My Nephew Nathan

He loves pulling faces at the camera!

My nephew Nathan suffers from Radial renal Syndrome… although “suffer” is so the wrong word to use here.

This syndrome is surprisingly common, but it affects its sufferers (for lack of a better word) in many different ways. The syndrome affects mainly the radius and kidneys (hence its name) but its spectrum also encompasses the ears, the thumbs, the heart, ribcage and the digestive system.
The inner and/or outer ear can be affected, and in Nathan’s case his hearing is fine, but his right ear is small and round on the outside- like a little flower.
Nathan has eleven pairs of ribs, where most people have twelve pairs.
Nathan has one normal kidney and one that is small and is situated low in his pelvis- it functions, it’s just small.
Nathan has no radius- the big bone in the forearm, and hence no ulna (the smaller bone in the forearm). He has a hand on the inside of each arm where his elbows would be, and he has no thumbs. His arms grow in length as he grows, and by the time he goes to school, his arms should more or less reach the top of his head- like any seven year old.
No surgery or prosthesis is being considered by any of Nathan’s doctors or by his parents as he can and does adapt.

Over and above all that- my nephew, at almost 5 years old in 2009, is one of the most intelligent kids I know! His passion for things with wheels is legendary amongst those who know and love him- and he can identify cars by their shapes and by their badges, and he’s been able to do so since before he was 2 years old! He started talking very young, and by the time he was 2 he was identifying letters of the alphabet and linking them verbally to people’s names!

Come and meet him.

You can visit his Fan Club Blog here, e-mail Nathan and his family at nathansfanclub@gmail.com, and you can visit his Facebook group here.