The Short Answer: It Depends.
Of course, the short answer is: it depends. It depends on the nature of the injury, the severity of the injury, how and where the injury happened, the physical abilities of your newborn, and its psychological and cognitive abilities. The good news is that there are a large variety of treatment options for infants and newborns with brain injuries. What treatment is best for your child depends on all of these factors.
Therefore, the first step is to assess the status of your baby’s injury and then to learn the treatment options that are available for his or her specific situation.
Initial Assessment of Infants with Brain Injuries
From the offset, your physician will help you understand the scope of your newborn’s brain injury with a medical assessment. Typically, these assessments will involve an MRI or a CT scan—perhaps even both. Pediatricians can also use a tool called the Glasgow Coma Scale, which considers your newborn on a spectrum that evaluates potential brain injury and cognitive function issues. No matter what, be sure to ask your pediatrician to start the assessment of your baby as soon as the symptoms appear, which may be immediately at birth, a few days later when you come home from the hospital, or even in the first few weeks of life. Whenever they appear, however, be sure to reach out to a medical professional, who can help diagnose the type and severity of your baby’s injury with these medical professional tools.
Once this initial assessment is completed, you and your doctors will have a better grasp on what type of brain damage your infant may have, how it may have occurred, and help understand the best treatment method moving forward.
Treatment Methods: Is Surgery an Option for My Baby?
Sometimes, surgery is the best treatment options for infants who have suffered a brain injury during birth. Many times, the injuries giving rise to surgery are those head traumas that can occur during the childbirth process, such as pressure on the skull in the birth canal. Sometimes surgery can repair fractures in the baby’s skull, or broken or damaged blood vessels around the baby’s brain.
The type of surgery will depend on the type of your baby’s injury, the location of the injury and the severity of the injury. However, common surgery options for babies with brain injuries include:
- Craniotomy. During this procedure, the baby’s surgeon will take off a small part of the skull, so as to access the baby’s brain, and repair the brain tissue inside. This type of procedure can be part of a surgery to repair skull fractures, broken blood vessels and also blood clots. After the procedure, the bone flap is secured back in place, sometimes with hardware like screws and plates.
- Decompressive Craniectomy. This is a procedure typically used for babies with more severe types of head injuries and trauma. In this procedure, a larger portion of the baby’s skull is removed. In some cases, the injury is so severe that the newborn’s brain is “swollen,” so this flap allows the brain room to breathe. This is a more intense – and controversial – procedure that should be discussed in detail with your team of treating physicians and surgeons.
What Type of Medication May Be Needed for My Brain Injured Baby?
Certain medications can be helpful for newborns and infants with brain injuries. In some cases, infants who have suffered traumatic brain injuries may have seizures, swelling of the brain, and potential infections. Your pediatrician will closely watch your baby and its symptoms to determine which medications may be helpful. However, medications for brain injured infants usually include:
- Anti-Seizure Medications: these medicines, also called anticonvulsants, are typically prescribed to infants experiencing seizures. The role of these medicines is to reduce stimulation to the brain, which can also help reduce the severity of the seizures.
- Diuretics: this type of drug makes the baby urinate more, which can help shed excess fluid that has built up in the baby’s system and its tissues.
- Behavioral Medicines: these types of medicines are typically given to the baby once it grows a little older, to address the behavioral issues that are associated with brain injuries and debilitations to cognitive function, such as hyperactivity, aggression and attention disorders.
Is Physical Therapy A Treatment Option for My Newborn?
Both physical therapy and occupational therapy are often used to treat brain-injured newborns.
Physical therapists can work with infants and growing babies on physical training, exercise and stretching, with activities to promote:
- Strength
- Coordination
- Balance
- Mobilized and fluid joints
- Flexibility
Some babies will need lifelong assistance with physical skills, including the development of motor skills, walking, and daily tasks, like eating, feeding, and hygiene.
Occupational therapy is also an option for treating your baby as it grows into a toddler and small child. Occupational therapy helps them learn to carry out their daily tasks and function in their day-to-day lives, with things children may need help with such as:
- Tying their shoes
- Using the toilet
- Feeding themselves
- Dressing themselves
- Personal hygiene, such as brushing their teeth
What’s Next?
Alongside the diagnosis of a medical physician, you may consider legal support. If there’s a chance that your newborn’s birth injury was caused by a negligent decision, the actions, or inaction of your baby’s medical provider, then you may consider seeking legal advice regarding a malpractice lawsuit. This could include negligent or potentially negligent action by the pediatrician, the delivering physician, midwives or nurses. Although not every infant birth injury is caused by negligence that would give rise to a medical malpractice lawsuit, if you believe that negligence was a factor in your baby’s injury, then you should contact a lawyer for advice. A legal suit could help provide compensation that can assist you with your ongoing care for your baby, treatment, medical care, and expenses.
