Baby Joseph Comes Home

From Courageous Priest:

Sentenced To Die By a Canadian Hospital,
Fr. Pavone and Priests for Life Champion
The Cause To Save Baby Joseph’s Life

The only thing Baby Josephs’ parents wanted was to have a tracheotomy and bring their baby home.   A Canadian Hospital and the Canadian Courts refused and took away the parents rights to determine what is best for their child.  A death order was given and a date was set to remove his breathing tube.

Priests for Life, with the help of countless others, stood firm and refused to let Baby Joseph die such a horrific death.  Here is the story of how Baby Joseph went from a death sentence, to St. Louis Cardinal Glennon Hospital to home without any tubes.  Well worth the time to watch and share with others.

Associated Press – The child known as Baby Joseph who is at the center of an end-of-life debate is now home.

Fifteen-month-old Joseph Maraachli left Cardinal Glennon Children’s Medical Center in St. Louis before dawn Thursday and flew with his parents and 7-year-old brother back to Canada, exactly one month after receiving a tracheotomy.

The Rev. Frank Pavone of New York City-based Priests for Life, which lobbies against abortion rights and euthanasia and paid for Joseph’s transfer to St. Louis, confirms that the family is back in their home in Ontario.

Baby Joseph suffers from the progressive neurological disease Leigh Syndrome. Doctors in Canada had refused to perform the tracheotomy, saying it was futile, and an Ontario court decided doctors could remove the child’s breathing tube.

His family sought help from American hospitals, and Cardinal Glennon agreed to treat Joseph.

There is something special about Baby Joseph!

May God Bless All Those Dedicated To Saving Baby Joseph’s Life.

God is Great! Baby Joseph Saved by Priests For Life

Praise God! In a covert action, under the cover of darkness, Fr. Frank Pavone of Priests For Life headed an operation to save Baby Joseph from Canadian health care and bring him to the United States.  Baby Joseph and his father were flown to and are now at SSM Cardinal Glennon Children's Medical Center in St. Louis.  Baby Joseph needed to be transferred to a hospital that didn't label efforts to save his life as "futile".  Fr. Frank realized that efforts to save Baby Joseph became a race against time and that his presence in Canada was needed to ensure that the rescue operation took place in time to save him.  Baby Joseph was saved just hours before he was to be taken off life support.  God Bless Fr. Frank Pavone and Priests For Life for all of their great works.

From Priests For Life:

"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.

SSM Cardinal Glennon Children's Medical Center opened in 1956 and was named in memory of Cardinal John Glennon, Archbishop of St. Louis from 1903 until his death in 1946. The hospital was a fulfillment of Cardinal Glennon's vision of a health-care facility open to all children in need of medical care. The hospital is part of SSM Healthcare, which is run by the Franciscan Sisters of Mary. The system has 19 acute-care hospitals in Missouri, Illinois, Wisconsin and Oklahoma.

Here are more pictures of the rescue operation: 

May God continue to work miracles in Baby Joseph's life.