How One Mother Is Raising Awareness for Spinal Muscular Atrophy – A Leading Genetic Cause of Infant Death

When Nicole Clark’s son Brady was born, he was reaching his normal early milestones: holding his head up on his own, sitting and crawling. But when Nicole’s energetic and seemingly healthy nine-month baby boy started to struggle to pull himself up, Nicole knew something wasn’t quite right.

“My husband and I immediately enrolled Brady in occupational therapy when we noticed he was struggling to stand,” said Nicole. “We had no idea what journey we were about to face.”

Brady’s therapist suggested Nicole and her husband Tyler take him to a neurologist for further testing and evaluation. Shortly after, Brady was diagnosed with spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) Type 2. SMA is a rare, progressive disease that, left untreated, robs infants of their ability to walk, swallow and even breathe. SMA is caused by the lack of a functional survival motor neuron 1 (SMN1) gene, which results in the irreversible loss of motor neurons.

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