Leonardo Velazquez Miller is an active, healthy 6-year-old who loves to swim and play soccer in his hometown of Playa Del Carmen, Mexico. Looking at him now you wouldn’t suspect he was born with Dextro-Transposition of the Great Arteries or d-TGA, a congenital heart defect (CHD) where the 2 main arteries carrying blood out of […]
Finley and her mother Christine find belonging in Rare Disease Day
Halfway through her pregnancy, Christine Cunningham received a difficult diagnosis. Her 20-week ultrasound revealed a cephalocele in her infant daughter’s skull, a rare defect where the neural tube does not close properly during gestation, leaving part of the brain exposed. Follow-up scans showed another rare disorder — agenesis of corpus callosum — an abnormality where […]
5 ways to reduce the risk birth defects
January is National Birth Defects Awareness Month. If pregnant or thinking about becoming pregnant, learn how to reduce the risks. Facts Birth defects are conditions present at birth that may adversely affect an individual’s health by changing the body’s shape or functioning. They can affect general health, how the body develops or how the body […]
Surgery closes the gap on cleft lips and palates – (VIDEO)
Beyond the impact on a child’s physical appearance, correcting a cleft lip and palate can aid in the ability to speak, chew and swallow. In this Children’s Channel video, Ananth Murthy, MD, director of plastic and reconstructive surgery at Akron Children’s, discusses the treatment of this birth defect.