Birth Defects Stump Experts: Babies Near Yakima, WA Born With Partial Skulls and Brains (VIDEO)
Birth defects are worrying experts who see a rising trend in the Yakoma, Wash. area. A cluster of babies have been affected with a rare and severe defect that causes them to be born without pieces of their skull.
The birth defects experts haven't found a cause for the newborn babies' condition, which is called anencephaly. Anencephaly causes the children to be born missing parts of their brain or skull, and the condition has popped up nearly two dozen times in the past three years— that's four times the national average, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed.
"It does strike me as a lot," Yakima Valley Memorial Hospital genetic counselor Susie Ball told NBC News. She said that in addition to the anencephaly, there have been more cases of spina bifida, which occurs when the brain and spine don't close properly.
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One mother who was affected by the spike in severe birth defects was Andrea Jackman, 30, whose daughter was born with spina bifida in September. She said no one told her of the increased birth defects in the region.
"I had no idea," the mother told NBC News. "I honestly was really surprised that nobody had said anything. If my doctor hadn't wanted us to see the geneticist, I wouldn't have known."
The trend was spotted by 58-year-old nurse Sara Barron, who works at Prosser Memorial Hospital. She said that in her 30-year career, she had only seen one or two cases of severe anencephaly, but now there were "two cases in a six-month period."
"Then, I was talking to another doctor about it and she has a third one coming. My teeth dropped. It was like, 'Oh my God,'" Barron explained. "This is bizarre. This is a very, very small area."
What's even more frightening for the mothers, expectant mothers and families in the area is that the cause remains unknown. After poring over medical records, "no common exposures, conditions or causes" were found.
