A Frequently Asked Question

I was asked a week or two ago about perhaps writing something on my disabled brother, and that brought in an influx of thoughts ever since as well as questions.  When I talk about him to other people, there is always some curiosity about the subject, and I am asked a great variety of questions about him.  I often get questions about his condition, what his disability is, and what he’s able to do on his own.  To make it easier to explain, I tell them that he’s basically like a large baby.  There is one question I get asked often, which I have always wanted to be able to answer better, and the question was, “Was he born with his disability, or did he develop it after birth?”  My mom told me in the past that she doesn’t remember a lot about giving birth (nor does she want to) to any of us, but my dad gave out some pieces of information one time concerning his birth, but didn’t talk about it much either.  I was unable to answer that question boldly, but always assumed it had something to do with his development in the womb.  After researching the small piece of information that I got from my dad, I found a condition that fit my brother perfectly, so I have adopted that as a theory of what happened to him.  It had nothing to do with his development in the womb as it had to do with having difficulty during the delivery at birth.  The results from my little researching effort are within the next following paragraphs.

I don’t know if there was a lack of medical knowledge at the time, if my parents, who were usually great at being informed, didn’t have access to the information, or if they knew about it and didn’t tell me about it, but I was never knew the cause of my brother’s disability.  As I mentioned before, my dad did provide one vital clue that led me to my conclusion: When my brother was born, there were feces in his placenta.  Feces in the placenta is often a sign of distress on the baby during delivery, and it can result in the decrease of the blood and oxygen supply (the medical name is Meconium Aspiration Syndrome).

My brother also has an undersized brain, the medical term is microcephaly.  When looking up the term on the internet, you get pictures of people with this condition who have misshaped heads, but my brother looks normal.  It turns out that microcephaly has two types and if my theory is correct, he would have the less common type, which is called secondary microcephaly—a result in traumatic brain injury or lack of oxygen.  It is often a normal head circumference at birth, but falls below the range as the individual grows.

It is known that microcephaly can be linked to another one of my brother’s conditions: cerebral palsy.  Cerebral palsy is often a result of brain damage, and one of the ways that could happen is through asphyxia (or lack of oxygen to the brain) at birth. Symptoms began immediately following birth as he was not able to suck well enough to breast feed or take a bottle, and that he could only intake through cups.  As he grew, my parents, particularly my mom noticed that his motor skills weren’t developing as quickly as the other children his age.

The most alarming part of the development of my brother’s disabilities for my parents was the first time he had a seizure.  He was still a young baby.  I’m not sure if he was 6 months, but definitely not older when he experienced his first grand mal seizure.  To see a baby at such a young age experience it was frightening to them, and they ended up taking him to the hospital to get it to stop.  A good number of CP individuals also have epilepsy, and yet another reason for developing this can be from Oxygen loss at birth. He continues to have seizures to this day, and even though medicine tones them down significantly, it doesn’t stop them.

That's my current theory, and with or without all of this we have my brother, a calm and patient little man who has gone through a lot, as it appears here, since birth.  Unable to communicate verbally and unable to function more than an infant, he is not able to do much for himself.  How and what he understands is a little bit of a mystery to us since he is unable to communicate a lot, but every once in a while he will respond with a laugh or a smile that is infectious.  There have been some difficult times he's gone through, but again witnessing his patience and ultimate trust in those caring for him has been an inspiration.   He spent many years with teachers trying to help him develop, but in all honesty, he has taught and helped us develop more than we ever could do for him.  He never ceases to teach and be an example as well as bring unity to our family.