Teen Inspires Insight into New Ways of Approaching Brachial Plexus

Sydney Sanborn was a 9-pound baby whose shoulder was pinched in the birth canal, leaving her with brachial plexus palsy. She grew up favoring her right side. At age 11, she came to the Brachial Plexus Center at Cincinnati Children's, where she received surgery to allow her shoulder to rotate. While her ability to move improved, her comment to doctors that she "sometimes forgot to move her arm" when she danced led them to rethink how the arm communicates with the brain after a nerve injury.

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"I would just like to say thank you to the whole team for making my life better, the whole experience from start to finish was something I will never forget," said Sydney, now 21. "But most importantly it gave me some freedom back and for that I’m forever thankful for. So thank you from the bottom of my heart for everything!"