Posted on 01/31/2013 6:12:37 PM PST by Morgana
January 31, 2013 (LiveActionNews.org) - I first heard about the Peterson family in what you might call a “chance meeting.” (Of course I don’t believe in chances; I believe that there is Someone who has a plan and a purpose behind the random occurrences in our lives.) And I firmly believe that this amazing family’s story needs to be told. It’s scary. It’s shocking. And its implications are dangerous. How many other hospitals starve babies to death, simply based on a “defect”? How many other doctors instruct new parents to leave their newborns to die or wallow in an institution for the rest of their lives?
We’re aware that many doctors in the United States recommend abortions for babies whose potential disabilities show up on ultrasounds or in prenatal testing. We’re also aware that, sadly, all too many parents choose abortion in these cases. And all too often, their babies are discovered to either be perfectly “normal” or the parents later on discover that the disability or defect was one they definitely could have lovingly dealt with, had they only beengiven accurate and complete information.
Our society has become consumer and product focused in an ultimately dangerous way. When we, the consumer, discover the news that our child, the product, is not quite up to par with our expectations, we are given the choice to end an innocent life. Perfection – though impossible to define – is the standard demanded. And who among us truly meets it?
Here are the Petersons – Quentin, Adian, and Jodi – and here is their story:
1) What condition was Aidan born with?
Aidan was born with a bilateral cleft lip and palate. This affects about 1/700 children. We had no family history of this condition. All babies at some point in their early development have a cleft, but it spontaneously “knits” together (bringing to mind the Scripture, “You knit me together in my mother’s womb”), unless there is a genetic issue, if the mother is deficient in folate and from certain ethnic groups, or if the mother suffers certain viral illnesses at the time of gestation. In our case, Jodi had contracted the flu very early in pregnancy with a high fever.
2) When did you/the doctors discover his condition?
On October 7, 1997, our 8 pound, 14 ounce son Aidan was born at a hospital in Modesto, California. Immediately after he was fully delivered, we knew something was wrong. The doctors lowered him out of our sight instead of putting him on Jodi’s stomach and began whispering to each other. That’s when they told us he was born with a bilateral cleft lip and palate. It did not show up on an ultrasound. We were shocked.
3) What advice were you given?
The day after he was born, Aidan was taken into the NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit) because he was unable to breastfeed, and was becoming dehydrated and weak. The hospital did not have the type of bottles babies with a cleft use to feed. The hospital pediatrician called my husband into the nursery and advised us to sign Aidan over to the hospital. He told us that we were still young, we could still have other children, and that these kids (kids with cleft lip and palate) tend to have neurological problems, he would require many surgeries that could bankrupt us, and that if we were foolish enough to ignore medical advice and take our baby home he would end right back at the hospital as a “failure to thrive.”
The “treatment plan” the doctor told us was that they’d give our son pain medicine, and let him die (of starvation and dehydration). Jodi began to cry and refused, at which point the doctor turned to Quentin and said, “Get her out of here, she’s being irrational.” He thought he would have a better chance at convincing Quentin to leave the baby.
He was wrong. Quentin also refused to sign the papers. We didn’t have a plan, and didn’t know where to find help, but we could not fathom abandoning our son to a certain death alone. It had to be the grace of God, to give us courage to choose life when the hospital authority was telling us otherwise. It was for both of us, the absolute scariest time in our lives.
4) What choice did you make and why?
We chose to fight for our son and love him, and we never regretted that decision.
We couldn’t believe they were giving Aidan this death sentence, but we would not abandon him. We could not imagine anything more heartbreaking than to have a helpless child left alone for the brief entirety of his life. Even if he had one day to live, he would spend that day being loved by us.
Then God’s providence stepped in. A nurse contacted a woman who herself was born with a cleft lip and palate who ran a local support group. She brought us the cleft palate nurser bottles. (These are supposed to be in every hospital, and all nursing and medical staff are to be trained to use them since it’s a fairly common birth defect.) This meant that our baby was finally able to eat. That hungry baby took his first bottle and rested in our arms. This was an unbelievable blessing. We did take him home, and he thrived. He has had eight surgeries to correct his lip and palate and associated difficulties like ear tubes, bone grafts, and scarring, and we’re anticipating a few more in the future.
5) Can you tell us about Aidan? What are his interests, what does he like to do with his free time?
Aidan is now 15 years old and in his freshman year of high school. He is a big brother to 13-year-old Devin (brother) and 10-year-old Kiera (sister). They’re homeschooled, and his studies include Latin, logic, literature, and math. Aidan’s a typical teenager and an avid reader, and his interests include animation, writing, history, the military, and aviation. He’s involved in his church’s teen group, and is a member or 4H. He loves going out and playing paintball with his buddies. His pets include a dog and eight chickens.
