My grandson was born without a femurs could this have been pick up on a scan?

Answer 1

Yes.

With a "major anatomical scan" (the ultrasound generally performed around 20 weeks) measurements are taken of many anatomical parts, including the femurs. So yes, the absence of a femur should be readily apparent. (It would also be picked up during other ultrasounds, other than ultrasounds performed very early in pregnancy before there would be a femur to detect, of course -- I mentioned the 20w ultrasound specifically only because many women get that ultrasound only and do not receive other scans during their pregnancy.)

(And should the first answerer be reading this: not everyone gets scanned during pregnancy, even now. so to call someone a liar right off the bat is unduly harsh, no? in addition to which, there is such a thing as medical malpractice.)

Answer 2

Yes, if an ultrasound scan had been done beyond the first few weeks of the pregnancy, the main measurement is that of the length of the femur. Therefore it's absence would have been noticed.

An early ultrasound might not have, depending on the developmental stage of the baby.

Answer 3

hi, my 11 week old daughter was born without the radius bone in both her arms. she has 2 fingers on one hand and 4 on the other with no thumbs. i had both nhs scans and a private 4d scan, none of which picked up the abnormality. with hindsight, i'm glad they didn't as this can be related to all sorts of horrible life threatening syndromes which she doesn't have (after extensive tests) and if they had told me this at my 9 week scan i would have thought twice about continuing with the pregnancy. as it is, i have a beautiful, bright little girl who i adore completely. they always say that not everything can be picked up on a scan but you would think that missing arm and leg bones would be pretty obvious. i know they are supposed to measure the femur to determine age of gestation so i really don't know how they missed that one. its such a shock and i know my partners parents had a hard job coming to terms with it. my mother and i both work with disabled children so we knew it wouldn't really affect her and she would cope. his parents are great with her now the initial shock has gone but there were a lot of tears shed. we've also been told we'll never know why it happened. i have 2 other children who are 'normal'. to answer your question, yes it could have been picked up on a scan but radiographers only look for certain things and aren't infallible. if it had, would you now have your grandson, or like me, would the medical profession have put doom and gloom on the situation until a termination seemed like the only option? i work with children who have so many different disabilities some of them life shortening and i thank god that my daughter only has a problem with her arms. i hardly even notice it anymore. the support we've had from the people around us has been fantastic and a lot of them have stories to tell of babies they lost. at least my daughter and your grandson are here safe. i bet you'll be amazed in the future with how he copes and he'll always be that extra bit special with every achievement he makes. i've found lots of support on the web, try there for children with the same problem. there's nothing like talking to someone in the same position.

Answer 4

Yes. In fact if you look in the ante-natal notes, under the scans section it should show a femur measurement. This is 1 of the things that is a part of a 20 week scan, and should have definitely been picked up.

Answer 5

Absolutely! Most women (in the US) have one routine ultrasound at around 20 weeks. At that point, most of the organs and all of the large bones (femurs, ulnas, skull, etc.) are detectable. I don't know how missing femurs could have possibly been overlooked!

Answer 6

Possibly, but what difference would it have made? There was nothing that could have been done in the womb. In fact if it had been seen in a scan that would have just led to many other tests some of which are not completely safe. Then there is the stress of "something is wrong with my baby" all throughout the pregnancy.

Answer 7

yes, it should have been. In the prenatal ultrasounds (usually the 20 week one) the doctor looks for the femur and measures it to see if the baby is growing at the correct rate and help determine a due date.

Answer 8

That would be the right thing todo, because most humans have femurs.
Ask his doctor. and maby they can inplant one or maby he doesn't need on. It all depends.

Answer 9

No, only on an X-ray which can be damaging itself and then only so far into the pregnancy that abortion is no longer an option.

Answer 10

you are lying. this would have been see very early in pregnancy on a scan since they measure that bone