Medical team hopes to give deformed baby a normal life

Published: 2004-02-04

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- A Pennsylvania-based humanitarian medical organization and a neurosurgery team from California are combining efforts in hopes of giving a baby in the Dominican Republic a normal life. Rebeca Martinez was born in mid-December with the partially formed head of an undeveloped conjoined twin atop her own head. The condition, called "cranio pagas parasiticus" requires that the parasitic growth be removed in order for Rebeca to have a chance of long-term normal survival, according to doctors. Although the baby is otherwise healthy, the growth will prevent Rebeca's brain from developing normally, according to Dr. Santiago Hazim, medical director of the Santo Domingo hospital where the surgery was to begin Feb. 6. In a Feb. 3 phone interview, Hazim told Catholic News Service that Rebeca's parents, Maria Gisela Hiciano and Franklyn Martinez, have a faith-based optimism about their daughter's chances for survival and a normal life. "I tell them, 'You know this baby has a 50 percent chance of not making it and a 50 percent chance that the surgery will not be completely successful even if she survives,'" he said. "They say, 'We knew when Maria was eight months pregnant that there was some deformity. If God put that baby inside her, he has a plan.'"

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