Artist

Scupture dies...

Actually Mark is wrong. People with Down's have an understanding of art...
like most people, their abilities and disabilities are not "across the board"...People with Down's syndrome have even been known to go to college. Their IQ is on the average 4o points below their parents, so the average IQ is 50-60 that of a 4 to six year old child, but some are higher functioning..

and if she 'couldn't hear" then she had a double handicap...people with Down's usually hear ok. They are more prone to ear infections due to facial abnormalities so may need tube in their ears...but of course, just because you have Downs doesn't mean you can't have another handicap...

And most speak. Due to tongue abnormalities, they are slow in articulating, which is why many parents now teach them American sign language, so they can learn to communicate at an earlier age.

Adults with Down's were rare in the past-- because they have an immune defect, in the past most died by late childhood of pneumonia etc.---but now with penicillin, we see adults, who often live either at home or group homes. They have fewer behavior problems than other forms of retardation.

Medically, many have congenital heart disease. Do you treat them surgically? Ethical discussion...depends on their ability to recover. Nowadays, usually yes. When heart surgery was rare, i.e. when I was in medical school, usually no. I treated one adult with this heart problem...he was sympomatic and becoming terminal with it...in his 30s...

Another common problem is hypothyroidism. It can sneak up on them. Another is they have a high rate of leukemia, probably related to their immune defect. And if they get hepatitis B (which was common in those institutionalized) they tend to get chronic hepatitis B, which is both infectious to others if cleanliness is bad, and also can lead to liver failure.

Finally, people with Downs' tend to get Alzheimer's in their 40's...why is unknown.

I've had people say "how can you tell if they have alzheimers when they are retarded"...dumb question. Most of these people function like a 6 year old child but have a fairly good memory..., and when they start forgetting, having temper tantrums, getting confused, you worry about Alzheimer's disease.

Chris Burke, call your office...