Our son Chapin was born on June 16, 1992 in Washington DC. He was our first child and I had a normal pregnancy (with the exception of some light vaginal bleeding at 8 weeks, but my OB-GYN was not concerned). When he was born four days after his due date, the nurses performing the APGAR were the first to notice his small hands and short fingers on both hands.
Our doctor told us this was a result of Amniotic Band Syndrome. He had webbing between both ring fingers and pinkies, which was removed when he was a one-year-old in an outpatient procedure at Union Memorial Hospital in Baltimore. Chapin has had no other surgeries since then because he was fortunate to have normal thumbs that helped his grasping of objects.
I became aware of this website just the other day, when an article in Lacrosse Magazine was posted online about Chapin. I thought other moms and dads of children with ABS and those affected with ABS might find the article about Chapin helpful, because I know that when he was born, I looked for everywhere for books and magazine articles about children who grew up with ABS to get a sense of what to expect. They were few and far between. This website is a wonderful resource…I wish it was around in 1992!
Here is the link to the article on Chapin
I bumped into this website also. My Daughter was born in 1997 missing her forearm from the elbow down. I have peace knowing I am not the only one. Back in 1997 I didn’t even know what happened. Why my Daughter was born missing her arm. But now I know through this website what ABS is.
What a wonderful story about your son!