The reason I chose to write about this is because a comic book series I really like, PAWS, has a character who has Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA). It can cause muscle weakness and loss, breathing problems, feeding and swallowing issues, fatigue and pain, and more. It is a rare genetic disease affecting motor neurons, leading to progressive muscle weakness and atrophy. Only 1 in 10,000 to 11,000 people have it worldwide, with around 10,000 to 25,000 people living with it in the U.S, making it a very rare disease. In PAWS, the character with SMA, Hazel Miller, her brain has trouble “talking” to her muscles, and it affects mainly her hips and legs, so she uses a wheelchair to get around. She can still use her legs, but it’s very hard and difficult to walk. The SMA Foundation says, “SMA is caused by a defect in the Survival Motor Neuron 1 (SMN1) gene that encodes the SMN protein. The SMN protein is critical to the health and survival of the nerve cells in the spinal cord responsible for muscle contraction (motor neurons).” According to the SMA foundation, “If both parents are carriers of the SMA gene, then each of their children has a 1 in 4 chance of having the disease. SMA has multiple forms which vary in severity. The most severe form (Type I) manifests before 6 months of age and generally results in death before age two. Patients with milder forms of SMA may not have symptoms of muscle weakness until much later in childhood or even as adults.”
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Karrie • Jan 16, 2026 at 4:55 pm
Thank you for teaching us about SMA, Aurora. I learned a lot from your article!