August 19, 2004
MIRACLES ARE SO EASILY DISPOSED OF:
Tiniest baby thrives as teenager: Premature infant challenges limits of survival. (Helen Pearson, 8/16/04, Nature)
A record-breaking baby weighing a minuscule 280 grams has grown up into a healthy young girl, US doctors report this week. But experts fret that the 'miracle' baby may raise false hopes among parents about the outlook for their premature infants.Posted by Orrin Judd at August 19, 2004 11:18 AMMadeline was the smallest baby ever to survive when she was born in Chicago in 1989. Her mother suffered from the pregnancy disorder preeclampsia, which starved the child of essential nutrients. So Madeline was born at 27 weeks, weighing the equivalent of three bars of soap. She was about a third of the weight of babies of a similar age and only a fraction of the three kilograms that newborns normally weigh after a full 40-week pregnancy.
Jonathan Muraskas, who helped deliver Madeline and is based at Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood, Illinois, says he thought at the time that she had a 60% chance of survival. Babies born with such drastically low birth-weights tend to suffer severe disabilities such as cerebral palsy, blindness or learning problems.
But 14 years on, Madeline is remarkably healthy, Muraskas and his colleagues report in the New England Journal of Medicine1. She is small for her age, at only 136 centimetres compared with the average 163 centimetres, but she is in the top 20% for high school entrance exams scores. "I think her development is a miracle," Muraskas says.
You know, I keep trying to be neutral on the abortion issue and I keep failing miserably. The fact that the pro-abortion types would be upset that this kid survived and is healthy because it weakens their arguments is just sickening. Would they be happier if she died?
Posted by: Governor Breck at August 19, 2004 7:34 PMModern health science is their enemy.
Posted by: oj at August 19, 2004 8:10 PM27 weeks and 270 grams (about half a pound).
That's a lot less along and a lot less developed than a lot of pregnancy tissues getting flushed down the crapper at Womyn's Reproductive Choice clinics...
Posted by: Ken at August 19, 2004 8:19 PMP.S.
But then, in a way it IS a freedom-of-religion issue: The Goddess of Womynhood and Mother Gaia demand human sacrifice of little ones, just like Baal-Moloch.
And come to think of it, Total Sexual Freedom (TM) *was* the sacrament of Baal's consort, Asherah of the High Places...
(I wonder if that's what the historians are going to conclude centuries hence; just like the Aztecs and Baalists, our state religion required human sacrifice...)
Posted by: Ken at August 19, 2004 8:25 PMpretty amazing stuff. her surviving after being delivered @ 27 weeks is somewhat surprising, although 24 weeks is an unspoken cutoff for survival. the lack of mental incapacities is utterly amazing though, since it's almost certain she was deprived of oxygen and inundated with stress hormones (cortisol, etc) both in and outside the womb. truly amazing.
she should be the poster girl for Pro-Life, even if she's only 1 in a million.
Posted by: poormedicalstudent at August 19, 2004 10:34 PMA girl just like her in every detail except blind and drooling would be just as miraculous but presumably would not be nominated as poster child.
Why is that?
Posted by: Harry Eagar at August 20, 2004 12:08 AMJonathon Muraskas is one of two twin brothers who are both OB-Gyns at Loyola University Medical Center and his brother is Eric Muraskas, who is my wife's OB-Gyn and who delivered both of our kids at Loyola.
I represented Loyola here in Chicago for over 15 years suing health insurers, HMOs and ERISA plans for denied claims issues. Eric and Johnathan Muraskas are both great guys who are strongly religious and they practice at the premier Catholic hospital here in Chicago.
Posted by: Ray Clutts at August 20, 2004 1:48 PMWell, let's just say it hasn't happened yet, Orrin.
Posted by: Harry Eagar at August 20, 2004 3:09 PMThe Miracle Worker.
Posted by: oj at August 20, 2004 4:03 PMNot even close
Posted by: Harry Eagar at August 20, 2004 5:20 PMI should add, the high school drama class that my kids once grew up in had a production of "Miracle Worker" last year with an actual retarded child playing Helen.
It was sensational.
Public school, of course. She wouldn't have been enrolled at any non-public school.
Posted by: Harry Eagar at August 20, 2004 5:22 PMWhich disproves your own point. Every child is indeed a miracle.
Posted by: oj at August 20, 2004 5:28 PMMy point is that public schools are excellent, private schools lousy.
Every child is indeed a miracle, but only Gerber Babies get on the posters
Posted by: Harry Eagar at August 22, 2004 4:01 PMOh, okay, then you're just wrong. That's why folks oppose vouchers is because parents would use them to move kids from bad public schools to good private and parochial (and public).
Posted by: oj at August 22, 2004 5:19 PMI personally know both Erik and Jon Muraskas and yes they are both great guys. They have helped so many people and I miss them since moving to Arizona in 1993. Would love to hear how they are doing! Lynne
Posted by: Lynne at October 3, 2004 12:37 PM