How low can you go?
Imagine the joy associated with conceiving and carrying triplets to term, then dealing with the unspeakable horror of never getting to see, speak or smother them with love.
Welcome to Abbie Dorn’s life.
The 34-year-old mother of healthy 5-year-old triplets suffered severe brain damage in June 2006 when a doctor accidentally cut her uterus during delivery. Dorn lost a tremendous amount of blood thanks to the doctor’s mistake. In addition, her heart stopped on the delivery table, but when doctors tried to resuscitate her the defibrillator they used malfunctioned and Dorn’s brain suffered major trauma as it was deprived of oxygen.
As a result of the delivery mishaps, Dorn is paralyzed–unable to eat, speak or move… or see the children she carried and delivered.
According to news reports, Dan Dorn, Abbie’s former husband and the father of the triplets, refuses to allow the couple’s children to visit their mother.
Shortly after Abbie gave birth to the triplets, Dan divorced her and has been raising the kids as a single parent. Meanwhile, Abbie lives with her parents where she receives around-the-clock care, but still doesn’t get the chance to see the human beings she helped create.
However, that could all change in the next 24 hours.
A judge is expected to decide whether the mom of three should be allowed by law to receive regular visits by her kids.
Dan Dorn is viciously opposed to having the triplets visit their motionless mother. He argues that the experience will “traumatize” the kids.
Meanwhile, the attorney representing Abbie claims there is no proof visitations with their mother will harm the children. Abbie’s parents agree, saying that their daughter has some brain function and can understand when people talk to her. Abbie’s caretakers also weighed in saying that several times a day the triplet’s mom responds to direct questions verbally, saying “yeah” or “no.” Other reports note that Abbie can communicate by blinking her eyes.
“If all she can say to them is one or two words and show in her eyes how much she loves them,” Susan Cohen, Abbie’s mother told news reporters, “I think that will mean a great deal to those children.”
According to Cohen, Abbie saw her children for four days last December, but prior to that, she had not seen them for more than three years.
“A mother needs to see her children. She gave them life. Her blood is in their veins,” Paul Cohen, Abbie Dorn’s father, told ABC News. “These children need to know they have a mommy, and she needs to know her children are growing.”
After all that this woman has gone through, how could another human with a conscience possibly rob a mother and her children of precious time together? Regardless of her state in life, Abbie is the mother of those three children and both she and her kids have a right to form a relationship in whatever capacity possible.
After her stroke in 2007, my grandmother spent her days and nights trapped in a body that refused to function properly. She too could not speak or move; however, that didn’t stop me from bringing my then toddler daughter from seeing her. In fact, the regular visits from her grandchildren and great-grandchildren are probably what sustained my grandma during her last days on earth.
Is my young daughter scarred from the visits? No way. Just the opposite. At six years old, my daughter is not afraid of elderly people; she sympathizes with people in wheelchairs and keeps my grandmother’s memory alive by recalling our days singing and reading during our visits.
I would be shocked beyond words if a judge sides with Dan Dorn and deprives those kids from bonding with their mother.
Where do you stand on this heart-wrenching situation?