KEY POINTS:
A seriously disabled girl was given high doses of oestrogen to halt her growth so her parents could continue home care.
In a report published in a medical journal this month, two doctors describe how the 6-year-old girl with profound, irreversible developmental disability was given the controversial growth-attenuation treatment, which included hysterectomy.
In their report in the Archives of Paediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, Drs Daniel F. Gunther and Douglas S. Diekema, both at the University of Washington in Seattle, explained the reasoning behind what they hoped would generate a healthy debate.
Caring for children with profound developmental disabilities can be difficult and demanding, they note. For children with severe combined neurological and cognitive impairment who are unable to move without assistance, all the necessities of life - dressing, bathing, transporting - must be provided by caregivers, usually parents, and these tasks become increasing difficult, if not impossible, as the child increases in size.
"Achieving permanent growth attenuation while the child is still young and of manageable size would remove one of the major obstacles to family care and might extend the time that parents with the ability, resources, and inclination to care for their child at home might be able to do so," Drs Gunther and Diekema wrote.
Despite having the neuralgic development no greater than that of an infant, the 6-year-old responds to her parents and two healthy siblings and "clearly is an integral, and much loved, member of the family", the authors note.
- REUTERS
