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Learn more about disability online. Be inspired by the following stories and the worth of every life:
- www.anencephalie-info.org
- www.kansascity.com/static/media/Audio_Photo_Gallery/
- www.ninetynineballoons.com
- Learn more on disability on truthtv.org
- Read personal stories on truthtv.org
YouTube Videos
Bryce Daniel
Bryce Daniel's mother was advised to abort her son and was told he would not live long. Watch this moving video of their struggle and the story of a mum whose son was born with hydrocephalus
Eliot
Eliot was diagnosed with Trisomy 18 while in the womb. Eliot was born with an undeveloped lung, a heart with a hole in it and DNA that placed faulty information into each and every cell of his body.
Keira Tassin
Paris Tassin was advised to abort her baby girl but she choose life. See her audition on American Idol
Kennadee Albright
Don and Shawna Albright discuss the series of events that took them from being told to terminate a pregnancy to finding the one surgeon in the world who could fix their unborn daughter's heart defects. Called one of the most complex heart repairs ever, Frank Hanley MD, and his team at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital repaired a series of heart defects that other doctors said would impossible to fix. Kennadee Albright now has a fully repaired heart, and celebrated her 1st birthday on on 21 May 2011.
Foetal Surgery on babies with Spina Bifida
Spinal bifida babies who are operated on in the womb are far less likely to have complications than babies operated on after birth, according to a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine in early 2011.
"This is a huge game-changer for fetal surgery," said Dr Diana Farmer, lead author of the study. "This study shows it can be done pretty safely, and it will open the door for other patients and other diseases. It really does validate the original hypothesis, 30 years ago, that you could improve the outcomes for these children if you operated on them before birth."
The babies were operated on between 19 and 26 weeks into the pregnancies.
Read more on this story in the links below:
- A Randomized Trial of Prenatal versus Postnatal Repair of Myelomeningocele, New England Journal of Mediciine, 9 February 2011
- Study: Surgery in womb helps babies with spina bifida, Washington Post, 9 February 2011
- Study vindicates UCSF fetal spine surgery, San Francisco Chronicle, 9 Feb 2011
- Success of Spina Bifida Study opens Fetal Surgery Door, New York Times, 9 February 2011
