Embryo rescue and delivery
Back in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, one of the great many rescues launched in the New Orleans area was for over 1,400 frozen embryos in danger of thawing at Lakeland Hospital. One of those nascent human lives has developed in the womb and is now about to be born.
The baby album for Rebekah Markham’s soon-to-be-born child could include something extra special: photos of officers using flat-bottomed boats to rescue the youngster’s frozen embryo from a sweltering hospital in the chaotic aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
Markham is about to give birth via Caesarean section, nine months after being implanted with an embryo that nearly thawed when the flooded hospital lost electricity.
“It’s going to be exciting for the little baby, once he gets old enough to realize what it went through,” said Markham, a 32-year-old physical therapist whose husband, Glen, 42, is a New Orleans police officer. “Katrina’s history. A big part of history.”
The baby – the Markhams do not know whether they are having a boy or a girl, but are guessing it’s a boy – will be one of the first children to be born from the more than 1,400 embryos that were rescued from New Orleans’ Lakeland Hospital two weeks after the storm.
And it isn’t just the Markhams who are tickled.
“That is great! I’m going to call all our officers and tell them. They’ll be pretty excited,” said Lt. Eric Bumgarner, one of seven Illinois Conservation Police officers and three Louisiana state troopers who sloshed through floodwaters to remove the embryos. Bumgarner said he has often wondered what happened to the embryos: “One of these embryos could be the next president.”
Well, not exactly the next president, but possibly a future one. Or a pope. Or a saint.
Or the scientist who discovers the cure for cancer, or AIDS, or juvenile diabetes. Or the leader who finally puts together the successful roadmap to world peace.
Or another Mother Teresa who finally convinces the whole world that its most devastating loss is the sense of the sacred, and the sanctity of life.
