain damage that is caused by inadequate oxygen and may cause death, developmental delays, mental retardation and cerebral palsy.

A Vulnerable Time
Labor and delivery is an especially vulnerable time for infants, and the slightest mistake can have devastating consequences. When a child is diagnosed with a brain injury such as cerebral palsy after a traumatic delivery, it may be a good idea for the parents to do some further investigation.

Thousands of babies are diagnosed with cerebral palsy each year in the United States, and the majority of those are due to unknown causes. However, some may be due to an obstetrical error. So the question arises for parents, how do I know if my child’s condition was preventable? How do I know when or if I should contact a cerebral palsy lawyer?

The truth is that it takes experienced medical and legal knowledge to evaluate the circumstances of a child’s birth and determine if negligence was a factor. And until the case is evaluated, the best any parent can do is ask him/herself if there were any red flags present during the child’s birth.

Questions To Consider:

• Was the pregnancy considered high-risk? For instance, did the mother have hypertension, severe preeclampsia, diabetes, infection or other health problem? Was it a multiple birth pregnancy?
• If so, was there regular screening for complications? Were maternal problems recognized/diagnosed in a timely manner
• Did doctors and nurses respond in a timely manner to any pregnancy problems you reported?
• Were there changes in fetal progress prior to or during delivery?
• Was a caesarean section necessary and, if so, was it performed in a timely manner?
• Did the child suffer lack of oxygen during birth?
• Did the child suffer severe jaundice after birth that was not treated promptly?
• Was excessive force used during the delivery? For example, were forceps or vacuum extraction used?
• Was there physician supervision of nurses, midwives and other hospital staff attending to the mother and child?

Depending on your answers to these questions (any red flags you noticed during delivery), you may want to consider further investigation into your child’s cerebral palsy.