Update on Baby Joseph - Received Tracheotomy Monday

Baby Joseph Maraachli finally received the tracheotomy on Monday morning at Cardinal Glennon Children’s Medical Center in St. Louis MO. The surgury began at about 8 am CDT. In a statement issued by Cardinal Glennon it said that he "is currently in the pediatric intensive care unit, where tracheotomy patients routinely spend 7 to 10 days following the procedure. After he is discharged from SSM Cardinal Glennon, Joseph will travel to Ranken Jordan – A Pediatric Specialty Hospital in St. Louis before being transported to his family home in Windsor."

The same statement went on to say: "It is our hope that this procedure will allow Joseph and his family the gift of a few more months together and that Joseph may be more comfortable with a permanent tracheotomy."

The statement ended by asking that we "keep Baby Joseph and his family in your prayers." Something I gladly echo.

Despite the attitutde by the London hospital as Fr. Pavone rightly points out, this is not an extraordinary treatment that can be refused or denied. "Ordinary medical treatments are those that provide a reasonable hope of benefit without an excessive burden. Baby Joseph received today a wonderful benefit, through the love of his parents and the professional care of the Cardinal Glennon Children’s Medical Center."

“We at Priests for Life continue to challenge those in our society – whether medical professionals, government officials, or anyone else – to stop putting a price tag on human life. The idea that some lives are not worth living belongs to a past age of worn-out philosophies leading to massive holocausts that deserve to be bad memories on the ash heap of history, not threatening clouds on its horizon,” Fr. Pavone added.

London Health Sciences Centre has yet to say anything about the latest developments but it has kept up on their website the 13 March statement saying "The medical judgments about Baby Joseph made by LHSC physicians remain unchallenged by any credible medical or legal source." Apparently they don't consider Caedinal Glennon's actions credible. Or, as I suspect is the truth, LHSC isn't going to admit they were wrong & doing it for the reasons Fr. Pavone said to try & save face.

I also suspect that, while they may have gotten a few threats from cranks (something I wholeheartely decry & deplore), it will turn out that their accusations against US groups were false. In fact that whole statement reads more like it was written by a lawyer trying to provide legal cover for what the hospital did that a physician or someone who actually cares about Baby Joseph.

Click here for photos of Baby Joseph after surgery

Sources: Baby Joseph gets tracheotomy, will be able to go home
Baby Joseph Maraachli Receives Tracheotomy Today at Hospital
Baby Joseph has surgery for breathing tube at Cardinal Glennon
Baby Joseph's surgery was successful