An article in LifeNews.com dated 29 September describes the distressing experience of two-year-old Lila’s parents when they took her to a local hospital for treatment for a respiritory infection.
Lila has Trisomy 18 (Edwards Syndrome) a chromosome abnormality. She had been hospitalized twice in the past month for a total of about 11 days for a bronchiole infection and lack of oxygenation. One evening, her oxygen saturation started dropping and on the advice of her paediatrician, Lila’s parents took her to the hospital.
The respiratory therapist gave Lila a breathing treatment and stated that her lungs sounded coarse which means she had mucous in her lungs.
While the resident and attending doctors in ER wanted to have her admitted, the PICU resident and attending physicians who come down to look at Lila claimed that she had an ear infection and could return home.
Knowing that the respiratory therapist said her lungs sounded coarse, Lila’s mother did not accept this and explained her fears about how many trisomy children pass away from respiratory problems.
“At that point, the doctor from the PICU looked Kayse (Lila’s mother) in the eye and asked if she knew anything about trisomy 18 children and their life expectancies, and how Lila is past her life expectancy.”
Lila’s parents obviously know a great deal about trisomy 18 and were understandably upset by this insensitive remark and insulting question. “Ït is an attack on the value of Lila’s very life.”
The writer asks the following pertinent questions: “Is this doctor the arbiter of whose life is worthy of treatment? Should Lila now have treatment withheld so she will simply die and go away? Why should Lila not be offered the same level of care as any other child? How is Lila’s life worth less than the other children in the hospital?”
Read the original article here.
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