Tuesday, April 10, 2007 Baby born like ‘frog’ dies By Nicolas C. Delfin
A NEWLY-born baby boy from Escalante City who was diagnosed having “anencephallus” died Saturday last week.
The first child of couple Alex and Leonisa Mabida of Barangay Mansablay, the boy was born Friday night in Sitio Cabalawan, Barangay Poblacion, Sagay City, with congenital defect.
The boy’s cerebral hemisphere was completely missing as well as his eyebrows.
His eyes were completely bulging very similar to that of a frog. That’s why he was likened to a frog.
Negros Occidental Provincial Health Officer IV Luisa Efren said the case is likened to that of an “anencephallus”.
Anencephallus, according to a medical research from an internet, is a disorder that results from a neural tube defect occurring when the cephalic end of the neural tube fails to close, usually between the 23rd and 26th day of pregnancy, resulting in the absence of a major portion of the brain, skull, and scalp.
Infants with this disorder are born without a forebrain, the largest part of the brain consisting mainly of the cerebral hemispheres (which include the isocortex, which is responsible for higher level cognition.)
The remaining brain tissue is often exposed – not covered by bone or skin.
Infants born with anencephaly are usually blind, deaf, unconscious, and unable to feel pain. Although some individuals with anencephaly may be born with a rudimentary brainstem, which controls autonomic and regulatory function.
In an interview over dyHB-RMN Radio in Bacolod, Leonisa narrated that she was once harvesting vegetables in their backyard when she accidentally slipped and fell on the ground.
She theorized that the accident might have caused the physical disorder of the baby.
According to Leonisa, she never heard the baby crying except that she saw tears from her eyes after a midwife showed him to her.
Her husband, however, said the baby’s physical appearance was a result of his wife’s love of eating frogs during her pregnancy.
