Amber’s Story (Complete & Complex Syndactyly)

Owen was born March 18, 2016 in the frank breech position. We didn’t know until he was born that he had Syndactyly and a few other birth defects. It was kind of a shock to us and we didn’t know of anyone in our families with Syndactyly. The geneticist has ruled it to be spontaneous in his case. We go back in July to further discuss things since all chromosome testing has come back normal.

Owen has Syndactyly of the hands. On both hands in a mirrored image his middle, ring, and pinky fingers are webbed together. The pinky and ring fingers are fused at the tip making it a little more severe, plus both pinkies are missing the middle bone. The doctors are hoping it was just too small to see during the x-rays and it will grow; if not he will have shorter pinkies than the norm after he has surgery. He will have his first surgery when he’s 11 months old to separate his middle and ring fingers. His second surgery will be when he’s 14 months old to separate the ring and pinkies with a skin graft to cover any areas that may need extra skin.