Yahoo Autos My granddaughter was born with a cleft lip and palate. I fired the pediatrician who told me she would die.
Kim Maddox's granddaughter, Ariel, was born with cleft lip and palate.
A pediatrician told Kim that Ariel would die because she had so much trouble eating.
This is Maddox's story, as told to Kelly Burch.
This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Kim Maddox. It has been edited for length and clarity.
When my granddaughter Ariel was born, she came home to my house. My son and Ariel's mother knew that caring for their new baby would be a massive challenge: Ariel had been diagnosed with cleft lip and palate by ultrasound.
From the beginning of Ariel's life, I have been her primary caregiver. I learned how to feed her with special bottles that had an extended nipple and reached all the way to the back of her throat. Still, when she ate, formula would spill from her nose and mouth; we were lucky if half of what we fed Ariel made it into her tiny belly.
One day my husband called me, panicking. He was at the pediatrician with Ariel's mom. The pediatrician told them that Ariel wasn't gaining weight and that she was going to die. I left work and flew to the pediatrician, but when I got there the doctor told me to calm down. I saw red. I'd just been told my baby was dying, and they had the nerve to tell me to calm down? I told her she was fired, and I took Ariel to the emergency room.
