Edwards Syndrome Background

The history and background of Edwards Syndrome comes from a man named John Hilton Edwards. He first wrote down his findings after a letter he wrote talking about heredity disorders. Pediatrics was his specialty and he was spending time at the Children’s Hospital in Birmingham when he saw a potential chromosomal disorder in a newborn. Edwards called it trisomy which means type unknown. Then he had some of the tissue tested and founded an extra chromosome. He then re-named named it trisomy eighteen, or Edwards syndrome. Edwards syndrome is where there are two pairs of eighteen chromosomes and it has an extra chromosome. Normally chromosome 18 only has two pairs. There are two types of Edwards syndrome, full form and mosaic trisomy eighteen. In full form about ninety five …show more content…
Babies with Edwards' syndrome will also have grown slowly in the womb and will have a low birth weight. Trisomy eighteen occurs in approximately one in every three thousand newborns. These babies do not survive very long and the majorities don't make it past six months of age. Those that survive birth, around half will die within two weeks and only around one in every five will live at least three months. Around one in every twelve babies born with Edwards' syndrome survive beyond one year, and they will live with severe physical and mental disabilities. Some children do survive to early adulthood, but this is very rare. Sadly, nothing can be done to change this. Edwards Syndrome is listed as a rare disease by the Office of Rare Diseases. This means that the disease affects less than two hundred thousand people in the United States population. Edwards syndrome is second after the Down syndrome based on the amount of times it