Paralysed mother may still give birth

Press, 22 September 1980, Page 1

Paralysed mother may still give birth

NZPA-AP Everett, Washington Laris Calleja lies paralysed in a hospital bed, breathing with the aid of a respirator and eating through a tube. Botulism has left her unable to speak or even to close her eyes, but in her womb a flve-months-and-a-half foetus is growing normally. Doctors say Mrs Calleia, aged 25, may become the first woman to give birth after contracting the often-fatal disease. She was about two-months-and-half pregnant when she ate . a spoonful of homecanned spinach. Within 36 hours she was totally paralysed, a victim of botulism poisoning. She is in the intensivecare unit at Providence Hospital. Sonograms, pictures made with sound waves;shoW' thatjherunbom baby is growing, “steadily and its heartbeat appears to be normal. Botulism is the. most deadly known ’ form of food poisoning. But the toxin left Mrs Calleja’s brain and nerves undamaged and doctors say that time and therapy will enable her to regain muscular control. “It’s almost as if you are trapped in your own

body, aware of all the stimuli of the environment around you but unable to respond to them,” said Dr Darwin Petersen, a lung specialist at the Everett Clinic. Dr Petersen and Dr Michael Eshleman, the Callejas’, family doctor said that a computer search of English-language medical literature and consultations with experts throughout the United States had revealed no case of a woman carrying a baby to delivery after contracting botulism in the first three months of pregnancy. “All we can say right now is that the baby seems to be growing at a normal rate,” said Dr Eshleman. ' The pregnancy has complicated Mrs Calleja’s recovery because the unborn baby is cannibalising mi- < trients. and sapping, her strength.. ■ . .‘-"■S.Mrs-’sSCalleja" and her husband, Luis, have three children, all girls. “She was such an active and outgoing person:’This is our test of faith,” said Mr Calleja. Dr Petersen said, “The immediate goal is to get her off the respirator but we are talking about up to a year of treatment and rehabilitation to get her back home.”