6) Looking back on the time before Aidan was born and the advice you were given and seeing him now as a 15-year-old, what advice would you give parents in a similar position?
Love your child with complete abandon, every moment that you are blessed to be with him. Love your child for who he is, and don’t let anyone scare you about future issues. No one knows what the future holds – not for us or for our children – but we know that love is eternal. Learn everything you can about whatever ails your child (the internet is a wealth of knowledge).
Fight for your child’s healthcare. No one will have their best interest at heart but the parents; God has given you the opportunity and responsibility to be their advocate. Every person on this earth has two things in common – we’re all made in the image of God, and none of us are perfect. We all have challenges, but do they diminish our ability to give and receive love? No. So don’t put too much faith in what doctors say – they can be wrong – but put your faith in God who is never wrong.
7) Does Aidan have any advice to give? What’s his perspective on this whole situation?
First off, I’d like to speak to everyone with a bilateral cleft lip and palate. You’re normal. The fact is that you’re just like everyone else, but you look somewhat different. I personally like to think it’s an improvement that God bestows on the lucky few and everyone else is just jealous (grinning here).
Looking back on my life, I’m very glad that my parents fought so hard for me, and disappointed that life seems to be so cheap in this generation – much like a passive waste to be disposed of if it doesn’t meet the irrationally perfect standards set forth by today’s murderous society.
What is my perspective on the situation? As I said, the world today disappoints me, and I pray it will soon end its ways. For any and all parents who are stuck in the same or similar situation that my parents were, listen up. Your kid is worth it, be he or she mentally or physically disabled. And as my mom said, if your kid only has one day to live, spend it loving your child. Put yourself in your kid’s shoes. You have one day to live, no two ways about it.
Which is better, to spend that day with your loving parents or starve to death while uncaring doctors simply pass you by, not caring at all for your plight? Answer that question and THEN make a decision on your kid’s life.
What a wonderful story. Sadly most Americans are so obtuse that they wouldn’t make any attempt to save a child with any disability.
I am more than skeptical about this story. I am unaware Idespite the writer’s claim) of ANY doctor who would advise a woman to abort a child. This is not only against the canon of ethics it is also AGAINST the law and is an actionable item that the medical board would love to know about.
Further there is no name of the hospital in Modesto where this so called incident took place. IF in fact a doctor made the recommendation to ‘sign over’ the baby there is no actual ability for a hospital to take charge of such a child.
Nothing in this story rings true. Cleft palate has been well understood for over 50 years and has been handled seamlessly since the 60s.
I am ringing the dumb bell because this story is entry made up. It is so far outside the norms of medical practice in the US as to be laughable
Maybe you are right but I didn’t see anywhere in the story where a doctor advised the couple to abort their child.
Hell, I can remember a kid in my highschool decades ago that had a hare-lip that looked EXACTLY like this kid’s, and the kid I’m talking about was from a wealthy, upper-middle class professional family. The general consensus was that his hare-lip was kinda cool, and it made him different, but different in a cool way.There was no ostracism, no shunning, no talking behind his back. He was accepted. As was the ONE black kid, named Willis, ONE black kid in a school with a student body of 2000) whose father was a Baptist preacher in a nearby town (Northern suburbs of Chicago) in a tiny storefront church that serviced a small totally black population who were arrayed throughout a number of local towns.Guess what-—everybody liked him too!This was in a highly-rated High School whose student body was at least 50% Jewish, and the sons and daughters of dentists, doctors, lawyers, engineers,etc.
The article starts off by saying ‘we are aware ...’ No documentation just a baseless claim. The story CLAIMS that a doctor (unnamed) at the hospital (unnamed) told the parents that they ought to turn the child over to the hospital....as I stated in my original response-—that is so far outside the norms of care in the US that I do not believe it. This comes from a site and is by a writer who uses hyperbole and half truths to make her points. THAT is NOT the way to win the battle against abortion. It turns people against the pro life movement and makes us look desperate and stupid
Just remember as far as we know, we all have but one day to live; today.
Make the best of it, love those you are with.
Eat, drink, and be merry. For tomorrow we die.
I was a bit shocked this story happened 15 years ago but then again they did say it happened in Kalifornia and that is lib land. Lib things do then to happen their first, then slowly spread to the rest of the country.
What shocked me if true is the hospital had no way to feed the baby? “The hospital did not have the type of bottles babies with a cleft use to feed.” What kind of hospital is not prepared? Even if that is the case then transfer the baby to a hospital that does. That would have been my question.
The other thing was.....”He told us that we were still young, we could still have other children, and that these kids (kids with cleft lip and palate) tend to have neurological problems, he would require many surgeries that could bankrupt us, and that if we were foolish enough to ignore medical advice and take our baby home he would end right back at the hospital as a “failure to thrive.” “
I have never heard of such a thing!! I did a report on cleft lip/plate in biology class while in college. I don't ever remember researching that! As for cost? Bankrupt? Well I am sure obozocare covers that! If the doctors told them this they need to go back to what ever third world crap hole they came from and practice medicine there.
