The doctors wanted to harvest her organs, but her husband believed there was still hope for her. Thanks to his resolve, today, he still has his wife, as well as a baby.
The Daily Mail reported recently on the story of Alexander Way and his wife Beatrice. The couple, aged 44 and 42, respectively, found themselves in a life or death crisis six years ago when Beatrice had a heart attack which resulted in a coma.
The story tells how “stunned” Alexander was by the doctors’ response to his wife’s illness. The story reports:
‘The doctors insisted Beatrice had very little brain response and that there was no way she could ever improve. If she did wake up at all she would barely respond to others. She would also be blind.
A lot of words were exchanged. In no uncertain terms I told them, “Don’t switch off my wife’s life support”.’
He continued: ‘I was stunned, angry and felt they were ending my wife’s life without considering further treatment. I was adamant that more could be done.’
Doctors also asked whether he would donate her organs for transplants.
Alexander wasn’t buying it. In a coma, Beatrice was sent to a neurological unit with specialists to treat her:
Four weeks later [she] woke up in hospital. The mother-of-one later learned she had suffered the attack due to a heart defect called congenital hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.
She went through nine months of rehabilitation to overcome paralysis she had suffered on her left side.
Eventually Beatrice made a a complete and “miraculous” recovery.
Then the couple embarked on another nine month journey when Beatrice became pregnant – something her doctors had warned against. Last year baby Rosemary was born, deemed a second miracle for the family that refused to believe the doctors’ dooming words over their lives.
The story reports that the source of their hope was God and prayer, as Alexander says:
I have no doubt whatsoever that prayer kept us going in our darkest days. It was so important to us throughout it all…. I am truly blessed to have Beatrice and Rosemary. We owe the miracle of Beatrice’s survival and Rosemary to God.
Beatrice says it was her husband who saved her life, rather than the doctors charged with doing so. And that’s the moral of their powerful story. In a culture of death, hard medical cases have become easy to dismiss as throwaway lives. Whether it’s an aborted baby, worth more for his or her body parts that can be sold for research, or a grown woman who’s valued more for her organs than for her potential to recover and live a full life, the prevailing culture of death has made disturbing advances.
Alexander cautions, “It is vital to explore all the options before agreeing to life and death decisions about loved ones.” Indeed, had he not had the fortitude to stand up to the doctors, he very likely would have lost his wife. Instead, his courage and commitment to his wife netted him a view to a miracle, which begat another miracle in their daughter Rosemary.
Now the happy miracle family lives in spite of every forecast of doom over them–a reminder that while doctors may have skills laypersons don’t, ultimately, life has value so deep it must be fought for against all odds. No man or woman can predict certain death, regardless of the extent of medical training. To be pro-life is to believe in spite of all odds and to fight when even the culture says we should give up.
Beatrice and Rosemary are alive today because one man believed in life enough to fight for it.
