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Where To Draw The Line On Future Baby Miracles |
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Written by Pio Sioa
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Tuesday, 13 November 2007 |
This is now as good a time as ever to look at where the line should be drawn, in the role we have to play in the fate of future Baby Miracles, with out having to struggle with our conscience too much.
Fortunately, the possibility of another Baby Miracle is one out of a thousand new babies born, according to our medical people.
The risks then are low, and thankfully, the mortality rate for babies born with severe birth defects are high. But it does not mean there will not be others in the years ahead to challenge our conscience as a humanity- for all we know there may have been more who escaped our awareness.
Baby Jordan is the first who drew public attention, some years back.
Now it is Baby Miracle’s turn.
Both captured the loving heart of many, not just in Samoa but the international community as well.
Both were also the source of strained opinions about their chances of survival.
The medical profession held little hope for Baby Jordan surviving, and they were proven out in the end when he died before the Thorn Ministries, could fly him out to the United States.
Baby Miracle’s deformities are similar to Baby Jordan, except her condition is more severe.
Again, a clash of opinions has surfaced between the medical profession and the charitable hearts looking for miracles.
The difference between the two babies is that Miracle is still alive, and her planned trip to New Zealand last week is in disarray.
The blame falls on the Survival Foundation, they organised the trip.
The manner in which the organisation’s President, Tuilaepa Mary Grey, went about organising the trip is regrettable.
She played the media card so well, there is little doubt it was deliberately manipulated to win public support,
Most disappointing is the way it seems to try and pressure a quick response from the companies and agencies, whose approvals were needed to whisk off Baby Miracle and her family to New Zealand.
The PolyBlue’s much publicized offer to fly the party across free was news to the executives of the airline.
The wait is also still on for immigration visas for the family to enter the country. Again, there has to be an untold story behind that move as well.
Then there is what appears to be the shifting of the blame onto the Ministry of Health in the handling of Baby Miracle’s case.
A fuming Minister of Health is not sitting still over the allegations leveled against her Ministry, and she has the full force of the Medical personnel at the Tupua Tamasese Meaole Hospital, to back her up.
The Ministry has even gone to the extent of getting an overseas expert opinion to support the official decisions made.
When all is added up, the actions taken by the Survival Foundation has alienated and compromised the effort that went into what is really a just cause.
With all the uncertainties now hanging over everything that has happened so far, the question now is whether Baby Miracle will ever leave Samoa.
The Thorn Ministries has put itself on standby to help if the need arises and it is reassuring to know, there is a Plan B to fall back on.
But until Baby Miracle is finally in the plane jetting off to the Auckland Star Ship in New Zealand, or somewhere in Florida or Los Angeles in the United States, one has to feel for the trials and tribulations the family is forced to go through.
To expose Baby Miracle to all the uncertainties and controversy of this type of bureaucratic bungling is added trauma they really do not need.
The whole family has suffered long enough trying to keep their loved one away from the prying and sometimes condemning eyes of the insensitive onlookers.
The doctors have given very little chances of survival for this child and with her deformed appearance, the family would have been naturally protective of her.
To agree to expose her to the media must have taken a lot of convincing.
The Survival Foundation obviously raised their hopes to a level where they were prepared to endure what ever reservations they had for the sake of the child.
So, if the trip falls through, the whole exercise was irresponsible, cruel and should have never been attempted by the organisation in the first place.
It is at the stage now where the trip must go ahead, to keep the family’s head up. According to medical experts it is the family that needs healing through counseling. Baby Miracle’s fate is beyond medical help.
So even if the doctors in New Zealand agree with what their local counterparts have been saying all along, at least the trip has meant something.
The pressure is now on for the sake of the family peace for the Survival Foundation to see their promise through.
Blaming the Ministry of Health and the doctors is no way out.
Doctors are miracle workers when the knowledge is within their reach. Baby Miracle’s condition is beyond the healing powers of what the human brain is capable of so far.
What she needs is a miracle that faith in the divine powers can bring.
The work of charitable organisations like the Survival Foundation and the Thorn Ministries are from the love of the heart and faith in the intervention of divine powers.
God has a design for everyone and everything, and when it does not work out to what the person wants, it is His will. We have all come to accept that.
Doctors have to draw the line somewhere! Government has to weigh up the situation carefully and like the doctors, there is a point where they too will have to draw the line.
When the line is finally drawn, it means it is all in the hands of God.
Let us store that thought the next time another Baby Miracle comes around, and before making promises that are at risk of not being fulfilled.
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