Trisomy 18: A Case Study

Imagine living with a disorder and knowing that because of it you will not live to thirty years of age. This is the case for people with Trisomy18 most of the people with this genetic disorder will live to twenty if they are lucky. Trisomy18 is when a baby is still inside the mother's stomach and when developing the baby's cells do not divide correctly which causes cardiac, or heart, lung, and whole body problems to appear. Trisomy18 is caused when chromosome 18 has three chromosomes instead of the two it is suppose too have. The symptoms of this disorder may include clenched hands, crossed legs, rocker bottom feet; or rounded feet, a low birth weight, low set ears. They might also have a small head and jaw, mental delay, or a hard time processing subjects and situations, and poor fingernails. Many of these mutations occur right after birth and last throughout the child's life. …show more content…
Normally during the first eleven to fourteen weeks of the mother's pregnancy the doctor will conduct blood tests and ultra-sounds to check the baby's growth rate and other hints that might show that the baby has Trisomy18. The doctor will look at the baby's set of 46 chromosomes, and on the 18th chromosome there should be only two individual chromosomes, but if the baby has Trisomy18 then there will be three individual chromosomes. During and ultra-sound the doctor might see a cyst, or small packet of water inside the baby's brain, this is a sign that the baby has some sort of disorder and will need medical attention. Some ways Trisomy18 is treated is through home care, where a nurse or medical caretaker will come and take care of the person at their house, or the baby with Trisomy18 will spend time being taken care of at a NICU, or Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. Some ways Trisomy18 is not inherited is if the mother is at an abnormal age to have a baby, or during meiosis if an egg or sperm has