LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Orthopaedic Institute for Children announced today the expansion of the UCLA/OIC Center for Cerebral Palsy to the institutes downtown Los Angeles campus. The current center is housed at UCLA in West Los Angeles. Concurrent with this expansion OIC also announced the appointment of Rachel Thompson, M.D., as the centers new associate director. Cerebral palsy is the most common childhood disability in the United States, affecting more than 760,000 children and adults nationally. The UCLA/OIC Center for Cerebral Palsy is the only interdisciplinary clinic in Southern California that evaluates and treats people with cerebral palsy throughout the lifespan. The center includes a comprehensive outpatient clinic and the Kameron Gait and Motion Analysis Laboratory (providing an in-depth understanding of a patients movement patterns). Under the leadership of Co-Founder and Director William Oppenheim, M.D., the center is also heavily involved in research in the field of cerebral palsy and in educating both consumers and professionals as to the most up-to-date assessment and treatment approaches for people with cerebral palsy. Dr. Thompson comes to OIC from A.I. DuPont Hospital for Children at the University of Delaware where she completed a fellowship in neuromuscular orthopaedics. She completed her first fellowship in pediatric … Continue reading →

Share Whats Happening Now Become a Contributor FAIRFIELD The parent of a student at Alamo Elementary School in Vacaville sued the Solano County Office of Education after she said she learned police were investigating whether her daughter, who is autistic and has cerebral palsy, was allowed to lay unsupervised in rain puddles for more than two hours. The mother received a call from the school that her daughter, now 13 years old, had gotten her clothes wet Dec. 3, 2015, and that sheneeded to bring a change of clothes, according to the suit filed May 15 in Solano County Superior Court. She discovered her daughters clothes were soaking wet in a backpack, the suit states. The mother asked what happened and was told her daughter didnt want to stop bouncing a ball, pushed a teacher out of the way and ran out the classroom door where once outside she rolled around in the puddle, according to the suit. The events as described surprised the mother because they were inconsistent with what she knows about her daughter, the suit states. Her daughter lacks the muscle strength necessary to push an adult out of the way and the girl is not aggressive, … Continue reading →

My husband and I were at a Baby Show recently and walked past a stem cell storage bank display on our way to the popular pram and cot displays. At the time, we didn't really stop to think about it, however we did make a mental note to have a look into stem cells later on as we weren't too sure what storing stem cells actually entailed or the process involved. I already understood the amazing properties found in the placenta and umbilical cord with many mums choosing to freeze dry and consume it for its therapeutic properties. After some research, I discovered that I could go one colossal step further and use the blood in my baby's umbilical cord to treat my child in future should they become unexpectedly ill. Image courtesy of Smart Cells So why doesn't everyone do it? Well there are many myths surrounding collection, how the cord blood and tissue is stored and the financial outlay. However, my belief is that the positive benefits of these stem cells if ever required in future, are priceless. In order to shed some light on stem cell storage, here are the five main reasons why we are doing … Continue reading →

The upcoming release of the It remake this September spells doom for the rapidly declining reputation of clowns. History has never been totally kind to these powder-faced jokers, but their public image took a hit in 2016 after Jared Leto appeared in Suicide Squad, which may or may not have led to a rash of clown-faced trolls getting arrested across the United States. Will clowns be pegged as weird bad guys forever? Not if a team of Israeli childrens doctors have their say. It turns out that clowns have an unexpectedly analgesic effect on physical pain, at least in kids receiving treatment for cerebral palsy, as their recent study in PLoS One showed. In the paper, published in April, the researchers showed that clown-care can help numb the pain caused by injections, which are used frequently in cerebral palsy treatment. Most children receiving clown-care reported lower pain levels similar to other clown studies, which is the goal of behavioral and cognitive interventions, the researchers wrote, noting that kids that didnt get clown care experienced a high level of pain that was unexpectedly high. The 45 kids with cerebral palsy made an ideal study group because their treatment exposes them to … Continue reading →