Photo: While undergoing spina bifida surgery in utero, 21-week-old fetus Samuel Armas reaches out of the incision in his mother's womb to grip the finger of Dr. Joseph Bruner.
Click to View Enlarged Image
Photo: While undergoing spina bifida surgery in utero, 21-week-old fetus Samuel Armas reaches out of the incision in his mother's womb to grip the finger of Dr. Joseph Bruner.
Click to View Enlarged Image
Julie Armas, a 27 year old obstetrics nurse, found out that she was carrying a fetus with spina bifida at 14 weeks gestation. In many cases where spina bifida is detected prenatally, parents opt for abortion (there are no accurate numbers on precisely how often this happens). Julie, however, refused to accept abortion as a "solution" for the child that she and her husband had already decided to name Samuel Alexander.
Scouring the Internet for information, the Armas family discovered that a brand new surgery is being carried out on spina bifida-affected fetuses at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee (Fetal Diagnosis and Treatment at Vanderbilt University Medical Center). Julie was put in touch with Dr. Joseph Bruner, the surgeon whose finger Samuel is clutching in the above photograph. Although the surgery is still very new, it gives hope for preventing or lessening the brain and spinal cord damage associated with spina bifida.
The surgery involved removing Julie's uterus by C-section, gently placing the uterus on Julie's belly, then making a tiny incision through which Dr. Bruner operated on the fetus. After the incision was opened, Samuel reached out to grab Dr. Bruner's finger, as shown in the dramatic picture above. An hour later, the surgery was over.
Julie returned home from the operation just a few days later. Samuel is due to be born on December 28, 1999.
Dear Friends and Family, 
Samuel arrived on Thursday, Dec. 2 at 6:25 pm at Northside Hospital weighing 5 lbs 11 oz and 20 1/2 " long. He was born at 36 weeks but came into the world screaming his head off! He did not have to spend any time in a neonatal unit and came home with us on Monday, Dec. 6. After viewing an ultrasound of his brain, Samuel's neurosurgeon was very optimistic as he does not have any hydrocephalus and the brain malformation has resolved. He is moving his legs very well from the hips and some from the knees. He was frank breech (folded in half) in the womb and the orthopedist feels that he has a good chance for walking. He will begin physical therapy next week in order to work out some of the stiffness in his legs that was a result of his being folded in half in the womb. He is also nursing very well.
Thank you all for your prayers and support. We are happier than we ever dreamed possible!
All our love,
Julie, Alex and Samuel Armas
[11/16/99] - Matt Drudge and FOX News Battle Over Unborn Child Photo
New York -- Infamous Internet columnist Matt Drudge walked off his Fox News Channel show Saturday, charging that network executives were censoring him because they refused to let him show a picture of an unborn child."I can't sit there and edit what I'm going to say," the Internet columnist said. "I got really upset. . . . I have to wonder whether their motto of 'we report, you decide' isn't just some Madison Avenue slogan."
The showdown came hours before air time when John Moody, Fox's vice president for news, told Drudge he could not show a National Enquirer photo of a 21-week-old unborn child. Drudge, whom the Washington Post called, "an ardent opponent of abortion," wanted to brandish the picture of a tiny hand reaching out from the womb to dramatize a baby's development at that stage. But Moody decided that would be misleading because the tabloid photo dealt not with abortion but with an emergency operation on the fetus for spina bifida.
"Matt's entitled to his opinion. It was an editorial decision. We weren't going to force him to do the show," Fox spokesman Brian Lewis said yesterday. Fox News President Roger Ailes supported the decision, Lewis said.
Drudge, reached by phone this morning in Los Angeles, disputed Fox's account and accused the network of censorship. ``This notion that I was going to misrepresent this as an abortion is junk,'' Drudge said.
``He was using this photo from the National Enquirer as a jumping-off point to talk about partial-birth abortion,'' said Lewis. ``It was a picture of an emergency operation for spina bifida. We thought it was a blatant misrepresentation. It was a straight editorial decision.''
Drudge said he ``was going to show it and bill it as an operation for spina bifida, and just say, 'What does it say about life? Look at this hand coming out.''' He added: ``If I was going to show a picture of an ostrich egg with a foot popping out, it would be fine. It happens to be a picture of a human. People get upset about that.''
Drudge has a regular Saturday slot on Fox. He described the show as a ``one-man outlook'' that combines breaking news and commentary.
Asserting that ``the abortion issue is red-hot this election,'' Drudge added: ``I'm not trying to censor what (Fox owner Rupert) Murdoch says; I don't know why he's trying to censor what I say.'' Drudge also contended he told Fox in advance about the picture so that permission could be obtained from the Enquirer.
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