Two Babies, Two Nations, Same Issue
There are two different baby girls who are being let down by healthcare providers.
One baby girl is in the UK. Her name is Charlotte Wyatt. She has a website -- SaveCharlotte.com -- where you can read about her situation. BlogsforTerri also has updates about this case and a link to raise money for Baby Charlotte's care.
BlogsforTerri also tells us about another baby in Texas named Knya Dismuke. Like Baby Charlotte, she may also have medical care discontinued because it she is considered too sick and her care is considered too expensive.
Both babies need our help and prayers...they deserve a chance.
Now, a little aside relating to the second story...This morning, a troll got all sanctimonious in my previous post (a post completely unrelated to this subject) and blamed President Bush and the Republicans for this baby's plight. While I appreciate the troll for bringing the story to my attention (I am behind in my blog reading and had not seen the story on BlogsforTerri yet), I don't appreciate him/her using this baby as a political football. I am going to remove the troll's comment because it doesn't belong in that thread. If he/she wants to come back and discuss this case rationally -- without mindless bashing of the President and Republicans or repeating canards like "[Terri's] brain was, uh, liquid" -- then he/she is welcome to do so in this thread.
Update: I'm very sad to report that Baby Knya has died. Apparently, she died because her body gave out, not because of withheld treatment. Thank you to reader Barb M. for letting me know about this. (Link to article via Straight Up with Sherri.)
Bush only signed the 1999 law and it applied only to adults. In 2003 provisions were added to allow it to apply to minors as well.
So while Bush personally did sign the law, it's a bit of a leap for anyone to personally blame him for added provisions which happened after he was no longer govenor of Texas.
Hospitals and doctors charge for the care they provide. Since less care would means less money, I fail to see how expenses come into play. Whichever hospital decides to take her won't be doing so for free either.
She was diagnosed with leukemia at 5 weeks which is extremely rare for that young. So far she has received 5 different surgeries which she did pull through, but she seems to have developped other complications such as a brain tumour and a life-threatening skin infection which is reportedly anti-biotic resistant and she's suffering from multiple organ failure.
Particularly the treating of the skin infection is reportedly causing her a lot of pain and suffering and she has to be kept on a morphine and opiate IV drip to help with the pain.
Her lungs are rather weak, she can breathe on her own somewhat but is currently on a ventilator which is the life support that would be disconnected. On monday night the parents were called over because they feared she wouldn't make it through the night, but she then eventually became better again in the morning.
She would need an additional potential 25 surgeries before she would pull through completely.
That doesn't make it alright for the hospital to unilaterally decide to withhold care, but since her previous treatments resulted in a worsening of her original condition already and with the fact that she's currently suffering, presumeably that is the reason why they would be hesitant to keep on going.
So far they've contacted 5 other hospitals and were turned down after a review of the case. Let's hope they can work something out with someone, because having to have their hopes raised by each new hospital that reviews, only to be turned down after is definitely not any stress they should be going through on top of Knya's condition.