Pacific Medical Law

A founding member of BILA

Law, Justice And Compassion | Call Today

1-604-685-2361

Call
Contact
Blog

Cerebral Palsy

Janna Epp Bursary

By

A $5,000 bursary has been established in honour of Janna Epp – a beautiful, determined young girl with cerebral palsy who faced challenges that few of us could imagine.  Sadly, on October 11, 2012 Janna passed away.

Janna Epp

In memory of Janna, Pacific Medical Law will donate $5,000 to a child living with cerebral palsy every year, to assist with that child’s care, therapy or recreation. The recipient of the award will be selected by Janna’s mother. This year the bursary applications are due June 28, 2019.

This is the 6th year this bursary will be awarded to a family with a child living with cerebral palsy, and our family of recipients keeps growing.  As in the past, we have kept the bursary application as simple as possible, without any financial questions, and without any stipulations about what the bursary can be used for – we believe families know best what their child needs and we trust them.

The notice and application form can be found here.

Please forward this to any family who you think could benefit from some financial support. Of course, if you or any families have any questions, or need any more information, please don’t hesitate to call.  If you would like to receive paper copies of the notice and application form, please let us know and we would be happy to put a few in the mail.

We Provide Financial Assistance for Hardworking Students Living With CP

By

Pacific Medical Law is looking to make a lasting difference in the lives of children with Cerebral Palsy. At Pacific Medical Law, we understand how much effort parents go through to fight for their children’s needs. Working with the Cerebral Palsy Association of BC, we have been able to provide support for young people with cerebral palsy by sponsoring an educational bursary. You can read more about our involvement and philanthropy with the Cerebral Palsy Association of British Columbia here.

The Bursary distributes financial support to 10 different recipients every year to subsidize the costs associated with educational programs. In the past, our recipients have used it to help them pursue educational opportunities in fields such as chemical engineering, psychology, and writing. Many of the recipients hope to use their skills to support others in the disability community.

Info Pacific Medical Law (4) (2)

Vancouver Adaptive Snow Sports – Making Skiing and Snowboarding Accessible to All

By

Vancouver Adaptive Snow Sports (VASS) runs skiing and snowboarding programs for people with physical and cognitive disabilities at local Vancouver mountains. VASS is operated by volunteers, including instructors, program coordinators, and a Board of Directors, dedicated to making the mountains accessible to all, regardless of age or disability.

The program uses adaptive equipment, such as sit-skis, along with specialized teaching techniques tailored to the specific needs of the student. The instructors are trained to use the adaptive equipment and specialized teaching techniques, and are enthusiastic about sharing their love of skiing and snowboarding. Programs from beginner to advanced are offered, including snowboarding, sit-ski, stand-up skiing and advanced adaptive ski racing.

Child with Disabilities Enjoying Adaptive Skiing

As a volunteer-run, community-based program, VASS is always looking for new volunteers, either as instructors or through an administrative or fundraising role. Skiers or snowboarders who want to be teaching and helping on the mountain must attend a classroom training session focused on improving ability and knowledge of teaching the sport, followed by an on-snow training session in which they learn how to adapt their teaching plan based on their student and enhance their techniques for motivation and communication. If you are a skier or snowboarder who is passionate about making snow sports accessible to all, or if you are interested in volunteering off the mountain in fundraising, marketing, or volunteer coordination, visit www.vass.ca/vounteer for more information.

VASS seeks to enhance quality of life for people with disabilities by providing opportunities to experience the joy, freedom, health and wellness benefits of adaptive snow sports. Programs are offered at Grouse, Seymour, and Cypress Mountains from January until March each year, in the evenings or on the weekends. Two instructors are typically assigned per student, and the student works with the same instructors for the whole season. That way, the instructors know the student’s strengths and abilities, and learn how to best communicate with him or her over the course of the lessons.

Student registration for 2019 is now closed, but registration for the 2020 session opens in mid-October 2019. Students must be at least six years old. If you know someone living with a disability who is interested in learning or improving their skiing or snowboarding, more information on the program can be found at www.vass.ca or by emailing [email protected].

Can Stem Cell Therapy Help my Child with Cerebral Palsy?

By

Parents of children with cerebral palsy are devoted to doing what they can to improve their child’s function and independence.  Often very small improvements in function can result in significant improvements in the quality of a child’s life.

