Would you like to see others that you and your doctor friends can send to "h@ll" by your own hands?There must be thousands of them that 50% of MDs could call "veggies".
Heather was born in October 1986. She wasn't due until November. However a ultrasound showed there was no amniotic fluid and a emergency c section was done. As soon as the cord was cut there was lung shock and affixation. She was given CPR for the first 15 minutes of her life. She was given a 25% chance of survival. I knew in my heart that since she was born alive she would make it. We were never told that there would be any chance of disabilities. At six months she started having seizures (infantile spasms).
Our pediatrician laughed at me and said they were seizures and scheduled a EEG for two weeks. Needless to say we weren't happy with him and found another Dr within an hour and she was admitted into the hospital within two hours from that.
We were real lucky with the medications. They put her on Phenobarbital and the seizures were under control within a week. They said she would be on the meds until she was at least 3, probably 5. She was off them within 18 months and has been seizure free since.
Again, there was no mention of any disabilities.
At 7 mths a visiting nurse recommended therapy because she was not doing age appropriate things. Than a friend asked if she had cp. I said I think someone would have mentioned it, but I'll ask. At therapy I asked and was told she had too much muscle tone and that was it. At the next appointment we had to see a CCS doctor.
As soon as I walked in the door she said, "Oh, your daughter does have Cerebral Palsy, always has and always will, she will never walk, she will be severally retarded and she will sit in a wheelchair and drool, now this is how I want you to stretch her legs". Needless to say I was in shock.
After I left I called her Pediatrician and asked what this woman was talking about. We went in and all was finally explained to us.
Her diagnoses is Spastic Quad, visually impaired (legally blind), developmentally delayed and seizure disorder. I then went out to get as much information as possible and continue to do so to this day. She had a Selective dorsal Rhizotomy at age 3 and has has 3 hip surgeries for a dislocated right hip.
With the help of a very supportive family and an awful lot of determination Heather has and continues to defy the doctors, therapist and medical profession in general with her abilities and her progress.
Aw, she's got an adorable smile. Our Pastor did a sermon once entitled "But God" about how we are told things in life that we can't do...won't ever be able to do ... 'BUT GOD"
Thanks for the testimony. Allow me to share this one from our family: (I wrote this in response to some FReeper who was truly barbaric on this topic)
"I believe passionately in the sanctity of innocent life. If I err, I err on the side of life. I am ardently pro-life (even though I wasn't in my early college years), and anti-euthanasia.
My younger brother's only child, my niece, from birth was very much like Terri Schiavo. Her health problems resulted from genetic issues. She never spoke a word. She never walked. She never crawled. She never fed herself. She could not hug with her arms. She died when she was 13.
Her life, and the look in her eyes when she went in her special wheelchair outside for walks, spoke volumes, and shouted out to the world that she could make a difference.
And you know what? She did more to heal people around her (in particular, my mother and father) than a thousand sermons, a thousand pontificating politicians, or a thousand professors of ethics ever could.
Was she a vegetable? If she was, the world needs more such vegetables, and less knuckle-draggers.
The image of my niece, and her ability (although miniscule) to be happy, will not allow me to accept some euthanasia-happy society that arbitrarily decides who lives a 'worthy' life or not. And that includes the "Greer Reaper"."
Thanks again for your story.