HomeLocation of the Injury
Location, Location, Location
According to the old saying, those are the three most important things about real estate. That’s also pretty close to being true for birth-related brain injuries.
Knowing where your baby’s brain is injured is a highly important piece of information, because if you know the location, you have a fairly good idea of what the physical consequences of the injury will be. However, the brain is a highly complex mechanism, and even though a specific site in the brain may control or affect specific body functions, the various parts of the brain are so interwoven and rely so much on each other to function properly, that knowing the place of injury can only give you that “fairly good idea” of physical damages, rather than absolute certainty.
To better understand your child’s likely injuries, you need to come to at least a basic understanding of the anatomy of the brain and how it works. The medical terms describing the brain and its components can be confusing, as noted above, especially if they’re given to you with little or no explanation. Hopefully the explanation below will make sense, and if it doesn’t, then (also as noted above) ask...whether it’s us or one of your doctors or other health care providers.