School For Swedish Thalidomide Babies

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31305, 27 February 1967, Page 2

School For Swedish Thalidomide Babies

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter) STOCKHOLM. Swedish parents of thalidomide babies now preparing to start school are facing a tragic new problem. Some of the boys and girls now realise that they are not normal and are asking: “Why have we no arms and legs like other children?”

To ease the strain on both parents and children, the Swedish school authorities and medical experts are pooling their resources to ensure as normal an education as possible for the handicapped children.

Some will go to ordinary schools, but others will be taught in special schools. A total of 230 thalidomide babies—children bom deformed after their mothers had taken thalidomide pills during pregnancy—were bom in Sweden between 1960 and 1962. Half of them have since died. "Of the remainder, about 30 will start school this year,” says Dr. Karin Hellgren, child psychiatrist at the Eugenia Children’s Home here. “The tragedy now is that many of these babies are old enough to understand that they are not like other children. We have advised parents to be honest and to tell their childrdh that their deformities happened when they were ‘growing in mummy’s stomach.’ ’’ Dr. Hellgren says another

major problem is that the thalidomide babies are continually trying to do things which other children do, and when they are unsuccessful, they quickly become irritable and distressed. “Nevertheless, none of the children has so far shown signs of any psychic injury,” he says. “But it is of vital importance that teachers in charge of these children are completely aware that they require a much longer time to learn.” More than half the Swedish thalidomide babies receive treatment and training in the

Eugenia Home, which will be extended soon. Dr. Stig Jonsaeter says that the future for these children is fairly optimistic though much depends on technical development of artificial limbs and surgical treatment. “In some cases, we now correct leg and foot injuries by means of surgical operations, because these parts of the body are most difficult to replace artificially,” he adds. “In many cases, children are not strong enough to wear artificial legs or feet, and we are working at full pressure to improve motorised limbs. “Artificial arms are more advanced, but the problem here is to teach the children to use them. “Small children have great difficulty in learning the technicalities of these complicated limbs,” Dr. Jonsaeter says. Plans are under way in Sweden to start a big appeal fund to help with the training and schooling of thalidomide children, and it is expected that the Swedish gtate radio and television company will co-operate. Previous charity programmes on television have raised enormous sums. The chairman of the Thalidomide Babies’ Association, Mr Bengt Oerne, says that their education must be arranged, so that it is not confined simply to learning. “These children must grow up in a world of love and intelligence,” he says. “They must become teachers, not manual workers.”