The Doctors TV Show & Spina Bifida

THE DOCTORS TV SHOW & SPINA BIFIDA--HYDROCEPHALUS (?)

Today (April 11, 2014) The Doctors aired a segment on spina bifida and actually explained what a neural tube defect is!  They spoke with a young mother from Eastern Washington state about her experience, finding out her unborn daughter had spina bifida (the show didn't address hydrocephalus). 

Andrea (the young mother) spoke of receiving the diagnosis and the doctor giving her the option to terminate the pregnancy, after telling her all the horrible things that were going to be her daughter's future.  Hard to believe that in 2014 we still have doctors who don't see the potential of positives for us, but the negatives and that they see termination as a viable option.  When the reality is that we are often quite capapble, despite the challenges we face, of doing great things.

Andrea went on to talk about a rare 'cluster' of neural tube defect births in a three county area of Eastern Washington state that the CDC has no explanation for.  She spoke of drinking well water, living near an apple orchard where pesticides are used and living near the Handford Nuclear Reservation.  The latter has had several cases of workers on the clean up project coming down with unknown illnesses.  This tri-county area has had four times the statistical number of neural tube defect cases than anywhere else.  This state also has an unusually high number of cases of MS and breast cancer.  Connected?  Who knows!

What has been consistant is Hanford telling the public one thing and the facts later turning out to be something else.

I've spoken about research here.  I'm not against research, especially in these kinds of cases.  Finding out causes and prevention for this is important.  However, this is one aspect of the spina bifida and hydrocephalus issue.  It is about preventing congenital hydrocephalus, not 'fixing us' with some one-size-fits-all 'cure.  Finding a solution to this issue isn't the same as dealing with hydrocephalus that is acquired through brain bleeds in preemies, head injury, accident or concussive incident(s).

I'm still glad that The Doctors addressed this issue in some way, though.