Annoying NY Times article

Amazingly enough it has nothing to do with politics but this.

Very Premature Babies Are Still at Risk, Researchers Find

By Denise Grandy
Published: July 20, 2005

Children born prematurely at weights of 2.2 pounds or less during the 1990's have high rates of mental and physical disability, despite advances in treatment that doctors had hoped would improve their conditions, researchers are reporting today.

Nothing terribly surprising so far. Dear Wife and I have personal experience in this matter, our son was born at 28 weeks and 5 days gestation in January 2003. Unfortunately Daniel died 14.5 hours after birth.

I'm going to reverse part of the article. My main part is coming last.

The study was the first to look at how very premature children born at the Cleveland hospital during the 1990's were faring when they reached school age. It included 219 8-year-old children born from 1992 to 1995. Most were from the inner city, and about 61 percent were black. Blacks have higher rates of premature births than do whites.

This is just one hospital, and not necessarily a balanced survey because of it being heavily waited towards black children in the inner city where the families were most likely poor and some of the mothers not getting adequate pre-natal care. The article makes no mention of these being factored in so the study can't be taken as holy grail.

Asthma, cerebral palsy, vision and hearing disorders, low I.Q., poor school performance and social difficulties are among the problems described in The Journal of the American Medical Association by doctors at Rainbow Babies and Children's Hospital in Cleveland. Such disabilities were far more common in the children born prematurely than in normal-weight children from similar backgrounds. For example, 38 percent of those born prematurely had I.Q.'s below 85, as opposed to 14 percent of the normal-weight children. Among the premature, 21 percent had asthma, compared with 9 percent of those with normal weight.

"We were astonished by the high number who had at least one of those things," said Dr. Deanne Wilson-Costello, an author of the article in the journal. "The majority had some kind of special need."

What Dr. Costello says is true. Some of the medical issues premature babies face are temporary and recoverable from, some are permanent. In the early months all babies born that premature will be special needs children.

But here's the annoying part. What is asthma doing in this grouping? Cerebral palsy, sight and hearing problems asthma etc are associated with premature babies. That's fine but the article goes on to talk about disabilities. Asthma isn't a disability. My dear wife is an asthmatic. Very few people who have this medical issue or even doctors would call it a disability. This is just dumb.

Then the article's author Ms. Grundy tops it off by citing Low IQ and asthma statistics side by side. Again very very dumb. Then the article gets more annoying.

"Over the last few years I think the trend has been for more intervention with these very tiny babies," said Dr. Richard Polin, the director of neonatology at Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital of NewYork-Presbyterian. Decisions are usually made by doctors and parents on a case-by-case basis, Dr. Polin said, adding that most hospitals would strongly recommend trying to save babies 26 weeks and over. Below that age, he said, many doctors will lay out the risks for parents and give them the option of not pursuing treatment.

"It's extraordinarily controversial, what I'm saying," Dr. Polin said. "Some people will get incensed about giving those families a decision about whether to go ahead."

That's putting it mild Dr. Polin. Put yourself in the shoes of a parent for once in your life. If your child can live, no matter what the small chance, what are you going to do. TELL ME!

It's really these liberal idiots who have little regard for human life(IE- The Pro Choice crowd). There thinking is so perverse, they don't see the parent who spent eight weeks on hospital bedrest doing what ever it takes to give their child a chance at life. That was my dear wife less than three years ago. A good mother or father will do anything for their child and love them no matter what.

And who is to decide a handicap isn't worth living with? There are millions of deaf and blind people who think they lead a life worth living and their families who love them. Dr. Pollin and Ms. Grundy are a couple of morons from the left where the culture of death is so pervasive. Which end of the political spectrum was almost cheering on the death of Terry Schiavo? Tell ME NY TIMES.

Dr. Wilson-Costello said that although the study findings might influence some doctors' thinking about whether to try to save infants, parents would be less likely to act on the basis of data.

She said: "In October I became the mother of a 750-gram baby who had many problems and nearly died many times over. Now I know that as a parent making these kinds of decisions is very difficult, and you will cling to any last hope that exists." A 750-gram baby weighs less than 2 pounds.

See there is one doctor who understands. She's been through the same experience the wife and I went through. I don't know if her child is alive but I'm sure Dr. Wilson-Costello has no regrets and feels richer for the child she gave birth to. God bless the Doctor and her child.

This article came at the wrong time for m e. Today in 2002 may very well have been the day me and Dear wife conceived Daniel. Yes we have a good guess at when it could have happened.(It could also be this Friday) Our son Daniel was only with us a short time, but his memory will never fade for either me or my wife.