Christmas with Emily

The following article won first place in the narrative category during the annual awards ceremony of the Canadian Church Press. Reprinted from December 21, 1998 (pages 21, 22)

Christmas with Emily

A Langley newborn beats the odds, thanks to prayers of people she'll never know

By Paul Schratz

Christmas is nine weeks old for Ron and Marie Rogers.

Nine weeks ago is when Emily Rogers arrived at B.C. Women's Hospital in a delivery room staffed by more than 20 nurses, doctors, medical personnel ...
and one priest.

By the time Emily left the hospital, weighing just over five pounds, she had been baptized with a hypodermic syringe, undergone two major operations, and bolstered the faith of thousands of people around the world who will probably never meet her.

Today, Emily thrives on love in the charming townhouse where she lives with her parents and their dog Murray, who has become Emily's protector.

Emily was born with what her medical file refers to as an "overt congenital abnormality" a gross omphalocele (em-PHAL-a-seel). As she grew within her mother's womb, her liver, stomach, intestines, bowel, and spleen developed outside her body.

Emily's birth and recovery is a testament to faith and the power of prayer, say her parents, Catholics from the new parish of St. Nicholas in Langley's Walnut Grove area. They knew the odds were against Emily. Her condition affects just one child in 10,000 and the chances of survival weren't good. "I really do believe the power of prayer helped us," said Ron, "and it really did help her. No baby has ever done better than her."

Emily needed those prayers. Almost from Day 1, the Rogers knew it wouldn't be an ordinary pregnancy. Their own family doctor was pro-life, but once Emily's medical problems became evident they had frequent encounters with medical specialists offering them the opportunity to terminate the pregnancy.

Absolutely pro-life, the couple, who have been married six years, devised a counter-strategy. They enlisted the prayers of everyone they knew. Then they began interviewing pro-life surgeons for Emily's arrival.

Emily's saga, and her fight for life, began last March when Marie realized she was pregnant. She went to her doctor, delighted, yet with an uneasy feeling that something wasn't right. Because a previous baby - David - had been stillborn in 1997, no chances were taken. Ultrasound tests were ordered, and the radiologist who reviewed them with her promptly determined there was "nothing there."

Marie insisted she was pregnant. "They were looking for a heartbeat at four weeks, but you cannot detect a heartbeat until five and a half." The radiologist insisted it was merely an unfertilized egg and suggested she merely wanted to be pregnant.

Then he announced he had booked a room for her to have a D & C to remove what was there.

Marie was shocked. "I said I've got to be 100 percent sure that there's no baby there." The radiologist's attitude unsettled her, and to this day she talks about sending him a picture saying "This is the baby that didn't exist."

Marie was indeed pregnant, and she had just overcome the first of many hurdles, as she began bi-weekly ultrasounds throughout a pregnancy that would be closely watched because of the previous stillbirth.

At 19 weeks, the Rogers' family physician, Dr. Steven Hansen of Langley, a solidly pro-life doctor, paid them a visit at home one evening to advise of "major complications." The ultrasound had detected an omphalocele and follow-up tests would need to be done the following week at B.C. Women's Hospital.

They knew that they could expect a confrontation at the hospital over the issue of continuing the pregnancy. "We knew that if we had to have an argument, we'd have to have an educated argument." So they spent the weekend doing research, particularly on the Internet.

They began interviewing surgeons, looking for those who wouldn't urge them to end the pregnancy. They also contacted pro-life circles and Father John Horgan (former chaplain at St. Paul's Hospital) for medical ethics advice.

B.C. Women's had its own bioethicist team, Marie said, but they wanted their own. "This is how seriously we take it, I mean you wouldn't leave your baby to the next-door neighbour that you don't really trust or know," said Marie.

"Another strategy we used was we named the baby," said Ron. "After we found out the sex, they started putting it in their charts. Instead of Fetus A, Fetus B, it was Emily Rogers. That helped to personalize it so they could see that was a baby."

