Joined: 25 Jan 2004 Posts: 1 Location: Ste. Genevieve Missouri
Help Posted: 01-25-04 11:28am
Hi, my name is angela kirchner (22). I
live with my boyfriend jason rottler(22)
and our son august who just turned 2 in
september.
August is delayed mentally and physically.
He has been this way since birth.
Here's the story.
Whenever august was born on september 16,
2001 they told us he had meconium in his
lungs and in order to get it out they
would have to cut off his oxygen before he
took his first breath. So, they vacuumed
him out cut off his oxygen sucked out the
stuff and I then heard him scream.
Afterwards, we noticed that his skull was
swollen on each side and there was an
indention in the middle. Everyone acted
as though this was normal even his
pediatrician. I took him to his
pediatrician for a two week check up and
asked his pediatrician why he had two huge
bumps on the sides of his head. She told
me swelling was normal. She went on to
examine august and then asked me why he
had the bumps on his head. I said I
didn't know, that is why I had asked you.
Obviously she was not even listening to
what I had asked she only wanted to get in
and out so that she could move on to her
next patient. After that she thought we
should get x-rays of his skull. They
never called and never called so I called
them and they told me that they were
normal! So, we thought nothing of the
bumps and went on with everyday life.
Then at 3 months when he should have been
sitting up, he wasn't, at 6 months when he
should have been crawling he wasn't. We
knew something wasn't right. We then
switched pediatricians and they sent us to
a neurologist in st. Louis which is about
60 minutes from our home. He had us fill
out paper work and we met with him and he
told us that he was delayed which we had
already knew. He scheduled an mri which
took another 3 months. After that,
another month goes by we get the results
and he(neurologist) tells us that
everything looks normal. He went on to
tell us that the x-rays which his
pediatrician told us were normal were
actually abnormal. They showed that
there was a slight space between his brain
and his skull in front. Still no
reason!!
We then start him in physical therapy in a
program called first steps. In order to
qualify for the program your child has to
be more than 50% delayed and also they
must get a report from his neurologist.
In the report his neurologist stated he
has a disease called static
encephalopathy. If you look on the
internet which I did, reads that it is a
form of cerebral palsy. So, we are
really upset. I call the neurologist a
couple days later he gets back with me and
informs me that is just what they call a
disease they don't actually have a cause
for.
August is now in therapy five days a week
and recently learned how to crawl. He
still can't talk and doesn't really
understand what a normal 2 year old should
but he is slowly learning.
Now, we have just learned the state is
trying to cut us out of our medical
insurance.
My real question is was this problem
caused because of the doctor at birth and
if it wasn't will someone help us figure
out his condition instead of easily saying
they don't know or just pushing us
aside?
Also, august has recently been looking out
of the right side of his eyes instead of
straight on also they have cut his therapy
from 2 times per week to 8 times until
september.
Thank you very much for listening.....
|
Jaydensmommy
Advanced Support Team
Joined: 28 Jan 2004 Posts: 1705 Location: Wisconsin
Posted: 01-30-04 01:34am
I don't think it would have been caused
because of what they did at birth, unless
they cut off his oxygen supply for a few
mins. And the way you made it sound it
was like less than a min. Didn't they do
any kind of testing while you were
pregnant? I mean alot of times they can
detect that kind of thing in just normal
tests they run on you while pregnant.
