If you are looking for some light to shine through the constant gloom of bad news, do not look towards Portishead. You may have heard the story of Heidi Loughlin, who delayed her own cancer treatment in order to give her unborn daughter a chance of survival. Her baby was born by C section on 11 December, weighing 2 lbs 5 oz. Today Heidi has announced her baby has died.
We had all hoped, not perhaps for miracles, but that baby Ally might survive her premature birth. To be honest, I did not give it a thought that she might not. Such have been the advances in science and medical care, I suppose I made the erroneous assumption that the worst was over. How terribly sad that the worst was far from over.
Eight days, that is all the baby had. Of course, this was not life as we know it at all. We remind ourselves, yet again, of the unfairness of life. There is no plan nor grand design, no celestial dictator making decisions, putting order to our lives. Nor is there the hand of fate. It’s all happening by accident, just as we came to life on earth solely by the accident of our own birth.
I do not know how Heidi will get over this, but then again, have you seen or heard her appearances in the media? In such situations, most of us would crumble and perhaps hide from the world as it is. Just last week, I heard her interviewed on the radio and hers was a voice of life, of hope and of strength. I am sure she has her dark hours too – how could you not? – but perhaps there is something within the human spirit that focuses the desire to survive, to recover from illness and defeat the odds?
Just by having her baby, she is a hero to me. She made the ultimate sacrifice for her unborn daughter, to give her the chance of life when her own life was under threat.
Now Heidi and her family rely, as we all do, on doctors and nurses utilising those medical advances for the family good. Of course, she will never forget the pregnancy and that eight days of life which was all the time her baby had, but now she needs to make that fight for her own survival now that her own self-sacrifice has run its course.