Calls for prayer began spreading immediately. Ron talked to a neighbour, pastor of Vineyard church across the street. "The support they gave was just wonderful, having their congregation pray, visiting us in the hospital." Pro-life offices started an international prayer chain. A Grade 6 class at Holy Trinity Catholic School in North Vancouver wrote cards and prayers, joining their prayers with their parish and individuals from schools, churches, and other faiths all over the Lower Mainland.

On Monday they went to B.C. Women's Hospital, where they spent the entire day undergoing a battery of tests, meeting with medical staff, including a perineonatologist and genetic counsellors. As expected, the option of abortion was offered.

When they insisted they were proceeding with the pregnancy, the issue of amniocentesis arose. Half of babies born with Emily's condition have chromosomal problems, and an amnio could determine whether Emily fit that pattern. "We were strongly against the general use of amniocentesis," Ron said. An amnio during Marie's first pregnancy had caused complications with the birth, but the Rogers decided to undergo the procedure to determine whether any problems could be corrected before birth.

"We were never worried about the results," said Ron. "I didn't care, we just wanted a life. We didn't care what God gave us; I always said God gives special kids to special people."

Unfortunately, Marie's membranes ruptured as a result, just one of the complications she had to contend with. She went on short-term leave from her credit union job, and opted to spend the pregnancy getting bed rest. "We kept ourselves up, but 40 weeks seems so far when you're at 20 and there are complications," she said. Even the medical personnel weren't giving them much hope.

One doctor offered to do the Rogers a "favour" of providing an abortion up to 24 weeks if they changed their minds, said Marie, "which just hurt us ... that they thought they were doing me a favour."

Prayers and support got them through the remainder of the pregnancy, and at 36 weeks, the time had come. The C-section was scheduled for Monday, Oct. 19. They spent the weekend in hospital, Marie feeling like "a ticking time bomb."

The C-section went well. Under the skilled hands of three surgical teams, Emily was born at 1226 p.m., emerging loud and crying. Father Mark Hagemoen quickly baptized her with sterile water from a syringe, and Emily's temporarily external organs were immediately wrapped in gauze until they could be placed inside her abdomen four hours later. The Rogers knew there was a 30 percent chance she wouldn't survive that long.

Survive she did, and in a two-hour operation, her spleen, stomach, and bowel were put back inside her. Her liver remained outside, under a "silo" constructed to cover the organ until it settled by itself into the body cavity over the next few days.

The plan went like clockwork, and six days later surgeons closed Emily up. Through her surgical ordeal, Emily was immobilized on drugs, fed sugar water by IV, and kept on a ventilator so she couldn't cry. All the while, doctors worried about infection. Marie would not be able to cuddle her for two weeks.

After surgery, Emily was transferred next door to B.C. Children's Hospital, where she rallied immediately, doing better than anyone expected. On Nov. 19, exactly one month after her birth, she headed home.

Before leaving the hospital, the Rogers held a thank-you party for the staff.

"The level of care at Children's was unbelievable, and the care on their faces was unbelievable," said Ron.

The Rogers proudly display photo albums of black-and-white pictures taken by staff to document the procedure. Surgeons plan to use the photos to educate obstetricians at Women's Hospital, "to say that these babies have a better chance than they think," said Marie.

Undoubtedly the Rogers' faith has left an impact on the medical staff they dealt with. One surgeon told Marie he understood why Emily had made such good progress, acknowledging it was because of the prayer chain.

Even those who put the abortion option before them seem to have been touched. One such doctor saw Emily sucking her thumb at 23 weeks on ultrasound. "She had tears in her eyes just before she left," Marie said. "I know we affected her by using her name, by being so caring, by being so loving toward the baby."

Emily appears to have no other anomalies, and her prognosis is good. The Rogers now hope they can become a resource for other parents. "We said we'd be open to anybody who has a baby with this condition to call us, said Ron. "There is hope; don't give up on those babies."

Marie looks back over the pregnancy and remembers one doctor who suggested that consigning Emily to a life of suffering so she could have a child was selfish. "I squeezed Ron's hand, and I said, `Am I that pathetic - that I'm not able to see past myself?'

"Then I said, `I'm not.'"

Emily will vouch for that.

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