I’ve been struggling with writing this. After doing a little research into it I found some pictures that just… when I get concerned about something I tend to obsessively check facebook and twitter, like I’m looking for someone to connect to and I’m too freaked to reach out.
I came across a beautifully written post that talked about a birth defect that I’ve read about before, in which babies are born lacking a significant portion of the brain. It’s called Holoprosencephaly or Anencephaly, depending some factors I can’t research into at the moment. The first one can come in a range of severeties, from mild midline defects (such as only having one middle tooth, or eyes that are too close together) to severe midline defects (such as only having one eye, or a tube-shaped nose called a proboscis) to death. Some studies suggest that it may be quite common, but because it often ends with spontaneous abortion you wouldn’t really know (it seems they say that about a number of defects… Trisomy comes to mind.) About 1 in 10,000 live births will have a form of holopresencephaly.
There’s nothing more I want to say about this, really. It takes a lot to move this salty sea dog to tears, but this incredibly beautiful and sad true story told by a medical student did. It is called “Bittersweet”, but be warned, it’s emotional. You can read more about holopresencephaly from the same writer. Now I’m going to check facebook and twitter again.