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Pregnancy Support
Services
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3819 22nd Place
Lubbock, TX 79410 806-780-6853
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THE STORY BEHIND
THE PICTURE |
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www.michaelclancy.com
As a veteran photojournalist
in Nashville, Tennessee, I was hired by USA Today Newspaper to
photograph a spina bifida corrective surgical procedure. It was
to be performed on a twenty-one week, in utero child, at
Vanderbilt University Medical Center, August 19th, 1999. At that
time, twenty-one weeks was the earliest that the surgical team
would consider for surgery. The worst possible outcome would be
that the surgery would cause premature delivery, and no child
born earlier than twenty-three weeks had survived.
Robert Davis, reporter for USA Today, began his story, “In the
hushed but crowded operating room where outsiders have gathered
to watch a rare medical event - spinal surgery on a child, still
in his mother’s womb - a stool falls with a loud bang. “Shh,”
says, Joseph Bruner, the surgeon leading the operation. “You’ll
wake the baby.”
As a doctor asked me what speed of film I was using, out of the
corner of my eye I saw the uterus shake, but no one’s hands were
near it. It was shaking from within. Suddenly an entire arm
thrust out of the opening, then pulled back till just the little
hand was showing. The doctor reached over and lifted the tiny
hand, which reacted and squeezed the doctor’s finger. As if
testing for strength, the doctor shook the tiny fist. Samuel
held firm. I took the picture! Wow! It happened so fast that the
nurse standing next to me asked, “What happened?” “The child
reached out,” I said. “Oh, they do that all the time,” she
responded. Michael Clancy- Photographer
Click here to print the
Hand of Hope Flyer Word Document.
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