Nearly 50 Ohio-area children, afflicted with cerebral palsy, are participating in a new study to see if hyperbaric oxygen therapy can ease symptoms.

During the study, high concentrations of oxygen are delivered to patients in a pressurized chamber.

Although there is no proof, experts say that the high doses of oxygen could revive damaged or dormant cells in the brains of patients with cerebral palsy.

Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT) is approved to treat wounds that are difficult to heal, radiation injuries, carbon monoxide poisoning and the "bends,” a condition suffered by scuba divers who surface too quickly.

But its use for neurological disorders is controversial.

Proponents say the therapy may increase motor skills in children with cerebral palsy, a group of movement disorders caused by damage to a child’s brain in the womb, during birth or in the first few years of life.

But opponents of the study say HBOT is a waste of time and money, that there is no data that indicates HBOT has any measurable impact on children with cerebral palsy. Further, they say, this study gives parents false hope of a miracle cure.

Still, proponents insist previous research wasn’t very thorough and more research is needed.

A Washington state hospital will have to pay the family of a disabled Seattle-area girl with cerebral palsy nearly $4.25 million after a jury determined the hospital’s negligence led to the child’s condition.

In a statement, attorneys representing the family say the hospital "ignored signs of severe fetal distress and failed to timely notify a doctor." The attorneys say that resulted in the child suffering from asphyxiation for over 20 minutes before an emergency C-section was performed.

The girl, who is now five-years-old, has cerebral palsy, is brain damaged and severely disabled.

the cerebral palsy attorney for the family suggests in the statement that the child’s condition could have been prevented if nurses had notified a doctor in time to do a crash C-section.

The hospital claims that the child’s injuries had already occurred before her mother arrived at the hospital.

Doctors have been able to test unborn babies for Down syndrome and other birth defects for a while now, but these invasive procedures (such as amniocentesis and chorionic villus sampling, or CVS) posed a risk to the unborn baby. However, a newly developed blood DNA test has been developed that poses no risk to the fetus.

The test requires only a small blood sample from the mother, whereas the old tests require sticking a needle in the uterus or snipping off a small piece of the placenta for analysis. The old tests are done after the 15th week of pregnancy (with results in two to three weeks). The new blood test can be done very early in a pregnancy at five weeks after conception (with results in a few days).

While all of the tests look for Down syndrome, other serious chromosomal conditions can be detected by the new test. It can detect the presence of Edward syndrome, a syndrome that occurs in approximately one in 6,000 live births and has a very low rate of survival. Patau syndrome can also be detected with the new test. The condition causes physical and mental abnormalties, especially around the heart. It affects about 1 in 12,000 live births.

While there are other noninvasive prenatal tests available, such as the ultrasound, they cannot diagnose with certainty. A much larger study of the new test is needed to confirm results, and the test could become widely available in the next two to three years. The current cost is around $700, but that cost will drop considerably if the test becomes widely used.