Posted on 01/06/2005 3:16:36 PM PST by neverdem
FINDINGS
Nearly half of all infants born extremely premature have significant learning and physical disabilities by the time they reach school age, the largest such study has found.
Medical advances have allowed doctors to save earlier and smaller babies.
Normal pregnancy is 37 to 42 weeks. Neil Marlow, a neonatologist at the University of Nottingham in Britain, and colleagues looked at 241 children about 6 years old who had been born between 22 and 25 weeks. They found that 46 percent had severe or moderate disabilities such as cerebral palsy, vision or hearing loss and learning problems; 34 percent were mildly disabled; and 20 percent had no disabilities. They report the findings in today's New England Journal of Medicine.
Energy Burst May Have Been Spawned by Giant Black Hole
--snip--
In Study, Antibiotics Effective Against Lou Gehrig's Disease
Antibiotics could one day help patients suffering from neurological diseases, scientists said yesterday.
If a family of antibiotics produces the same effect in humans as it did in mice, researchers from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore believe the drugs could help to prevent nerve damage and death in illnesses such as dementia, stroke and epilepsy.
In studies of mice genetically engineered to develop amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig's disease, researchers discovered that daily injections of the drug ceftriaxone improved survival and reduced symptoms of the disease that attacks nerve cells and causes paralysis and death.
They found that the drug turned on a gene that increased the number of transporters that remove the brain chemical glutamate from nerves. Glutamate usually helps electrical signals travel from one nerve to another, but too much of the chemical can kill nerves.
A team led by Jeffrey Rothstein, a professor of neurology and neuroscience, reported the findings in the journal Nature.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
I think we're just arguing semantics here, but roughly half have severe problems - that's significant. Can't say I'm surprised; getting into the world far too early certainly doesn't aid development.
But roughly half don't have those problems. Why isn't that noted. I think the reaction is due to the fact that the negative is emphasized with a possible push for abortions.
It's like arguing whether the glass is half full or half empty.
Right.
He was a four year varsity wrestler in high school, and doesn't need glasses, unlike his mom and pop.
Today he's enrolled at Texas A&M with well over a B average, and I think he could kick my butt physically if he were so inclined. If he was harmed by being a preemie, I don't see it.
And CP occurs at birth. It doesn't get worse. The damage done.
Maybe, though my first thought was only half? Twenty years ago the numbers were a lot different.
<LeftSpeak>The compassionate thing would have been to smother them at birth.</LeftSpeak>
Until someone uses the phrase that "babies born very prematurely should be aborted rather than born because nearly half have severe disabilities." Studies such as this one that are promoted with a glass-is-half-empty slant are often used to advance an agenda. Why start with the negative rather than the positive?
Wow, but I bet you would be just as proud a papa, if your son used a cane or wheelchair,and was blind and still enrolled at A&M with an A average:'). It's a blessing when we have children without impairments but there is a place in this world for the little ones that fight to survive too.
Sorry, I meant to ping you to my post 30 also:
Until someone uses the phrase that "babies born very prematurely should be aborted rather than born because nearly half have severe disabilities." Studies such as this one that are promoted with a glass-is-half-empty slant are often used to advance an agenda. Why start with the negative rather than the positive?
I see an agenda being advanced. Maybe I'm wrong, but I'm not just a lunatic. ;-)
I can remember when I was in my late teen years telling my folks that I felt absolutely guilt-ridden for being a burden on them growing up as a child, and my Mother nearly flattened me on my keister, pointed her finger at me, and told me she never felt a shred of guilt and she said "your father didn't either".
My 8 year old daughter has severe brain damage from an illness at 6 weeks old. On a scale of 0-10, she's a 5 on the amount of brain damage.
She can walk, run, and swim. She one of the top math students in her class. Her doctors can't believe that she isn't in a wheelchair.
She does have problems. She has severe speech and language problems and it does affect her reading and writing. She'll never talk normal, but she understands everything.
Looking at her, you'd never know that there is anything wrong with her.
With the correct therapies, many kids with disabilities can do so much. They can become very productive members of society.
I'm glad your doing well!
Yesterday there was a thread supposedly about a single woman that lost her job and couldn't get assistance to pay her 1000 dollar plus rent. At first glance it seemed just a "you owe me" attitude but I'm not so sure that the true intent wasn't to warn expecting mother's how terrible it might be if you decide to have your baby. No one will help you. I don't know. Maybe, I was way off.
I thought it was worth pointing out how the study is intentionally skewed to show negative results, nothing more. My baby Sis' story is like that of your sons.
I think you're correct. Here's the actual title and a link to the abstract.
Neurologic and Developmental Disability at Six Years of Age after Extremely Preterm Birth
I would say it is about neo-natal costs not abortion. When do they become eligible for SS?
We dodged a bullet. I'm fully aware what the risks were. My stinkin' father-in-law, a physician, encouraged us NOT to give my son a name at first, because he assumed he would die.
I ought to remind him of that someday.
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