Since we know that some children with cerebral palsy have suffered a brain injury around the time of their birth, it makes sense to try to heal that injury.  When an injury occurs, the brain cells are unable to promote proper growth and development of the brain. Brain cells die or fail to mature, and the white matter tracts that connect different areas of the brain become damaged. In people with CP, the corticospinal tract (CST), which connects regions of the brain that control motor function to the spinal cord, is often damaged. This tract helps to control movement, and without functional CST connections, motor deficits ensue.  The questions is, can stem cell therapy promote new cell growth to replace these damaged brain cells?

What is Stem Cell Therapy?

Stem cell therapy is a regenerative therapy in which stem cells are introduced to replace dead cells and support the remaining cells. Two characteristics make stem cells unique from other cells in the body. First, they have the ability to divide and make copies of themselves over extended periods of time. Second, they can differentiate into more specialized cell types, which means they can transform into specialized cell types of the body such as heart, lung, or brain cells.

Research has shown that stem cells can be induced to become more specialized cell types, and when transplanted into the body, can replace dead cells and support the existing cells. Stem cell transplantation has the potential to replace the damaged and non-functional cells in the brains of CP patients and support the remaining cells.

How Effective is Stem Cell Therapy?

There are a small number of clinical trials around the world assessing how stem cells can be used to treat CP.  So far, there is only one published study of children with CP which found that those who received stem cells in combination with conventional rehabilitation and medication showed greater improvements on cognitive and motor assessments compared to those children who received conventional rehabilitation therapy and medication without receiving stem cells.

Despite the progress seen with pre-clinical (ie. animal studies) and clinical trials in recent years, there are some hurdles that need to be overcome in order for stem cells to become a widely accessible treatment for CP. The first is the problem of the supply of stem cells. Because stem cells are cultured in the laboratory, a lab may only produce enough stem cells to treat one or two patients at a time. As stem cell therapies come closer to the clinic, there is increasing need to develop strategies to manufacture cells on a large scale.

The other problem is that regulatory agencies, such as Health Canada, are having difficulty developing standardized guidelines for the production and use of stem cells. Stem cells are not like conventional drugs; they are living entities and their effects on the human body are not as well-defined as conventional drugs.

Are There any Risks in Trying Stem Cell Therapy?

It must be cautioned that stem cell therapy is still an experimental technique and is not yet ready to be incorporated into the treatment of children with cerebral palsy in Canada. There is a temptation to travel to other countries where it is being offered, with promising testimonials.  Physicians caution against this practice, referred to as “stem cell tourism” noting that there have also been many instances of increasing disability. For example, one of the known problems with stem cell therapy is the risk of the tumour formation. Further, many of the unregulated clinics in North America and overseas use the same types of stem cells to treat a host of different disorders, despite a lack of evidence to support their use.

In conclusion, while stem cell transplantation holds promise and offers hope for improvements in the lives of children living with cerebral palsy, we are only in the early stages of truly understanding its potential.  A realistic expectation is that stem cell therapy may offer small improvements in function that may in turn result in meaningful improvements in the quality of life for children living with cerebral palsy.

If you have a child living with cerebral palsy and you have unanswered questions about what caused their brain injury, and whether or not your child is entitled to compensation for therapy and future care costs, please contact us at 1-604-685-2361.  We would be pleased to discuss your concerns with you and outline the options available for your child.

Members of the Pacific Medical Law Team Attend Renowned Obstetrical Conference

By

Four members of the Pacific Medical Law Team attended the 35th Annual Obstetrics, Gynecology, Perinatal Medicine, Neonatology and the Law Conference organized by Dr. Aubrey Milunsky and Dr. Jeff Milunsky in January of this year.

The conference was attended by a diverse group of legal and health care specialists. The event featured exceptional presentations by renowned experts in their fields. Presentation topics included:

  • How can maternal injury during childbirth be prevented?
  • When is a home birth safe?
  • Does cooling newborns following a traumatic birth work?
  • What causes stroke in a newborn?
  • What can genetics testing tell us about a child’s disability?
  • What can Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) tell us about when and how a brain injury occurred in a newborn?
  • How long should the second stage (the “pushing” stage) of labour go? and
  • How can medical professionals help promote a culture of patient safety?

The goals of the conference are to teach medical professionals to better understand how to avoid medical negligence and to teach legal professionals about the complex issues encountered in the practice of medicine.

At Pacific Medical Law we are committed to maintaining our knowledge in a range of medical specialties, including obstetrics, gynecology, and neonatology. We believe that understanding the most up-to-date medicine can help us obtain the best results for our clients in medical malpractice lawsuits.

 

 

 

 

How Can We Help You?

Contact Us