- Earlier this month, an Indiana couple was charged with neglect of a dependent. They’re accused of abandoning their adopted daughter in 2013, when she was about 8 years old.
- The couple, Kristine and Michael Barnett, said she was actually a 22-year-old woman, Insider previously reported.
- The Ukrainian-born woman, named Natalia, has a rare type of dwarfism called spondyloepiphyseal dysplasia congenita, or SEDc, a bone-growth disorder that can also cause vision and hearing problems.
- Mental instability and violence are not symptoms of SEDc but could be symptoms of another, unrelated diagnosis.
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Earlier this month, an Indiana couple was charged with neglect of a dependent. They’re accused of abandoning their adopted daughter in 2013, when she was about 8 years old.
But Kristine and Michael Barnett said she was actually a woman in her 20s who has a condition called spondyloepiphyseal dysplasia congenita, or SEDc, Insider previously reported.
The Barnetts are now out on bond. Kristine Barnett told the Daily Mail this week that when they adopted a Ukrainian-born girl named Natalia in 2010, they believed she was about 6 years old. But after the adoption, Natalia terrorized her family, Barnett said, threatening to stab her and her now ex-husband in their sleep, trying to push her toward an electric fence, and pouring bleach in her coffee.
In 2012, based on a doctor’s assessment of Natalia, the Barnetts had her age changed to 22, the Daily Mail and local news outlets reported. In July 2013, they left Natalia on her own in an apartment in Lafayette while they moved to Canada and cut off all contact with her. For that reason, the police charged the Barnetts with neglect.
"The media is painting me to be a child abuser but there is no child here," Barnett told the Daily Mail.
"Natalia was a woman. She had periods. She had adult teeth," she continued. "She never grew a single inch, which would happen even with a child with dwarfism. The doctors all confirmed she was suffering a severe psychological illness only diagnosed in adults."
Natalia's parents said she was mentally unstable, which is not a symptom of SEDc
SEDc is a rare condition; only about 175 cases have been reported in medical literature, according to the National Institutes of Health.
A child with the bone-growth deficiency doesn't physically develop as other children do. They tend to have a very short stature, shortened limbs, and a short trunk and neck. Adults with SEDc are typically 3 to 4 feet tall. People with SEDc could also have nearsightedness or hearing problems because of their development.
Their facial features might include a flattened nose or cheekbones, or a hole in the roof of their mouth, known as a cleft palate, according to the National Institutes of Health.
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Natalia exhibited some of these traits, like short stature, but Barnett said she also showed signs of mental-health problems and violence. In 2012, Natalia was admitted to a psychiatric facility, the Daily Mail reported.
The types of problems Barnett described aren't associated with SEDc, however, but could be symptoms of another, unrelated diagnosis.
SEDc is a genetically inherited condition
According to the National Institutes of Health, SEDc is a result of a mutation of the COL2A1 gene, which is responsible for producing collagen, a bone-growth-supporting protein. When the gene is mutated, collagen isn't produced, so a child's bones and connective tissues can't develop properly.
Doctors might perform genetic tests to determine whether a child has inherited the condition from a parent. According to the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, if one parent has the disorder, all their children have a 50% chance of also developing it. MRIs and X-rays can also help doctors determine growth abnormalities in a person's organs, tissues, and bones that are characteristic of SEDc.
As a result of their stunted growth, people with SEDc might have problems with their back and spine, hip deformities, foot issues, and degenerative joint disease in the hips, knees, or shoulders, according to the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.
To treat these deformities and pain problems, people with SEDc might need surgery or special braces to support their bodies, as well as glasses or a hearing aid for vision and hearing problems.
It's unclear whether or how Natalia was treated for SEDc or its side effects.
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