Developmental Delay
signout | May 2, 2007It seems that my clinical activities this month have been assigned a theme: "cognitively disabled people who reproduce." Themes like this do not exactly renew one's faith in freedom of choice; after providing care to three developmentally delayed mother-child pairs over the last month, I feel that there are some people who maybe shouldn't have complete control over their uteruses. Uteri. Whatever--no more babies for these people.
On Friday, I did a newborn exam on a baby born to a 28-year old woman who's been pregnant nine times. This was the fourth child she's given birth to, and the fourth…
signout | March 24, 2007The first phone call came about a month ago, on a day I wasn't in clinic. The phone nurse had left me a message: Rosie's mother wants to know why she keeps turning in circles."
I had never met the 10-year-old Rosie, but looking through her old records, I found that she has a non-specific kind of global developmental delay--something we used to call MRCP, for "mentally retarded/cerebral palsy." I also found that this wasn't the first time her mother had called with concerns about Rosie's circles--over the last five years, there had been at least as many calls with the same question, and Rosie…
signout | December 4, 2006During my first week of medical school, we watched a video that documented the life and death of a child diagnosed in utero with neurologically devastating spina bifida. The girl's parents had been aware of her prognosis long before her birth, but chose not to terminate the pregnancy; they cared for her until her death at 8 years of age. Speaking several years afterward, they regretted nothing. They saw her, and the opportunity to take care of her, as a gift from God.
I distinctly remember sitting in the lecture hall and thinking to myself, you people are out of your fucking minds. I grew up…