The baby no-one wanted

Thanks to Heather for sending me this story, which she thinks is the first one in the US mainstream media about a child with DiGeorge. A little baby called Emma Grace was given up both by her blood mother and by her adoptive mother because of her "condition", which happens to be exactly the same as my daughter's: truncus arteriosus and DiGeorge syndrome. The poor baby lay there in hospital waiting for bypass surgery, and nobody came to visit her (though the kind nurses tried to atone for this); when she had the surgery, no-one was pacing up and down outside.

It's completely heart-breaking (and reminds me of the pregnant woman I once spoke to on the phone at the request of our joint cardiologist - her baby also has DiGeorge. Despite my best endeavours, she chose to have an abortion, which at the time made me catatonically depressed for about two weeks). This desperately sad story has a happy ending, you'll be glad to hear - you can read it in full here.

Thank you very much to everyone who wrote about Nell - I REALLY appreciate your messages.

Thanks to

Comments

[Pam Miller]

I loved this story. I would love to know how Emma Grace is doing now. We too adopted a baby with Digeorge. Dr. Burke was also her surgeon and she also had the same heart defect. She will be turning 4 in a couple of weeks and is a great blessing to our family.

[fannyanntut]

I was moved by your story about talking a pregnant woman who went on to have an abortion. I had a similar experience 25 years ago when I was put in touch with an acquaintance who was considering adopting a child with cleft lip and palate. I enthusiastically told her how my son had coped so well with his, and how his twin's early death from a major birth abnormality had really put things in perspective for us. Maybe because I was pregnant myself, I found it really hard to read her letter a couple of weeks later, telling me they had decided to refuse as they were worried about the hospital treatment. I rationalised by thinking they did the child a favour, sending it to parents who did really want it. A base part of me would have knocked them off the adoption list (but I got over that) and saw them a few years later with a healthy 'normal' toddler. She didn't linger to chat though.

[Kelly McEntee]

What a lovely story. It does seem hard that the original adoptive parents changed their minds but with a child of their own on the way, I can understand it. Little Emma does deserve the love of a good family and Elizabeth, Daniel and Paul are perfect. Somethings are destiny and this is one of those things. I wish them all the luck in the world and i wish little Emma a long and healthy life.

[Juliana Dryden]

I want to find and contact a celebrity or famous perwon that is willing to speak out for this very common abnormality yet nobody knows about it. I do not know where to begin can you help me please. I have a 2 and a half year old son with DiGeorge syndrome.

[Annabel]

You have to wonder at the lives of the two who didn't give her a chance. We're they the sort that simply thought of a baby as a purchase to be returned if it was "broken", or are there faults in their own lives we should pity?

At least the story has a heart warming ending; worth reading.