The numerous medical procedures her doctors had tried in an effort to seal the tubercular cavity in the lower lobe of a 23-year-old woman\u2019s right lung had failed. \u201cAmazingly, she was still alive on Christmas Eve, but just barely,\u201d Dr. J.A. MacDougall recalls, so he kept his promise to let her spend Christmas Day at home with her husband and their only child. She was grateful for that brief respite, but continued to decline. By the end of February, she was down to 80 pounds, and \u201cnew complications developed. She became nauseous \u2013 even without food in her stomach.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dr. MacDougall dismissed as \u201cridiculous\u201d a colleague\u2019s suggestion that his terminally ill patient might be pregnant. \u201cEverything I knew about medicine added up to one conclusion: she was so ill, so weak, that she couldn\u2019t possibly have conceived. Her body wasn\u2019t up to it. Nevertheless, I ordered a pregnancy test. To my astonishment, it was positive.\u201d The doctor and his colleagues were confronted with a moral dilemma. \u201cLegally, medically, we could have taken the child through abortion; it imperiled a life that was already in jeopardy. But we didn\u2019t do it,\u201d Dr. MacDougall confides. The doctors shared the woman\u2019s religious objections, but they also were convinced that \u201cthe operation would kill her [and that] her body would reject the child anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n
Somehow, the woman clung to life \u2013 her own and that of her unborn child. \u201cAnd in late June, 1948, an incredible thing happened,\u201d recounts Dr. MacDougall. \u201cShe began to eat, and to gain weight. A chest X-ray showed that the growth of the TB cavity had stopped. Not long after, another X-ray showed why: the diaphragm was pushing up against the lower lobe of her diseased lung to make room for the child she was bearing. Nature was doing exactly what we\u2019d failed to do: it was pressing the sides of that deadly hole together. The child was saving the mother.\u201d<\/p>\n
Summary of an article originally published in the December 1987 issue of the Canadian magazine<\/em> Family.<\/p>\n O Mary, bright dawn of the new world, Grant that all who believe in your Son may proclaim the Gospel of life The numerous medical procedures her doctors had tried in an effort to seal the tubercular cavity in the lower lobe of a 23-year-old woman\u2019s right lung had failed….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-68","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/thankevann.com\/homeschoolgoodies\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/thankevann.com\/homeschoolgoodies\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/thankevann.com\/homeschoolgoodies\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thankevann.com\/homeschoolgoodies\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thankevann.com\/homeschoolgoodies\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=68"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/thankevann.com\/homeschoolgoodies\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/thankevann.com\/homeschoolgoodies\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=68"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thankevann.com\/homeschoolgoodies\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=68"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thankevann.com\/homeschoolgoodies\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=68"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nMother of the living, to you do we entrust the cause of life:
\nLook down, O Mother,
\nupon the vast numbers of babies to be born,
\nof the poor whose lives are made difficult,
\nof men and women who are victims of brutal violence,
\nof the elderly and the sick killed by indifference or out of misguided mercy.<\/p>\n
\nwith honesty and love to the people of our time.
\nObtain for them the grace to accept that Gospel as a gift ever new,
\nthe joy of celebrating it with gratitude throughout their lives
\nand the courage to bear witness to it resolutely, in order to build,
\ntogether with all people of good will,
\nthe civilization of truth and love,
\nto the praise and glory of God, the Creator and lover of life.
\nAmen.<\/center><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"