Nemanja Besevic
Mr. Youell
4/10/14
Science 9B
Trisomy 13 Patau
Syndrome
On September 12 2013 Kara McHenry found out that she is pregnant with a
baby that had a rare genetic disorder that adds an extra chromosome to the 13th
pair. The disorder is called Trisomy 13 or Patau Syndrome and happens to 1 in
every 16000 babies but the chance of it happening increases as the woman gets
older and cannot be inherited. According to Genetics Home Reference
only five to ten percent of babies with Patau Syndrome get to live past their
first year. According to news website Life
Site, the chance of
the baby being born alive, was less than 1%.Even if the baby comes to the world,
intellectual disability and physical abnormalities are inevitable. But Kara didn't care and wanted to give birth to him, although she knew that those babies
usually die within first days or weeks of life. Baby Corbin beat the odds when
he was born seven weeks early. Sadly he was born with underdeveloped eyesight,
a heart defect and brain abnormalities due to his genetic condition. Kara made
a Facebook group called Prayers for Corbin, on which every day she would post a
picture of Corbin holding a homemade sign with Corbin’s age and an
inspirational message on it, such as: “God has been working miracles for 19
days! God is good” or “A person a person no matter how small. Blessing this
earth for 34 days!” After 135 days and
half a million Facebook fans baby Corbin passed away.
The
significance of this story is far more than baby Corbin having 500,000 Facebook
fans, it is significant because it shows how much people care even if the child
had a 1% chance to be born and a very short life expectation. It shows the
fight for survival with baby’s that have certain genetic mutations and how even
with there being no way to help, people will still be interested.
This is a very inspirational story. I like how you first mentioned the story, then the facts and finished off with the story again; it creates a nice flow. Also, it's good that you didn't go too much in depth about the disorder. Maybe you could have added more symptoms and physical attributes of a person with trisomy 13
ReplyDeleteYou have the same chromosomal disorder as me, and the story is very inspirational. You have the story and the description of the disorder afterwards. You could have referred your picture in the text. You could add your opinion and how it relates to society. It is very nice how baby got so many likes on facebook.
ReplyDeleteI think you found a very good story. I find it very helpful to understand how rare and serious the disorder is. The blog is very short and to the point, but I think you could have added a bit more background information on the disorder. Good job overall.
ReplyDelete