http://topwirexs.com/children-suffering-from-cerebral-palsy-receive-assistance-from-a-center-in-lake-zurich/171636/
This reports the work of the Centre for Independence through Conductive Education as described at a Rotary Club of Lake Zurich function. It starts with an explanation of cerebral palsy and how it occurs before or during birth due to lack of oxygen; this is not my understanding. No-one really knows what causes it, lack of oxygen may be only one possibility. It is important to get facts right as wrong information in one section of an article can cast doubt on the rest of the piece.
Most journalists and those interviewed by them, do get things right, but perhaps everyone should check their information carefully before making such statements as that mentioned above.
4 comments:
Dear Gill and Readers,
As far as I know CP can be caused by the following ones:
1. Lack of of oxigen as the reportage suggests.
2.Failure of the brain to develop properly (developmental brain malformation)
3.Neurological damage to the child's development.
Laszlo
Dear Gill,
The journalist is right to some degree.
There are a number of reasons what can cause CP; lack of oxigen is one amongst others (due to breech position; prolonged birth, cord around the neck etc.), this was historically one of the most common cause. These sort of risks now considered to be less significant due to the high-tech pre- and postnatal medical care. These days the most prominent medical background is linked to prematurity or multiple births therefore the number of cases diagnosed with cerebral palsy remain unchanged, in some perspectives slightly higher.
Statistical data on occurance and causes are well researched in the medical discourse, perhaps the journalist just selectively picked something out without seeing the broader picture.
Thanks for these comments, Tunde and Laszlo. It was the singling out of only one possibility for the condition which I thouht was misleading. I suppose this kind of misinformation must go on all the time in the media, and should make us all a little sceptical to say the least. More of us should challenge such reporting.
In the agency report that Gill refers to above, the causes of cerbral palsy are referred to in indirect speech: 'Cerebral palsy is actually a brain disease,' the report says, 'and not an ailment caused by genetic imbalance as most individuals believe in. This disease occurs during or before birth triggered by lack of oxygen supply. This was probably the reason why most victims of cerebral palsy are children.'
Count the errors and confusions.
In this case a quick Google for this meeting finds an fuller report (that is in fact also referenced on Gill's previous posting):
http://lakezurich.patch.com/articles/lake-zurich-center-helps-children-with-cerebral-palsy
You will see here the director of a CE center quoted, in direct speech, as follows:
'Cerebral Palsy is brain damage, so it is not a condition that is genetic... It usually occurs before, during or after birth and is caused by a lack of oxygen.
Note the newspaper's use of inverted commas in this report, but of course the director might have been misquoted.
I recognise that a much longer and more considered account might have been made at the meeting being reported, and ill-summarised here. As quoted, however, this sounds to be perpetuating a major myth. The range of conditions subsumed under the umbrella term cerebral palsy are NOT 'caused by a lack of oxygen'. The proportion of perinatal causations is certainly low, though how low you put it may depend upon which country you are in, or whether you are a medical-negligence lawyer or an obstetrician.
But the possibly multifactorial and for the most part unknown causations certainly occur at some time and I guess that 'before, during or after birth' covers most logical possibilities! The continuing real uncertainly around the causation of cerebral palsy, however, is the real message to be broadcast. In this, as possibly in no other matter, I am wholly with Dr Freud!
Andrew.
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