Learning disabilities prompt author to offer aid to others

When Quinn Bradlee was born 26 years ago, doctors detected a heart murmur, and he had open-heart surgery at three months. Then he began to have seizures, sometimes several a week. He had repeated infections, a hernia, a prolapsed lung, an allergic reaction to a bee sting: “It was always something,” he says. Meanwhile, he developed speech problems and a range of learning disabilities. One teacher told his parents, Washington Post veterans Benjamin Bradlee and Sally Quinn, that they should never expect Quinn to function as a normal adult.

His parents, like his doctors, were flummoxed by his multiple problems. It wasn’t until he was 14 that the explanation was found: Quinn Bradlee has velocardiofacial syndrome (VCFS), a disorder resulting from a tiny, random variation of DNA on chromosome 22. The syndrome is not uncommon, though little understood.

from Newsday.com

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