Blog Rewind 2/2012 Marek's Special Need

Marek's adoption is a Special Needs Adoption from China. So, I thought take the time to tell you a little about what he's got going on.  Marek has deformities of both of his hands and one of his feet. From what the doctors who have looked at his file for us have said from the information we have is that it appears that he is affected by something called ABS or Amniotic Band Syndrome. Here a definition of ABS from amnioticbandsyndrome.com:

What is Amniotic Band Syndrome? ABS occurs when the fetus becomes entangled in fibrous string-like amniotic bands in the womb, restricting blood flow and affecting the baby’s development. If a band wraps tightly around a limb, the limb can actually be completely amputated. If the band is across the baby’s face it can cause cleft palate. In a large number of cases the baby is also born with clubfeet. ABS is also the cause of numerous miscarriages, such as when a band becomes wrapped around the umbilical cord. ABS occurs randomly. It’s not genetic, nor is it caused by anything a pregnant Mom did or didn’t do during pregnancy. Just because a person already has one child with ABS, that doesn’t make it any more likely that it’s going to affect a future pregnancy.

We have learned that he recently had reconstructive surgery on his fused hand. I am amazed by what they had done. His hand looks so well, USEFUL! His "need" in quickly turning into a non issue. We understand that he was have to learn to do certain things differently but certainly with these improvements nothing is going to get in his way! We have the name of a great hand surgeon that we got from a awesome source whose father was a world known hand surgeon before he retired. His foot is really a very minor deformity so we will leave with before and after pictures of his hands.