Strategic thinking, creative writing
  • About
  • Services
    • Coaching
    • English laundry
  • Free Trial
  • Clients
  • Blog

Let's converse

The short life of Baby Milo

24/5/2023

0 Comments

 
Picture
What does one do when the law that is blind to both medicine and compassion makes a mother carry a pregnancy though it is clear that the baby can only survive for a few hours?

Baby Milo arrived in the world with no kidneys, underdeveloped lungs and a life expectancy of between 20 minutes and a couple of hours. He lived for 99 minutes. On March 3, 2023.

Mother Deborah and her husband, Lee, had learned in late November that their baby had Potter syndrome, a rare and lethal condition.

As long as their baby’s heart kept beating, the doctors would not honor their request to terminate the pregnancy. The new Florida law on abortion carries severe penalties, including prison time, for medical practitioners who run afoul of it. Everyone knew the baby would not survive. Yet, the parents had to wait for labor to be induced at 37 weeks.

The Dorberts consulted with palliative care experts and decided against trying to prolong his life with high-tech interventions.

The day before Milo was born, the Dorberts sat down with their son Kaiden to explain that the baby’s body had stopped working and that he would not come home. Instead, someday, they told Kaiden, they would all meet as angels. The 4-year-old burst into tears, telling them that he did not want to be an angel.

After Deborah’s 12-hour labor, Milo turned out to be 4 pounds and 12 ounces of perfection, with tiny, flawlessly formed hands and feet and a head of brown hair.

The obstetrician cut the umbilical cord that for 37 weeks had performed the functions Milo’s underdeveloped lungs and missing kidneys would now take over.

Milo remained blue, swaddled in a blanket hand-knit by his great-grandmother. He never cried or tried to nurse or even opened his eyes, investing every ounce of energy in intermittent gasps for air.

For 99 minutes that lasted a lifetime, they cuddled and comforted their newborn. At 11:13 p.m., a doctor declared Milo dead.

At the service, the pastor from a local Lutheran church had a message for the congregation. “Not everything happens for a reason,” she said, echoing Deborah’s own rejection that the manner of Milo’s birth and death carried some special spiritual significance.
 
Deborah wants other people to know what happened, how politicians intervened in decisions about medical care with a law that made doctors fearful of terminating even hopeless pregnancies.

“If it helps another family or a mom, then good came of it because we’re all here to help one another,” Deborah said. “It’s not something easy to go through alone. You need all the support you can get.”

​
I am not an expert in medicine or law. But I have a question for my compassionate friends in palliative care. How do you console, how do you care when law blocks your path, and medicine can only stand by?

This is adapted from the report in The Washington Post. Please read the whole story here. Image from the report.


0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    RSS Feed

    Author

    Vijayakumar Kotteri

    Picture

    Categories

    All
    Book Extract
    Cancer
    Community Support
    Compassionate Care
    Covid 19
    Covid-19
    CSR
    Customer Care
    Death And Life
    Film Based
    Film-based
    Human Relations
    Musings
    On Communications
    On Writing
    Organ Donation
    Pallitiave Care
    Published Story Extracts
    Stories On The Go
    Unseen Faces

    Archives

    May 2025
    April 2025
    March 2025
    January 2025
    December 2024
    November 2024
    October 2024
    September 2024
    August 2024
    July 2024
    June 2024
    May 2024
    April 2024
    March 2024
    February 2024
    January 2024
    November 2023
    October 2023
    September 2023
    August 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    August 2021
    April 2021
    September 2020
    August 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    August 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    October 2018
    September 2018
    September 2017
    July 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016

    Earlier posts
Picture
COMPREHENSIVE SUPPORT
BLOG WRITING
ENGLISH LAUNDRY
COACHING IN WRITING
PICK WHAT YOU NEED

© 1996-2025 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
​PRIVACY POLICY
  • About
  • Services
    • Coaching
    • English laundry
  • Free Trial
  • Clients
  • Blog