Deformity In A New-born

We all somewhat take life for granted - I guess that's healthy, though. We can't go around all day gloating at the greatness of our existence, otherwise what time will we have to actually live it out?

So we can all be forgiven for the certain measure we do not consciously count our natural blessings every single moment.

But how sad, how striking it was when we (I, assisting Dr. Nsisi) delivered, through a Caesarean section four days ago, a fully matured female baby with half of its left leg (from mid Tibia, down) missing - ending in a rounded stump. Like the "Thalidomide babies" of yesteryears! It wasn't the first limb deformity at birth that I would experience, but it certainly was the most striking. And, heart-rending, too.

We still ponder what may have gone wrong.

Comments

  1. Vicky BonettoJuly 13, 2010 at 8:27 AM

    Wow, that was definitely heartbreaking. I am a pre-med student and I'm doing an internship with a doctor from my town. He's a family doctor as well as OBGYN and pediatrician. Anyway, we see a lot of patients that are expecting babies, and almost every week we have deliveries. I have not yet experienced anything like this, but just the thought of it makes a knot in my stomach. It's pretty upsetting that babies have to be brought to this world in such conditions. In a way, I hope I can someday see something as interesting as this, it's the only way we can learn in medicine, by experience. Even though it's a huge challenge for the baby, it's always incredible how many new things we can learn out there. Thank you for sharing this.
    Vicky
    http://smoothmellow.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
  2. Surgeon GeneralJuly 13, 2010 at 12:47 PM

    Hi, Vicky. If you do decide to specialize in Obst & Gynae, you'll definitely see quite a bit of unfortunate happenings, but not often will you see those unfortunate deformities of the magnitude in the post. You are very welcome and thanks for the comment.

    ReplyDelete

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