Baby born without a brain lives for first birthday
Posted : Dec 16, 2009 10:23 PM
Updated: Dec 18, 2009 6:37 AM
Pueblo, Colorado--A baby boy in Pueblo is a living miracle. Nicholas Coke was born without a brain. This week he's marked a milestone nobody dreamed could happen.
Coke was born with a genetic disease called Anencephaly. He had no brain, just a brain stem. His mom Sheena says, "He can't see, he can't hear, he can't suck. He doesn't crawl, doesn't sit up."
Most of these babies die within hours, but Nicholas survived a few days, then a few months.
A year later, it's a true Christmas miracle. He is at a party to celebrate his first birthday. Sheena says, "He's a miracle. He's changed so many lives."
He somehow survived without doctors, or tubes. Sheena says he even shows signs of emotion. "He's smiling. He's laughed for the first time. It was wonderful to hear him laugh," says Sheena.
With this joy, comes a constant thought. How long can little Nicholas fight? Sheena tears up as she says, "It's hard to know that I'm going to be burying my son soon, but it's wonderful to know he's made it a year."
So, they take advantage of every moment. They celebrate every milestone as if it's their last, and keep hope that their Saint Nicholas will continue to fight for his life.
Neil at Dec 20th 2009 9:04 AM
Human spirit? Show me the humanity in any of this. As for the child, he experiences the life as if he were a reptile, more or less. You may reflect your emotions upon him as if he were your pet snake.
As for how "well-loved" he is, all this makes him is a focus for others' emotions. It's a hollow excuse people can drag out to prolong this poor thing's ultimately fruitless existence.
And you say you're seeing emotion? You're not. That's wishful thinking, like seeing emotion in your car or your computer.
As misanthropic and hateful as this sounds, that poor child isn't human, in any meaningful sense of the word. He is simply tragedy and loss wrapped up in human trappings. I wish the doctors and parents had had the heart to release him from the thoughtless, meaningless hell that is is existence, rather than being so selfish as to drag him along to suit their own needs.
soma at Dec 20th 2009 10:25 AM
amazing that he shows emotion without a brain, let alone survived... I thought emotion is supposed to be 'chemical reactions within the brain?' too right he's changed a lot of lives, I think he's gonna change a lot more! This might totally revolutionize how scientists think of the soul.
James at Dec 20th 2009 2:38 PM
How is any of this a miracle or heartwarming? The baby was born without a brain. It sucks, I feel bad for the family, I can't even imagine how difficult that is, but to try to play this all off like a positive thing is beyond depraved. It may sound cruel to say it, but there is no "human" in that being.
I am Christian, I believe in God, but saying that this is God's great work and only shows how good he is is completely backwards. Why is he credited for keeping this body alive, but not for removing its brain in the first place?
Emma at Dec 20th 2009 2:47 PM
Christ, how horrible. That poor child suffered a whole year, because of the selfish adults who want to keep him around like a doll to cart around. Just so this woman can say she has a child, this baby boy who never has had nor ever will have a thought or idea, never has known nor ever will know his parents, has never seen and never will see a sunrise or his mother's smile, has never heard nor ever will hear his mother singing him to sleep or telling him she loves him, and does not know and never will know and enjoy his parents' love for him, has suffered constant seizures and breathing problems and twitches and leaks of various kinds, constant pain and zero quality of life--heck, really it isn't even a life; it's an existance. Yet thse people will not let him die with dignity. Instead they dress him up like a shamefull little puppet.
What disgusting people thse parents are.
ollie at Dec 20th 2009 4:11 PM
wow i cant belive alot you that call yourself humans. this little boy is a human and so are his parents. they are not playing god. nor can anyone. to call these people disqusting for letting there son live? how are you all to judge what qualty of life is? you may think that homeless people have poor qualty of life shall we kill them? call them disqusting? and life is what you make it. that child has alot of love in his heart. look in the mirror and ask yourself this question. what if i had a child that the doctors said wouldnt live the next day?
happy birthday, merry x-mas, and have a happy new year nicholas