Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2002/08/08
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]If I may quote Gilbert: "Bullshit!" - -----Original Message----- From: owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us [mailto:owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us] On Behalf Of Allan Wafkowski Sent: Thursday, August 08, 2002 10:51 PM To: leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us Subject: Re: [Leica] Dumb camera thieves (long but hoping Allan will end his comments) I disagree with your choice, but I do understand the difficult decision you made and would have never used your decision to buttress an argument against you. Allan On Thursday, August 8, 2002, at 07:54 PM, Simon Lamb wrote: > Let me enlighten you as to why I said what I said, just so you are left > in > no doubt, and why an abortion is sometimes the right choice to make. > > Four years ago, and after having had two girls, my wife was pregnant > with > our third child. We were very much hoping for a boy as it would have > completed our lovely family. When she went for the second ultrasound > scan > the hospital detected an abnormality in the baby's heart, which was > later > diagnosed as hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS). This meant that > the > left side of the baby's heart had not formed so there was only one side > functioning. To compound this, it was discovered after further scans > that > the right side had a leak in the valve between the upper and lower > chambers, > and so that side was not properly functioning. > > We were told by three consultants that the baby would die within > minutes of > being born and that, although there is a possibility of correcting > HLHS, it > would not be possible in our case. The corrective treatment involves > three > open heart operations, the first of which is carried out 24 hours after > the > birth. The success rate is very, very small. The other complicating > factor > was that the baby could die whilst in the womb, which would then have > endangered my wife. > > By now my wife was distraught, as was I, and we had to decide what to > do. > Should she go the full term, knowing the risk to her if the baby died > in the > womb and that if she went the full term she could hold our newborn baby > for > a few minutes before hearing it's last breath, or should she be induced > in > order to have the baby prematurely, in which case it would die before > coming > into the world. We had two weeks to decide and they were the worst two > weeks of our lives. > > We decided to have the bay prematurely, or as you would say Allan, we > aborted the pregnancy. > > We spent three days in the hospital waiting for the inducing to work, > wishing deep down that it wouldn't because we knew we would see our dead > baby at the end of it all. Eventually the baby was born. The nurse > picked > the baby up and told us it was a boy. I still have dreams in which I > can > hear my wife screaming 'No', a long lingering scream because she so > wanted > to give me a son, and I would have loved to have had one too. The > nurse let > us hold our son and we both wept and told him we were sorry. > > That was four years ago. Every single week since then, I have heard my > wife > crying. Sometime I hear her in bed sobbing herself to sleep, and there > is > nothing I can do to comfort her. Some times I cry too. I am now. > > Don’t lecture me or anyone on this list or any other list about the > rights > and wrongs of abortion. Sometimes there are reasons why abortion is the > option that must be taken, for the sake of all the souls concerned. > > We made our choice and we have to live with it, and the pain that will > never > go away. But it was the right choice. > > -- > To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html - -- To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html - -- To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html