Mom of transfusion baby not talking

Contacted at her Arouca home, Joanne Ammon said: "I don’t have anything to say to the press. It is a private matter. Have a good morning."

On Friday, Dr Petronella Manning-Alleyne, head of the Neonatal Unit, declined to provide any details of the case but only said the baby was "doing fine."

Health Minister John Rahael was approached for comment at the People’s National Movement Convention at Chaguaramas yesterday about the state of the baby.

He said that the baby was "ok" and in the care of one of the best medical practitioners in the country and the decision to go to the Court was taken because a child was involved whose life was at stake.

The Ammons — Joanne and Winston — were thrust into the news after a report that the Family Court had made the baby a ward of the Court and put him in the care of doctors at the Neonatal Unit, Port-of-Spain General Hospital.

The baby and his twin were born on November 25, six months into Ammon’s pregnancy. Due to their premature state they had a low blood count. While one baby died hours after birth, the other had to remain on a ventilator. His lungs started bleeding on December 3. Manning-Alleyne approached the Solicitor General’s office last Thursday for help and the Family Court ruled.

A release from the Association of Jehovah’s Witnesses stated that erythropoietin — a drug alternative to blood transfusions — was recommended but Manning-Alleyne had refused.

Gordon Headley of the Hospital Information Desk said the position of the Witnesses was "entirely Bible based" and medical literature has numerous reports of the successful management of health problems with alternatives.