Our patients’ stories: Treating Owen’s encephalocele

When Jennifer and Kevin Sheridan went for a routine 14-week ultrasound of their unborn son Owen, the only surprise the young couple expected was hearing if they were having a boy or a girl. But seconds after the first images of Owen registered on the grainy, black and white ultrasound screen, the Sheridans’ lives changed. The pictures showed that the top of Owen’s head hadn’t normally closed during early development, creating a sizable opening. Without the skull to encase them, spinal fluid and brain matter seeped through the hole, ballooning and expanding under his skin. The resulting growth, called an encephalocele, threatened to kill Owen during, or shortly after birth. “We went from thinking about what color to paint the nursery to praying we’d get a least a few minutes with him before he passed,” Kevin remembers. “It was devastating.” In spite of the prognosis, the Sheridans went through the pregnancy normally. Over the next few months, Owen grew, as did his encephalocele. By 26 weeks, the mass was nearly as large as Owen himself. But despite the size of the growth, tests showed Owen was developing typically. In fact, he was far more active inside the womb than Owen’s older sister, Aubrey, had been a year earlier. And while Jennifer and Kevin didn’t know it then, those prenatal kicks and turns would be the first indications of Owen’s fighting spirit—a spirit that would eventually come to define him. Defy...
Source: Thrive, Children's Hospital Boston - Category: Pediatrics Authors: Tags: All posts Diseases & conditions Our patients’ stories Craniofacial Anomalies Program encephalocele our patients' stories Source Type: news