Birth Defect

This has been bugging me for a while.  Is there a birth defect that causes a baby to be born with like two sets of legs like >--< where their upper torso is instead just another bottom torso and would the hospitals even let the parents take this kid out because as I imagine the kid is going to probably not survive or possibly even be a stillborn because they have no way of consuming things like air and food and liquids or is this not a possible situation?  I saw this when I was a kid where two parents had a kid in a swing at a park like that except it looked like it wasn't a newborn and had grown quite a bit, which again, I don't know how it would even be alive and it had a diaper on each pair of legs.  The swing it was in was like a harness which is how it didn't fall off and it didn't move.  When we went to leave the park the parents stopped moving and made the kid stop swinging from them pushing it and glared at me in the most disturbing and surreal yet blank and emotionless way that felt like it was piercing my soul which scared me too much to ask my great grandpa, who I was with to even look over at them to see it.  I haven't seen anyone ever again have such a look on their face.  He ended up not even looking in that direction at all that I can remember and when we got out of hearing distance he said he never saw them.

[paranoid_cataclysm]

The parents themselves also didn't look right at all like something was seriously wrong with them just in appearance but I never could put my finger on what it was.

[ILADVOCATE]

Yes there is. And along with that are some brain malfunctions (in some cases part of the brain is actually missing) so their entire thought process could not work at times and there are often marked developmental disabilities though. The level of severity of birth defects and how they express themselves varies. Most often the factors are genetic but if it happens through conditions that occur during pregnancy the best way a woman who is pregnant can prevent them (besides following up with their OB-GYN) is to take folic acid. This is of course seperate from what causes schizophrenia which is genetic but one theory does state it can potentially occur from a woman having some form of infection during pregnancy and I know my mother told me that some time before I was born she had a strep throat and had to take antiobiotics but then again since she has cyclothymia (mild bipolar) and my natural father what they then termed (the criteria no longer exists, probably now would be schizoaffective) "borderline schizophrenia" it was clearly genetic. It is know that people with schizophrenia were found to be genetically lacking in glutamate transmission, thus its clear proof as to why the glutamate antagonists (NMDA receptor modulates) work well. There are many risk factors they are researching. Birth defects can often be prevented. Schizophrenia (who knows if that will change in the future) cannot be.

[paranoid_cataclysm]

What is it the birth defect called?

[ILADVOCATE]

Anencephaly and acephaly are both severe birth defects, the second where the fetus is born with only the rudiments of brain. There are a wide variety of birth defects and I can't say what you saw as regards that person's disability but I can say that its general knowledge that a woman should take folic acid to prevent them. Anyway, that's a bit off topic for this forum. I would say schizophrenia is from general medical thinking known to be inherited but there can be other factors as well.

[paranoid_cataclysm]

Well I knew what anencephaly was and I looked up pictures of acephaly which I didn't but there was only about two on Google Images and it was kinda like what I saw except for the... I want to say upper body but I can't because it only had two lower bodies.  Maybe Google Images just can't find the... version of it for lack of a better word that I saw.

[paranoid_cataclysm]

I posted it here because I wasn't sure if it was just even real or not with how I see things even more messed up than that and couldn't find anything about it on Google when I tried to do research on it.

[paranoid_cataclysm]

Also how do those people even eat and drink and breathe if they have no mouth?

[ILADVOCATE]

Some birth defects are so severe that all babies are stillborn. I do know that there is a variety of ways that inherited disabilities express themselves. For example, I have a cousin with Rett's Syndrome. People with that disability are born normal but they then develop a severe developmental disability that affects their whole body and of course thinking and communication. I do know that with schizophrenia some of it may express itself over time as I and many people did not have the first symptoms of psychosis until puberty and did not experience a full blown episode until I was 18 which is typical so that if they could find a way to delay some of the genes that might express themselves later in life that cause abnormalities that might help prevent its onset but that research will be years later.

