|
|
|
|
“Baby Joseph” Arrives at
Cardinal Glennon Children's Medical Center By Dave Andrusko Thirteen-month-old Canadian Baby Joseph Maraachli, the focal point of an international debate, arrived Sunday at Cardinal Glennon Children's Medical Center in St. Louis, Missouri, where doctors will examine his condition and determine what, if anything, they can do for the child. The airlift came hours before the hospital was scheduled to remove the baby from a ventilator. Although the legal wrangling has gone on for months, “Baby Joseph’s” exact condition is unclear other than that it is a severe neurological disease. What is clear is that London Health Sciences Centre, in Ontario, Canada said the decision to airlift the baby was done “despite the strongest possible medical advice to the contrary.” "Our doctors are in the process of evaluating him and forming a treatment plan," Mary Aita, spokesperson for the hospital, said this morning. "We don't turn anyone away.” Later in the day another hospital spokesman told reporters that Baby Joseph was being examined by Dr. Robert Wilmott, the hospital's chief of pediatrics. According to CNN, “A team of physicians will formulate a treatment plan and provide an update on what's next for the child in a news conference Tuesday morning, Davidson said.” The hospital and Baby Joseph’s parents, Moe and Sana Maraachli, have been at loggerheads for months. The hospital maintains the baby has a progressive and fatal neurodegenerative disease. Baby Joseph is on a ventilator, and the parents wanted the hospital to perform “a tracheotomy with continued mechanical ventilation so that he could be transferred home, where he would be cared for by his family,” CNN reported. The hospital refused, saying this would be invasive treatment and futile. The tragic irony is that their baby daughter Zina had a similar condition eight years ago. In that instance doctors did perform a tracheotomy. She lived for six months after the family took her home, according to the child’s aunt. Baby Joseph had been at London Children’s Hospital since last October. When parents and the hospital disagreed over treatment, the dispute was at taken to Ontario’s Consent and Capacity board. The board concluded that the ‘removal of the endotracheal tube without replacement, a Do Not Resuscitate order and palliative care’ was in the baby’s “best interests.”The parents appealed. On February 17 Ontario Superior Court Justice Helen Rady backing the doctors’ decision. “Justice Rady’s decision was based on doctors’ testimony that he is in a permanent vegetative state with no brain stem reflex,” according to the Canadian pro-life organization Lifesite.com. “But the family has contested that claim, pointing to footage showing him flailing and reacting to tickling.” Mr. Maraachli, were joined in the flight by Fr. Frank Pavone, national director of Priests for Life. "I knew, after this dragged on day after day, that I needed to be here myself to get Baby Joseph to safety," Father Pavone said in a statement. "If there is a chance this boy can live, we have to explore every option,” he said, adding “He needs to be in a hospital that cherishes life.” I need your feedback on both Today's News & Views and National Right to Life News Today. Please send your comments to daveandrusko@gmail.com. If you like, join those who are following me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/daveha. |