A trial is getting underway in a $40 million birth injury lawsuit brought by the parents of a now 7-year-old Oregon boy diagnosed with cerebral palsy allegedly caused by oxygen deprivation during his delivery.

Cerebral palsy is a neurological disorder caused by a brain injury or a brain malfunction while the brain is developing and can occur before, during, or after birth, according to cerebralpalsy.org. Such a birth injury as oxygen deprivation during labor and delivery is responsible for 5 percent to 10 percent of cerebral palsy cases.

The disease affects muscle control, muscle coordination, muscle tone, reflex, posture and balance as well as a child’s fine motor skills, gross motor skills, and oral motor functioning. There is no cure for cerebral palsy.

Derrick and Elizabeth R. accuse the Silverton (Oregon) Hospital staff who delivered their son of negligence. The couple is seeking $40 million for their child’s injuries.

Two weeks past her due date, and following a healthy and normal pregnancy, Elizabeth went to Silverton Hospital to induce labor on Dec. 11, 2007, according to the birth injury lawsuit. Over the course of 11 hours she was administered drugs to start the labor process.

By the time she was instructed to start pushing the baby was in distress because his head was not positioned at the cervix and his heart rate dropped dangerously low, to 60 beats per minute, for some six minutes, according to the birth injury lawsuit.

The doctor ultimately decided to perform an emergency C-section, but the baby had inhaled his own fecal matter, known as meconium, by the time he was delivered at 8:31 a.m. on Dec. 12, 2007. Medical personnel used a face mask and oxygen bag to clear the newborn’s airway of meconium, feces that he swallowed, a common occurrence for babies in distress.

A second doctor removed the baby’s edotrachial tube for 45 minutes, according to the birth injury lawsuit, something the parents were later told by Oregon Health & Science University caused their firstborn to suffer brain damage.

Two hours after his birth, the child was transferred to the neonatal intensive care unit at Oregon Health & Science University, where doctors informed the child’s father that his son’s frontal lobe, controlling “decision-making, socialization and emotions, as well as other parts of the brain that control motor function, vision and hearing,” had been damaged.

At age 2, doctors diagnosed the child with cerebral palsy.

The boy’s right leg and arm muscles aren’t developed, he has speech problems and behavior issues and is expected to require leg braces, electro-therapy walkers and surgeries for the remainder of his life, according to the birth injury lawsuit.

Allegations of the birth injury lawsuit are that the doctors “failed to determine, in a timely manner, that (the mother) needed a C-Section and then delayed the incision for an unreasonable time period,” and that “doctors at the hospital took too long to bring the baby back to life and there wasn’t enough staff to provide the care (the baby) needed.”