United Brachial Plexus Network, Inc.

Hello -
I have not posted here before and only learned on Friday that what was wrong with my son since birth was a Brachial Plexus injury. My son, Jaxson, was 3 weeks early and a large 9 lbs 15oz. The OB used a vacuum to help deliver him as he was stuck at the shoulders. When he was out, he couldnt move his right arm from the elbow up. He moves it now, but is very weak in that arm. He also has Torticollis and Plagiocephaly, wearing a CranioCap to correct the shape of his head.
I am a bit confused as to why they never said that he had a Brachial Plexus, if that is normal for the doctors not to say? They also never told me he had Torticollis, which was diagnosed at birth.
Is this normal for doctors to not say about Brachial? As I said, I'm new to it all and very confused.
Thanks for any advice!

Kim

I am sorry to hear about the injury to your son. You are in right place though and you will get lots of information here. How old is your son? You do need to see a Brachial Plexus Specialist as soon as possible. From this website if you go to the home section and then toward the bottom is a link for medical resources and click on your state. My daughter goes to Texas Children's Hospital in Houston and has had 3 surgeries their so far. I do know alot of people travel from all over to the world to go there. Also, some doctor's don't admitt to the injury. My daughter's Pedi. was there at delivery and the first thing he said was Erb's Palsy (Brachial Plexus Injury). I believe he may be one of the few. I do know that Torticollis and I believe Plagiocephaly are all related to the injury but my daughter did not have those problems so I will let someone else answer those questions. You first thing to do concering the Brachial Plexus Injury is to see a specialist and also start PT and Range of Motions. Please feel free to ask any more questions. I wish your son the best of luck.

Angie

It's one big conspiracy and cover up - doctor protecting doctor to cover up negligence. You've hit a nerve with me.... this past weekend I coordinated a symposium on bpi to teach pediatricians and pediatric neurologists how to assess and much more and not a one showed up. It is certainly a travesty when they injure at child but it's adding insult to injury and is just beyond a travesty when they don't diagnose correctly or lead you in the correct direction and refer you to specialists.

I'm sorry you experienced this. Shame on them!

Kim - here's some things you can read about bpi - it'll be like a bpi primer. On this site on the home page - there is a link on the right side INFORMATION FOR NEW PARENTS - that's a must read...

Then..from the home page, if you hit anything AWARENESS - then hit Resources Information - you'll find tons of articles to read that should be helpful

There are so many sites to read now about bpi - thank God! http://www.brachialplexusinjury.net
and there is http://www.injurednewborn.com and http://www.injurednewborn.com/maia/homepage.html
and hundreds more...

Please get your sweetypie to a brachial plexus specialist as soon as you can so that monitoring / evaluations can begin and direction and plan can be discussed. If you have to travel - know that free medical airfare is available. If you let us know where you live - there might be specialist in your neighborhood...

good luck and keep on asking LOTS and LOTS of questions!
-francine

Angie,
My son is 6.5 months old and has been in PT since he was 2 months due to the torticollis. I am seeing the OT today and will ask her about the difference, if any, in the therapy he will need. I will go check to see if there are any Brachial Plexus specialist around here, I live in a smaller area of MN.

Thank you!
Kim

I'm sorry that you are going through this. My OB never said anything about my baby being injured at birth, because of her either. It wasn't until my daughter's 2 week well checkup with her pediatrician that I found out what was wrong with her arm and what the name of the injury was. My daughter also had torticollis which caused her to have plagiocephaly too. She wore a STARBand for 4 months last year. It was a major pain but worth it. How much longer until Jaxson is done with his CranioCap?

Jaxson has been in his CranioCap since December 4th. We have had no estimate on the time he has left as he has severe plagio. He's a trooper though and doing just fine with it - I have seen some pretty good improvement, much with the bossing of his forhead.
Torticollis may be associated with a Brachial Plexus? I can see why the plagio would be, due to the tort. Whew, this is a lot to take on.
How do you know when to go ahead with legal action? I don't know what to do..!!

Kim,
When Melanie was born the diagnosis of brachial plexus or erb's pasly wasn't made. I kept mentioning erbs palsy because a friend of mine delivered a child with bpi. We were told it would be best to see a specialist before any diagnosis was made. We went to a pediatric neurologist and he diagnosed erbs/bpi.

With Matthew he was diagnosed as soon as he was born. There was no covering up what happened. He also had phrenic nerve damage and torticollis.
In our experience with Melanie having recovered the docs really didn't want to say much however with Matthew's severe injury there was one cause to the injury and other docs we've seen do not seem to try to cover that up.

Cindy