Saved by a syncretic faith? A case from 1995

Physicians in countries like India have to take on the care of seriously ill patients that, in a strict sense, maybe beyond their means to handle. They do so often because their patients trust them or the institutions that they may be a part of. The author reflects on his stint as a young physician in a rural medical college in Gujarat in the 1990s. He narrates the experience of dealing with a critically ill young man brought by road from a hospital in Bombay, 500 km away, to his hometown. The patient survived because the correct diagnosis was reached, and the family assisted in his intensive care with a remarkable composure which owed its origins to a faith crossing the boundaries of religion.

Ethical Issues Surrounding Newborn Screening

It would be difficult to overestimate the importance of persistent, thoughtful parents and their importance in the development of treatments for their children’s rare disorders. Almost a century ago in Norway, observant parents led a brilliant young physician-scientist to his discovery of the underlying cause of their children’s profound developmental delay—i.e., phenylketonuria, or PKU. Decades later, in a recovering war-ravaged Britain, an equally persistent mother pressed the scientists at Birmingham Children’s Hospital to find a way to treat her seriously damaged daughter, Sheila, who suffered from PKU. Living on the financial edge, this mother insisted that Bickel and colleagues develop such a diet, and she volunteered Sheila to be the patient in the trial. The scientists concluded that the low phenylalanine diet helped but needed to be started very early—so, newborn screening was born to permit the implementation of this. Many steps brought us to where we are today, but these courageous parents made it all begin.