Fetal Surgery Photo Touches Hearts Worldwide

By Liz Townsend

A remarkable photograph of an unborn baby's hand grasping a doctor's finger during fetal surgery has touched the hearts of people around the world. The picture was first published in USA Today last September and has since been reprinted worldwide, giving graphic proof of the humanity of the unborn.

The baby, Samuel Armas, was born three and a half months after the August 19 surgery to relieve the effects of spina bifida, and is now a thriving, active baby.

"He's doing really well," his mother Julie told NRL News, while Samuel cooed in the background. "He's moving a lot - - he's kicking me right now - - and already weighs 12 pounds, 10 ounces at three months."

The picture, taken by photographer Michael Clancy, has been reprinted in NRL News and other publications in the United States as well as Canada, Ireland, England, France, Norway, Singapore, and South America.

Clancy snapped the photograph when the surgery was almost over. "The doctor had closed about half the opening when the hand came flying out," he told NRL News. "As soon as it happened, working just on instinct, I raised the camera and took four shots. Then the doctor shoved the hand back in and finished closing."

This was the first time Clancy, a Nashville-area freelance photographer who usually works for the Tennessean newspaper, had taken pictures of an entire surgical procedure. He was profoundly affected by the experience. "I was totally in shock for two hours after the surgery," he said. Clancy's views about the abortion issue have completely changed since seeing with his own eyes the perfectly formed hand of an unborn baby.

"Before, I was never put in a position to make a decision about abortion, but I guess I considered myself pro-choice," Clancy said. "Now I'm definitely pro-life. I know abortion is wrong now - - it's absolutely wrong."

Samuel was diagnosed with spina bifida at 14 weeks' gestation. It occurs when the spinal column fails to fuse properly, leaving a lesion (or opening) that is highly susceptible to infection. Left untreated, spina bifida can lead to leg paralysis, brain damage, or other problems. Often, hydrocephalus, a blockage in the brain that causes a build-up of spinal fluid, accompanies spina bifida.

When Samuel had spent only 21 weeks in his mother's womb, a team of doctors led by Dr. Joseph Bruner and Dr. Neal Tulipan at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee, lifted Samuel partially out of his mother's uterus and closed the lesion, then placed him back in the womb to wait until birth. Closing the lesion early in pregnancy protects the spinal cord from long exposure to amniotic fluid and contact with the uterine wall, hopefully preventing the most serious effects of spina bifida.

Samuel was born on December 2 at Northside Hospital in Atlanta, weighing 5 pounds, 11 ounces. "He came into the world screaming his head off," said Mrs. Armas. He went home with his parents, Julie and Alex Armas, just four days later.

So far, Samuel has shown no evidence of severe complications from his condition. "There's no sign of hydrocephalus," said Julie Armas. Samuel receives frequent ultrasounds to check for any signs of fluid build-up in his brain.

"His legs are moving from the hips really well, and his movement from the knees is getting better," she added, although there is still little movement of his feet and ankles.

Samuel receives physical therapy once a week "to maintain flexibility," Mrs. Armas said. He will be evaluated when he is about a year old to determine if he will be able to walk.

The photograph won third place for science/natural history in the Pictures of the Year contest sponsored by the Missouri School of Journalism and the National Press Photographers Association, and has been entered for a Pulitzer Prize. But Clancy said the awards aren't that important to him; what is important is spreading the message shown by the photograph.

"This is God's work," he said. "This is the youngest interaction with a child inside the womb ever recorded. As long as it keeps being put where people can see it, it can save lives."

The Armas family also hopes the photograph can educate people about the humanity of unborn children. "It's amazing to see the Lord working through us," said Julie Armas. "People seem to think the baby is a blob until the due date and then it miraculously turns into a baby. This shows them how wrong they are."