#
1 forums.catholic-questions.org/images/buttons_cad/report.gif
http://forums.catholic-questions.org/images/statusicon_cad/post_new.gif Today, 12:54 PM
JessHav http://forums.catholic-questions.org/images/statusicon_cad/user_offline.gif vbmenu_register(“postmenu_1413125”, true);
Regular Member
Join Date: April 23, 2005
Location: Missouri
Posts: 136
http://forums.catholic-questions.org/images/icons/icon1.gif Our baby has trisomy 18
Hi everyone. I haven’t been on here in a long time, mainly because of my student teaching but also because we found out about three weeks ago that our child has Trisomy 18, a rare but fatal chromosome disorder and it is very painful to read all of the pregnancy threads that I used to love.
Having had some time to digest the news, we understand that this disorder means that she has a very likely chance of dying before birth or shortly thereafter. Only 10% of children live past a year and even then they rarely live over the age of 10. However, we were really disappointed with the neonatalogists that told us our options. They do not want to do an emergency c-section if she is in distress before birth, (something that is mandatory with “normal” babies,) and told us that they do not recommend any rescusitative measures (ventilator, antibiotics, corrective heart surgery, etc.) because “she is going to die anyway.” We’re really disturbed by this attitude, because, in our minds, any time, no matter if it is two weeks or two years, that we get to spend with her is precious. Noone would never deny her medicine or life-sustaining measures if she was a five year old diagnosed with cancer just because she would most likely die. Most parents would fight for any time that they could with their child. Therefore, we are going to try to do whatever we can for her, just because we know that God can create miracles but only if we ask Him and cooperate with His will.
I’m telling you this so that you can pray for us that our little girl will be born alive and in a condition that we may spend time with her. We also ask for God’s guidance so that we might make the right decisions in her care, not out of selfish reasons, but love for our daughter. Please pray for us and I will keep you updated on our situation.
Jess