Q9 of Q&A

A: Katya's chromosomal defect was not hereditary. It is just a sporadic occurrence that presents in less than about 1 in 10,000 livebirths and can appear in any family lineage (-- we've heard figures as low as 1 in 20,000; the incidence of trisomy 13 and 18 together is about 1 in 5,000 combined). Recurrence risk is low. The chances of parents giving birth to a second trisomy 13/18 child are quite remote; we personally don't know of any such cases being on record. Parents of a full trisomy 13 child could definitely go on to have other healthy kids. In fact, one well-known medical textbook states that for a mother to have a trisomy 13 child survive to birth must mean that she is well suited to having children, as most such children die during pregnancy. Another way of looking at this is that trisomy 13/18 are two of the more common causes of miscarriage. A very significant percentage of pregnancies end in miscarriage, and a significant percentage of those miscarriages are due to trisomy 13/18. Therefore, a great many people, perhaps most parents, actually conceive trisomy or similar chromosomally ill babies -- it's happening all the time. But only rarely do those babies make it to birth alive; Katya is one of the rare babies that did, and one of the very, very rare children that continued to live so long after birth with trisomy 13.


				*For Friends of Katya Maria Sansalone* *Q9 of Q&A*



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		Q: Is trisomy 13 hereditary?



		A: Katya's chromosomal defect was not hereditary. It is just a sporadic occurrence that presents in less than about 1 in 10,000 livebirths and can appear in any family lineage (-- we've heard figures as low as 1 in 20,000; the incidence of trisomy 13 and 18 together is about 1 in 5,000 combined). Recurrence risk is low. The chances of parents giving birth to a second trisomy 13/18 child are quite remote; we personally don't know of any such cases being on record. Parents of a full trisomy 13 child could definitely go on to have other healthy kids. In fact, one well-known medical textbook states that for a mother to have a trisomy 13 child survive to birth must mean that she is well suited to having children, as most such children die during pregnancy. Another way of looking at this is that trisomy 13/18 are two of the more common causes of miscarriage. A very significant percentage of pregnancies end in miscarriage, and a significant percentage of those miscarriages are due to trisomy 13/18. Therefore, a great many people, perhaps most parents, actually conceive trisomy or similar chromosomally ill babies -- it's happening all the time. But only rarely do those babies make it to birth alive; Katya is one of the rare babies that did, and one of the very, very rare children that continued to live so long after birth with trisomy 13.



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