Glad to see SOMEBODY'S getting decent health care!

Baby Nicholas celebrated his birthday by blinking, rolling his eyes, and staring vacantly at nothing.

5 stars for the preload image alone.

So it's confirmed? Being born without a brain is a condition that can worsen as you age? There are some vegetables that owe me an apology.

The 2nd seal has broken...

No matter how stupid and allegedly responsible (according to the comments) they may be, my heart goes out to the family, but those TV news scumbags should burn in hell.

Fucking horrifying beyond words.

A recent study has concluded that 52,000 Americans have died for lack of health insurance in the 730 days since that thing first drew breath.

holy fucking shit why why why indeed.

Googling "Anencephaly" and going to the wikipedia page will scar you for life. Not recommended.

Nonetheless, I have learned that this story is exactly as creepy as it sounds. That is a surviving human infant's body, but without a brain, sustained by its reptilian brain stem.

Seriously, though. You cannot unsee the images on that wikipedia page.

Okay, fine. You're going to go. Just remember that I'm exactly the kind of person who loves to tell you "I told you so."

Upon coming of age, he will follow his destiny and go into politics.

Reporter JOHN ROMERO!

He's taken a turn for the worse, thank god. "A miracle many times over".

I am pretty sure grandma was WinterRose. It looked a lot like her, but older.... where's her Gentil Parfait??

1) Born with horrific deformity, which one, if theist, must assume was created and approved of by deity/deities of choice
2) Kept alive solely for the comfort of the mother by the relentless will of hard medical science
3) Time passes, from hours to years
4) Declared "miracle," mother's deity/deities of choice thanked
4) Repeat

The dangers of doing Coke.

brain brain

"Miracle"

For Ever on the cake

Imagine having that in your house, every day. I'm thinking Stephen King horror novel, but I can't decide if the baby or the mother would turn out to be the monster.

And can't someone ever point out to these idiots that they seem to treasure misfortune, death, and disaster as "miraculous?" If a child survived a tornado that destroyed the rest of the town and killed everyone but him, how is that a miracle? If one thinks that somehow God was involved, it's less of a "little Billy is a miracle" and more of a "instead of a quick death for this one, I'll just scar him forever with survivor's guilt and being an orphan."

Isn't this child technically dead already? Is it ethical to prescribe drugs that keep its legs kicking?

Nobody made an Oz reference yet? Because this baby is like that character from the Wizard of Oz who didn't have a brain. He can't even sing and dance about how brainless he is.

See ladies? Drink when you're pregnant, and throw some meth in there too. God will give you a cute brainless baby.

What

I actually had a cousin with this condition, only he had a fully formed membrane, so his head was the correct size and shape - just filled with fluid. It was intensely creepy when you thought about it, but looking at him it was so easy to see a normal child.

He was about a year old when I first met him, and I was only a kid, too. He was still basically a baby in size and shape, and he'd open his eyes, giggle if someone tickled him, snore when he "fell asleep" (ie, relaxed and closed his eyes for long periods of time), and I think he grabbed on to things like fingers and clothing and hair the way babies usually do. However I don't think he could tell people apart, even reflexively, and he had to be fed with a noisy pump and was hooked up to this little collar around his neck that monitored if he was swallowing properly, as he was constantly at risk of choking to death on his own saliva. Did I mention that he drooled a lot? But he couldn't cry, so that's something I guess?

It was incredibly surreal being around him. His parents were heavily in denial about him; they read all sorts of things into the most random behaviour, whereas I still have difficulty using personal pronouns when discussing him, instead of "it". Most people said that he was "sweet", but really he was just kind of there. Reflexively you find him kind of cute, as he's still an adorable baby on the outside, but you have to force yourself to remember that there isn't anyone home, that all the assumptions that have always gone along with every cute baby you've ever met do not apply to him. It's easy to just ignore that uncomfortable fact, until he accidentally looks directly into your eyes. Then you realize that you're constantly aware of the creepy on some level or another.

The creepiest shit is that he was also named Nicholas. O_O I wish I was making this up.

He died along with his parents in a car accident; its most likely that the father fell asleep while driving, as they were constantly exhausted. He had an older brother who was around 4 or something at the time who survived without a scratch, who lives with his grandparents now. Everyone in the family was semi-secretly thankful that he was the one who survived, as he was the only one who had a chance at a normal life in the aftermath. I feel weird typing all of this because the subject is very taboo in my family now, even after about two decades. So glad that nobody ever picked up the story.

My high school science teachers were very surprised at how much I knew about the function of the brain stem when the subject came up in class.

>>Everyone in the family was semi-secretly thankful that he was the one who survived, as he was the only one who had a chance at a normal life in the aftermath.

It's a miracle!

Part way in, I thought of The Wizard of Oz and began snickering.

I am so going to hell.

I like how modern Christians have such amazingly low expectations for what qualifies as a "miracle." A baby born with a crippling deformity is a "miracle."
No, the "miracle" would be a baby born without a brain growing a brain and then turning normal.

You keep on using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

Actually amazed by the amount of hate going out on this one. Can't we all just appreciate a medical curiosity while it is still alive?

That being said, future swing voter here everyone.

Just out of curiosity, Let's have a look.

Miracle

1.an effect or extraordinary event in the physical world that surpasses all known human or natural powers and is ascribed to a supernatural cause.

2.such an effect or event manifesting or considered as a work of God.

3.a wonder; marvel.

4.a wonderful or surpassing example of some quality: a miracle of modern acoustics.

5.miracle play.




I think that a baby living without a brain long after we was expected to die qualifies under

3.A wonder, a marvel.

Not a very high threshold, actually. TV news miracles aren't really the same as Vatican miracles.

In case your warmed heart starts cooling once the video has unspooled, this one should keep you warmed for a good long time.

http://poetv.com/video.php?vid=37853

We can rebuild him. We have the technology.

I refuse to believe this isn't fake, zombie baby and John Romero the reporter? This has to be some kind of really fucked up viral marketing.

So how many functioning, but sick and dying children are out there waiting for organ transplants?

That kid is like a zombie repellant. We should breed them.

I wonder if the mom brought the little miracle to the tattoo parlor when she got that stupid nautical star done on her collarbone.

This type of news coverage is brainless.

Nicholas died on October 31, 2012.