The Boy in the Bubble

[judecorp]

I'm half-heartedly watching an episode of "American Experience" on PBS about The Boy in the Bubble. It's a fascinating subject, I just can't bear to watch that much television. So I'm half listening and half doing other things, like updating my resume.

I have such mixed feelings about some of the "heroic" measures that some doctors take with special needs kids. I'm sure I could feel differently if I were in that situation, but for now, it just makes me nervous. I mean, this kid was trapped in this plastic playroom because doctors promised his parents a cure for his immunodeficiency and then couldn't do it.

I see the same thing with some of the micro-preemies that are in my program. One of my clients is a former 21-weeker and it is just amazing and staggering to think about all of the interventions that were performed to keep her alive. And then who knows what the long-term effects are going to be? She's 6 months old now and looks/acts like a 3 month old, so it's hard to tell. There are soooo many things that can go wrong with micro-preemies.

Some countries won't even attempt to intervene on babies born before a certain time, like 24 or 26 or 28 weeks. As a clinician I can see the reasoning, but as a parent? What if we get pregnant and have a micro-preemie? Will I be singing the same tune?

Sometimes I think too much.

Comments

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

No. What do they do?

[vorpalbla.livejournal.com]

Well, in the mountains of Tibet, it's cold and windy and the common people's life is full of very hard physical work. Traditionally, infant and child mortality has been very high. So they would dip the baby, naked, in mountain spring water up to its neck for a minute or two. Then they would dry it off and keep it warm.
If it survived, it was strong enough for life in the mountains of Tibet.

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

Wow, that's fascinating. And cold!