Listen here to "What Will Happen to Baby Joseph?": An interview of Dr. Martin McCaffrey, a neonatalogist at the University of North Carolina/ Chapel Hill, where he discusses the 'covert' mission to rescue 'Baby Joseph" from a hospital in Ontario, Canada.
At the Consent and Capacity Board hearing in London Ontario, a board created to keep cases out of the superior court in Ontario. The board had three members (an attorney, a community member, and a psychiatrist) and after hearing the lawyers speak they concluded that the family was not acting in the best interest of their 14 month old son Joseph and removed parental rights to decisions for their child and placed it in the hands of the Doctors caring for him in the hospital. During the hearing the most concerning statement was made by the attorney who was appointed by the hospital to represent Baby Joseph and she stated,
" The parents have their own views, opinions, values, and beliefs... To prolong Joseph's life serves them in their needs... (Joseph) he did not have values and beliefs and he could not think... Joseph deserved to have his parents make decisions that put his best interest ahead of their own... that they (the parents) could not base a decision for him (Joseph) on their own needs."
STATEN ISLAND, March 14, 2011 /Christian Newswire/ -- Under cover of darkness, Father Frank Pavone, national director of Priests for Life, arrived in Ontario, Canada, Sunday night to rescue Baby Joseph Maraachli from the London Health Sciences Centre. For two weeks, doctors at the hospital in London, Ontario, have been delaying the baby's transfer to a hospital where efforts to save his life will not be officially labeled "futile."
"I knew, after this dragged on day after day, that I needed to be here myself to get Baby Joseph to safety," said Father Pavone. "He needs to be in a hospital that cherishes life over the bottom line. After around-the-clock negotiations, this really became a race against time." Father Pavone was accompanied by Priests for Life staff, who were there to assure the transfer proceeded smoothly.
Baby Joseph and his father, Moe Maraachli, were flown with Father Pavone to SSM Cardinal Glennon Children's Medical Center in St. Louis, Mo., on a specially equipped air ambulance provided by Michigan-based Kalitta Charters, and sponsored and paid for by the New York City-based Priests for Life.
"If there is a chance this boy can live, we have to explore every option," said Father Pavone, who was to arrive back home in New York earlier today after weekend speaking engagements in Cleveland. Instead, he flew to Detroit and then on to Canada, vowing not to leave the country until he had Baby Joseph and his father with him.
"Priests for Life staff toiled through the night for many nights, working in concert with dozens of people to make this possible," Father Pavone said of the nighttime rescue mission. "Now that we have won the battle against the medical bureaucracy in Canada, the real work of saving Baby Joseph can begin."
Father Pavone said Baby Joseph's transfer was accomplished through the efforts of a number of people, including his parents; family spokesman Sam Sansalone; family attorney Claudio Martini; Bobby Schindler of the Terri Schiavo Life & Hope Network, St. Petersburg, Fla.; Dr. Martin McCaffrey, a neonatologist at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, Medical School; the Rev. Pat Mahoney, director of the Christian Defense Coalition in Washington, D.C., and attorney CeCe Heil from the American Center for Law and Justice, also in D.C. Father Frank also thanked the many other Canadian pro-life groups and individuals who have been consistent and heroic in their advocacy for Baby Joseph and for all the vulnerable.
"We are united across national boundaries to continue to work together for a Culture of Life," Father Pavone said.
The medical judgments about Baby Joseph made by LHSC physicians remain unchallenged by any credible medical or legal source. Those judgments remain supported by 9 pediatric specialists in Ontario as well as pediatric specialists in the U.S. and Europe, Ontario's Consent and Capacity Board, and the Superior Court of Ontario, as being in the best interests of Baby Joseph...
LHSC's plan of care did not involve performing a tracheostomy, which is not a palliative procedure. It is an invasive procedure in which a device is installed in a hole cut in the throat. It is frequently indicated for patients who require a long-term breathing machine. This is not, unfortunately, the case with Baby Joseph, because he has a progressive neurodegenerative disease that is fatal.
Baby Joseph shown here is in danger from none other than the Neonatologists that are caring for him in a hospital in London, Ontario Canada:
Please pray that the family will be allowed to have a tracheotomy placed so that they may take their son home or another facility will take this baby Joseph to another Medical Facility where they will allow him to be cared for and the parents wishes will be respected as the best judgement for the well being of their child...
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