A 50 YEAR OLD MYTH: THE RELATIONSHIP OF INTRA-PARTUM CARDIO -TOCOGRAPHIC MONITORING TO CEREBRAL PALSY AT CLINICAL AND MEDICO-LEGAL LEVEL

The birth of a child is normally surrounded with much joyful anticipation. The human psyche wants perfection in progeny. Anything short of this elicits a vast range of reactions, often may be confirmed and lead to crippling damages, possibly, at times in conjunction with separate medically punitive actions by the local medical council. Once a few test cases – and most Court cases fail – do result in substantial financial awards, the precedent is likely to set the ball rolling. Some members of the legal profession are posed to take up the gauntlet, be the plea, justifiable or not proportionate to the outcome. In the presence of a situation which is suspicious or suggestive of Cerebral Palsy (diagnosis is done within about 12 months from birth) benumbs and throws the unfortunate parents into an unexpected maelstrom of terrifying emotions and worries. The zenith of happiness cruelly metamorphoses into the nadir of despair. Cerebral Palsy (CP) is the commonest disorder of movement in children¹, and, generally speaking (with much local variation) it occurs in about 2.1 per 1,000 live births².It would be grossly abnormal for such parents, not to ask questions. These questions, increasingly being asked in a Court of Law where obstetric liability.The purpose of this paper is to show a firm affirmation that the correct instruments of science be recognised, both clinically and medico-legally in cases of CP. It is an attack on those aspects of the juridical procedure, during which scientific facts fly in the face of contemporary science.