Susie’s Story (Complete Syndactyly)

I am the mother of five grown children. I birthed four girls and one boy. My son first made me a grandmother with his beautiful daughter, born perfectly healthy.

Next comes my oldest daughter, Ashley. She births a son who is born with the middle and ring fingers of both hands webbed. This was first case of anyone in the family that we know of with syndactyly. It threw us for a loop but he had surgery on both hands at a year old, a few months apart. She becomes pregnant a year later with her next son and has an ultrasound to see if this baby also has syndactyly and yes, he does, both hands. They prepare themselves this time with the fact of what to expect. While Ashley is pregnant with baby number two, my youngest daughter becomes pregnant with her first baby, a boy. Paige delivered a beautiful little boy and gave us our second grandson. We were in complete shock when we saw his middle and ring fingers on both hands completely webbed also. We had researched and thought this was the genetic makeup of Ashley and her husband but then this happened with my other daughter and has confused us. Like I said, we had never seen this before with any family members. My son, Todd Jr. does have two toes webbed and some studies show a connection but some say no connection.

Like I said, our grandson, Alex, has come through both of his hand surgeries and done well. He is supposed to have at least one more surgery on one hand to shave off part of a bone and also pull two pieces of bone together. I feel very fortunate that we have a wonderful surgeon that specializes in this the next town over. The other two boys will more than likely have their surgeries done when they are a year old, as that is this surgeon’s preference.

Pics are of Alex’s journey from fused fingers to separate fingers.

X-Rays & Post Cast Removal

Alex – Present Day