Saturday, January 30, 2010

Unplugged

When it comes to making medical decisions, things are rarely black and white. There are laws regulating actions and also people's opinion to be considered before anything is done.

When I first read about baby Isaiah May, I was thinking: perhaps pulling the plug on a child who has permanent brain damage isn't a bad thing. But you gotta consider the parents; you may say that they are young and could have other children, but this is their child one is considering to allow to die. How many parents can make the decision to end their offspring this way when the baby has shown so much in the face of negativity?

Then there will be voices saying, "Who'll be footing the bill for the baby to be placed on ventilation? Should you spend precious resources on a child who may not survive his first year or on another baby who has got a better fighting chance?" It appears that the young parents are not financially well-off; most likely the government is paying for the treatment. Does this mean that children of poor people have less value than the children of those who can afford the care?

Decisions, decisions. I wouldn't want to be the hospital administrator in this issue.

However, I was appalled that the doctors allowed the mother to suffer 40 freakin' hours of labour . It's a miracle she still had the energy to push. Which also brings to mind, why on earth wasn't the foetus monitored for distress? Surely the foetus would have exhibited some kind of distress with the umbilical cord strangling him while he's trying to make way for the exit? When my sister was in labour for barely 4 hours, they monitored the foetus constantly and when the foetus showed signs of distress, she was immediately whisked into the operation theatre for a Caesarean procedure.

On top of that, isn't it common procedure for the foetus to be extracted via C-section when the labour is prolonged? Surely one of the biggest reason the labour took so long is because the baby is choking on the cord and couldn't get out. Is anyone looking at this hideous oversight / poor policy in the labour ward that caused the poor child and his parents so much suffering?

5 comments:

. said...

Ahh.. complicated... Rest assured his destiny is in the hands of God.

Oh, and I like Muse too.

What have I been up to lately? Well, I was just about to delete my post "Let's be realistic" until you commented on it. Will still be rewriting it though. Originally I was feeling emo and wanted to write that but then I was busy so I wrote that post when I wasn't emo. Doesn't really have the effect, no? Guess I'll wait till I'm emo again to write it.

Snuze said...

Muse is having a concert in Singapore! My friend who had the opp to see them live a couple of years back said that they are awesome and sounded better than the CD. *grin*

Being emo is still better than being Elmo, no?

. said...

Wargh! I can't even afford concert tickets what more going to Singapore?? N I so hate people who made it to the MCR concert two (or is it one? three?) years ago.

Yup, better than being Elmo. Haha.

Snuze said...

Dude! Placebo is coming here next month. Are you going?

I'm kinda torn between Placebo and Pink Martini (can only go to one). How ah?

*ponders*

. said...

Err... x pernah dengar both :P Terpaksa google

Erm, go for the band?