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| -Land of the Free |
| Even Babies With ‘No Chance Of Survival' Deserve A Shot At Life |
| 2024-05-13 |
| [Federalist] Finding out that my child was going to die was a jarring experience. The doctor saw the problem with our baby and turned off the ultrasound. "This baby has no chance of survival." So much for the bedside manner. I was reminded of him, and my baby, this weekend when my husband and I went on a grocery run before dinner. On the way home, we noticed a note tucked under the windshield wiper. We pulled over to read it. I was shocked, saddened, and angry. Hastily scribbled on the back half of a paper bag, it read: My baby was born with a broken heart. It was supposed to be survivable but it wasn’t. The few un-sedated hours of his life were full of violence. Needles and chest compressions and bright light and yelling. The first time I held him, it was as he died. The second and final time I held him was when he was frozen in the funeral home. I wish every day that I had chosen to spare him by letting him go at 20 weeks. That would have been the most humane & loving thing I could have done. Now, my bumper stickers make it clear that I am pro-life, so I suppose it’s fair game for anyone who wishes to leave a note. But this one really got to me. This woman’s note said she wished she had ended her child’s life at 20 weeks. I imagine this was the point at which she was shown an ultrasound revealing her baby’s heart defect. I say this because my 17-week ultrasound is when I learned my baby had "no chance." I was told to come in the next week to have further tests done on the baby to see if his kidneys were functioning enough for him to survive. That day happened to be Good Friday in 1994. And sure enough, his kidneys were not functioning. |
| Posted by:Besoeker |
| #1 "Doctors don't know everything" - my mother |
| Posted by: Gromble+Dribble4342 2024-05-13 12:43 |