[paranoid_cataclysm]

I think perhaps with what you say there maybe the RNAi therapy (gene therapy) they used to shut off most of that woman's macular degeneration I told you about earlier could perhaps be used in mental illness to shut it off mostly.  Who knows, maybe with schizophrenia the stuff is happening still because the gene is still on and if they turn it off it will mostly stop and then they can do maintenance therapy for the damage it caused or like you said hopefully slow it down or mostly stop it.

[paranoid_cataclysm]

slow it down or mostly stop it before it starts, I meant at the end of my message.

[bluetray1]

With all due respect; human beings are human beings and why are we "labeling"  humans as not looking right or being defective???
We are all unique and different and thank God for that; some of the most beautiful and smartest people are those labeled with abnormalities.
abnormalities to whom and according to whom and as far as I am concerned, it is not up to us to decide who is normal and who is not; not even God would do that...We are all God's children : )
My Take on Things.
rabin

[ILADVOCATE]

I am sorry. I usually use disability appropriate language and I would agree that a person born with a severe developmental disability should not be labelled in a manner that would make them feel denigreated.

[bluetray1]

Hi ILAD,
I guess I believe that we are all "equal human beings" always.
I know the world will always place labels and use words to describe people who don't seem to fit into the so-called normal category and this is where I become defensive for all human life no matter what.
I am sure I am also guilty of doing the same at times in my life when at a loss for the appropriate wording when wanting to describe whatever it may be.
I have always been this way and perhaps I am very sensitve about it.
There is beauty in each one of us; it just takes the right eyes to see it.
I am no saint I assure you, but I have a special place in my heart for all human beings who are oppressed due to the stigma of labeling and so forth.
I know it does need to be used in the psychiatric and medical world though.
Wonder how the doctors would like it if we labeled them with certain terms - hahahaha....
They wouldn't like it i bet.
Let's not worry about it; just sensitive here...

[paranoid_cataclysm]

I'm actually one of those people who don't judge other people naturally and like as a first instinct and rather wait until I know them to do that because I guess it's happened to me so much.  DBT group for example said people usually go describing things they come into contact with immediately in their thoughts but I never did that naturally like I would touch a table and not describe it at all in my thoughts.  I don't know if that has anything to do with that but it seems like it would.  I don't even notice people's skin color these days lol  Probably never would of if it wasn't for me being reared by two people who were racist at first and tried to make me that way as well but then thankfully changed.  I remember one day I thought 'what the hell is the point of this' and never really felt hate towards a group of people in particular even when acting the way they taught me to and then immediately dropped the actions.  As a kid when I came across people like the above it more uh... startled me than anything else I guess that someone could be messed up so severely and why that would have to happen to someone who had no say in the matter.  I just wasn't sure if it was real with the way the parents looked unnatural and scary and my grandpa never saw it and I didn't think they let parents take still born babies out of the hospital and also the kid looked more like they were about 4 or 5 years old in size rather than new born.

[ILADVOCATE]

Yes makes sense. As time has evolved physical treatment of people with severe developmental disabilities as well as how they are treated by their parents and society has markedly improved. My uncle for example is a member of the Rett's Syndrome Foundation. That's one example. My cousin cannot communicate and has severe cognitive disabilities but can understand basic things that people wouldn't know unless they asked. She uses a communication board. You could look up more about that disability. That's just one of many disabilities of this nature. Then again the treatment as well as the civil rights and welfare of people with schizophrenia and other psychiatric disabiliites has improved markedly for the same reason which is the increasing treatment, civil rights protection and community integration of people with disabilities in general.

[paranoid_cataclysm]

I watched NOVA Science Now's documentary on autism a little while ago and there was one kid on there who was kinda like your cousin in that he had autism so bad couldn't communicate verbally but could through a board by spelling out letters which surprised them a lot when they found out he could spell out words because they thought he hadn't learned to communicate at all.  I can't remember what they asked him when they found out but his answer took abstract thinking of the bigger picture to come up with.  I don't know if he had Rett's Syndrome or not, I don't think they said what he had on the autism spectrum.