Mother pleads

Press, 9 January 1986, Page 6

Mother pleads

NZPA-AP Boston Three months ago, Lynn and Jack Bellingham thought they would do anything to save their deformed newborn son, Ricky.

After approving 13 surgical procedures at a cost of ?USI million (about $2 million), the couple is now preparing to go to court to demand that a Boston children’s hospital relinquish control of the infant and let him “die in peace, not pain”. “Enough is enough,” said Mrs Bellingham, aged 26. “My question to the hospital is, ‘what do they consider life?’ The baby has a right to be at peace like any other human being.” Ricky has been in intensive care since his birth on September 24, five weeks premature. He has a deformed oesophagus and tra-

chea, a liver infection, internal bleeding, blot clotting Eroblems, an enlarged gall ladder and a hernia. He is sedated with morphine, connected to an artificial respirator and fed through a tube to his stomach.

Doctors told the Bellinghams that their son would need at least two more operations in the near future and that his prognosis was uncertain.

“Because of the infections, he has a decreased brain capacity, but we don’t know how much,” said Mrs Bellingham. Mrs Bellingham said the hospital told her it was considering a court petition to gain custody of the boy in order to continue medical treatment.