Necie Franklin of Flowood, Mississippi, told LifeSiteNews.com that Dr. Kenny Robbins of River Oaks Hospital refused to treat daughter Jessa Mackenzie after she was born suddenly in May, because she was three days shy of 23 weeks gestation - at which point he would have considered treating her at the hospital's Level II neonatal intensive care unit. She says Jessa's heart beat for about an hour and a half before she died, during which time the family pleaded for treatment, to no avail.
Dr. Robbins said "resuscitation was not indicated" for Jessa. Only after 23 weeks would parents be allowed to choose whether to permit resuscitation, said Robbins, "because outcomes are very poor in this age range and even those who survive have a high risk of permanent complications."
Dr. Paul Byrne, M.D., the Director of Pediatrics and Neonatology at St. Charles Mercy Hospital in Oregon, Ohio, disagrees. "There is no specific gestational age at which a baby cannot survive outside the uterus." He has known of infants as young as 18 weeks' gestation to survive. The limiting factor is related to whether the baby's trachea is large enough to allow a 2.5 millimeter tube to be inserted to aid breathing. Byrne said that Robbins' use of the term "potentially viable" was "not the correct approach."
No comments:
Post a Comment