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When Quentin and Jodi Peterson’s baby was born they were pressured by a doctor to starve their newborn son… because he had a cleft lip and palate. Aidan was born with a bilateral cleft lip and palate. His father Quentin explains that this condition occurs in about 1/700 children, and can be corrected with surgeries.
Quentin, Jodi and Aidan Peterson shared their story with Kristi Burton Brown of Live Action News.org. Aidan’s mother Jodi recalled the day Aidan made his entry into the world:
“The day after he was born, Aidan was taken into the NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit) because he was unable to breastfeed, and was becoming dehydrated and weak. The hospital did not have the type of bottles babies with a cleft use to feed. The hospital pediatrician called my husband into the nursery and advised us to sign Aidan over to the hospital. He told us that we were still young, we could still have other children, and that these kids (kids with cleft lip and palate) tend to have neurological problems, he would require many surgeries that could bankrupt us, and that if we were foolish enough to ignore medical advice and take our baby home he would end right back at the hospital as a “failure to thrive.”
The “treatment plan” the doctor told us was that they’d give our son pain medicine, and let him die (of starvation and dehydration). Jodi began to cry and refused, at which point the doctor turned to Quentin and said, “Get her out of here, she’s being irrational.” He thought he would have a better chance at convincing Quentin to leave the baby.
He was wrong. Quentin also refused to sign the papers. We didn’t have a plan, and didn’t know where to find help, but we could not fathom abandoning our son to a certain death alone. It had to be the grace of God, to give us courage to choose life when the hospital authority was telling us otherwise. It was for both of us, the absolute scariest time in our lives…
We couldn’t believe they were giving Aidan this death sentence, but we would not abandon him. We could not imagine anything more heartbreaking than to have a helpless child left alone for the brief entirety of his life. Even if he had one day to live, he would spend that day being loved by us.
Then God’s providence stepped in. A nurse contacted a woman who herself was born with a cleft lip and palate who ran a local support group. She brought us the cleft palate nurser bottles. (These are supposed to be in every hospital, and all nursing and medical staff are to be trained to use them since it’s a fairly common birth defect.) This meant that our baby was finally able to eat. That hungry baby took his first bottle and rested in our arms. This was an unbelievable blessing. We did take him home, and he thrived. He has had eight surgeries to correct his lip and palate and associated difficulties like ear tubes, bone grafts, and scarring, and we’re anticipating a few more in the future.”
Aidan has now reached the age of fifteen and is attending high school. He has two younger siblings and his interest are numerous. Aidan said:
“Looking back on my life, I’m very glad that my parents fought so hard for me, and disappointed that life seems to be so cheap in this generation..For any and all parents who are stuck in the same or similar situation that my parents were, listen up. Your kid is worth it, be he or she mentally or physically disabled..
We wholeheartedly agree. Life is the better answer, always better than choosing death by starvation/ dehydration for your baby. Aidan is living proof of a life- affirming decision made by his parents.
 
Source: Burton Brown, Kristi. Doctor insists parents choose starvation and slow death for baby born with cleft palate.  LiveActionNews.org. January 31, 2013