I’ve heard enough stories about doctors advising women to abort, that I believe many of them - they do ring true.
And my MIL, a nurse in the early 60s and later a physician, told me that they did use to let severely deformed and handicapped babies die then, give them a little sedative to keep them comfortable.
But cleft palate is so routinely fixed, and while there is an association with neurological defects, the neonatologist can do a neurological exam, there are brain scans, that I cannot believe any doctor in the country would say of a full term, otherwise healthy looking baby with a cleft palate, just throw him away and try again.
Why no complaints to the hospital board, the medical board, their clergyman, their congressman? Show me the documentation from the time, name names, and I’ll believe them.
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Please ping me to note-worthy Pro-Life or Catholic threads, or other threads of general interest.
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Please ping me to note-worthy Pro-Life or Catholic threads, or other threads of general interest.
Hearing stories and having proof are not the same thing. I have read some of these stories and it always comes out when read that the doctor explains all possible options to a mother. This has been standard practice since doctoring began. To be told that abortion is an option is NOT the same as advising it. I know many OB/GYNs. Not a one has EVER recommended or even hinted that an abortion would be the best option.
Retelling stories that are non verifiable does nothing to help the cause.
Please tell me this was a Khmer Rougue doctor, or a Nazi concentration camp doctor.
Again I suggest to you as I did to Morgana that you actually ask for details of exactly what the doctor said....precisely and specifically. If on the other hand you are just reading these stories from varoius websites you have NO factual information to offer.
It is AGAINST the cannon of ethics for a doctor to advocate (ie advise a mother) for abortion. As to the comments from your mother-in-law please put them into perspective. Premies in the 60s had almost no hope. There was very little that could be done for them as medicine did not have some of the wonderful tools they have today. There were no good ways to set IVs. There were not incubators readily available. And staff was not trained for the intensive care needed by such babies.Some of them survived but not many. Today’s medicine provides a much better level of care for such babies.
One of the reasons why I called dumb bell on this story is precisely because there is no traceable information about hospital or doctor. Do not always make the assumption that these stories are correct. They are not. Parts os them may be but the whole of this story is bogus as the day is long
Doctors do this all the time these days.
My daughter went to see the doctor when she was pregnant with her first child a few years ago, and had an ultrasound. The doctor said that the baby MIGHT have Down’s Syndrome, and recommended that he should be aborted. My daughter refused. Her son, now about three, is normal. But so what if he had been a Downe’s syndrome baby? They are very special people, from all I have seen of them, and I’ve known a fair number of Downes people, of all ages.
Similar experience with my mother, who was in a nursing home for quite a while. Occasionally she’d be sent to the hospital, with breathing problems from pneumonia or the like. Almost invariably, the doctors in charge at the hospital would try to get me to agree to have her taken off food and medication. I refused. I think she lived a difficult but happy life in the nursing home, until her end finally came, and she died peacefully.
No hearsay about it. The medical profession no longer takes the old Hippocratic oath in some medical schools. Not all doctors, but too many of them, have that sort of attitude.
I’m with you. I have a cousin that was born with cleft palate and that was back in the early 50’s and they fixed it. I get envelopes all the time asking for donations to fix cleft palates of people around the world.
This one.
While the parents were obviously focused on saving the life of their son, they could have helped a lot of other people by noting which doctors wanted their baby dead.
If other parents can just find out about medical people with attitudes like this, they can avoid them. And eventually it is going to “leave a mark” on their career. Hospitals and HMOs start to notice if more than a few patients start avoiding certain medical people.
Importantly, no one has to give a reason, nor should they, of why they refuse the services of a particular doctor. They have a legal right to ask for a different doctor.
What really sends up the red flags is when being referred to a particular kind of doctor, like an OB/GYN, they request “any doctor, except for Smith or Jones.” Rejecting a doctor when you haven’t even met them definitely attracts attention.
Saul Alinsky lives!!!
As the Kenyan Marxist has stated -if even saving one life is possible THEN no proof is necessary.
Regardless, the cause -that is how the left operates. As such of what purpose is the PROOF you cherish? Those who promote the slaughter of innocents, those who promote the death culture could care less about proof -those slaughtered could as well care less about proof.
Terri Schiavo ring a bell? Many 'doctors' and medical 'experts' supported that imposed death sentence. Just as it is 'doctors' who perform abortions. There are many 'doctors' that are simply leftist death technicians executing the plan to promote the collective ideology that is the enemy of life.
What about the Nazis? How long did it take to convince the proof seekers -many still in denial?
What about the "Liverpool Care Pathway"? Plenty of proof there as to what humans are quite capable of ESPECIALLY when empowered by a collectivist ideology.
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