Medical City Healthcare | Take Care | Winter 2019

A QUICK ONLINE SEARCH OF SPINA BIFIDA —one of the most common birth defects, affecting 1,500 to 2,000 American babies a year— generates phrases such as “not curable” and “damage to the spinal cord and nerves can’t be reversed.” But as Sarah Prowell and Sean Kirby watch their newborn, Uriah, kick his legs between naps, they are hopeful for his future. At 18 weeks pregnant, Uriah’s par- Meet Uriah: The first baby in North Texas to have complex open-womb surgery KICKING ODDS ents learned that he had the debilitating neural tube defect. Babies with the most severe form of spina bifida are born with 12