Lauren's Story
Lauren was born on Sept 10, 1998. She weighed 8 lbs 5 oz. Contrary to
most brachial plexus babies, I had a very easy delivery. There was a
time during delivery when her head was out and the umbilical cord was
also out and I stopped pushing. The doctor pulled some on her head to
prevent the cord from being pinched. She also had a "bruise" on her
left shoulder for a few days after birth so she may have gotten caught
on my pelvic bone. However it happened, she developed a brachial plexus
injury during birth. She was moving her hand and fingers but was not
flailing her left arm like she was her right.. At first they thought
she had a broken clavicle which was okay with me since I worked for an
Orthopedic Surgeon and we had babies with those in the office all the
time and they always got better quite quickly. When the x-rays came
back negative, the rest of my family was happy but I was even more
worried. They did the CT scan to rule out any brain pathology, which
was quite scary. Everything came back normal. We were given exercises
to do and told to pin her sleeve up to prevent any further injury. She
was able to move her hand and had a good grip but didn't move her arm at
all. She saw a Pediatric Neurologist at about 3 weeks old. He pretty
much said just wait and see how she does. When she went back to see him
in 1 month, he wanted her to have an EMG. By 2 months old she could
lift her arm up off the table. I was impressed with her improvement and
thought she was progressing steadily, judging by the research I had done
via the web. I didn't have her have the EMG since she was improving and
having the test was not going to fix anything. She had already had
enough recovery to put us out of the "surgery zone". At around 2-3
months old she pretty much held her "special arm" out really straight
and resisted any other movement. At about 4 months, she could raise her
arm up some and bat at toys on her gym. At about 4 month, she started
PT and OT through a program in Michigan called Early On. They provide
free, in-home therapy through the Individuals with Disabilities Act
through the Department of Education. The therapists in our area had a
tough fight to get therapy through the Department of Education approved
for another child in our city with Brachial Plexus Palsy. Apparently,
they defend that problems in infancy could cause delays in learning down
the road. So since starting therapy she has come a long way. She is
almost 9 months now and uses her "special arm" quite freely. She can
abduct to about 120 degrees. We still have therapy once a week. We are
hoping for a full recovery. Lauren's case in comparison to many is
pretty mild, but in any severity a child's disability is heartbreaking.
When she was first born I was just thankful that her mind was "right"
and tried to say it could be a lot worse, but then I though of all the
things a person could not do with only 1 arm and that really put things
in perspective for me. A lot of family members and friends never
provided much support. Their first comment was, "Are you going to
sue?" In my mind, the only person at fault was me and how could a
person sue themselves? Anyways, we are all happy and healthy now. She's
the same as any other baby; she just needs a little more attention to
one area.
Contact Cindy (Lauren's Mom)here.
Back to Tanya's Brachial Plexus Page
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