A picture began circulating in November. It should be
"The Picture of the Year," or perhaps, "Picture
of the Decade." It won't be. In fact, unless you
obtained a copy of the US paper which published
it, you probably would never have seen it. The
picture is that of a 21-week-old unborn baby named Samuel Alexander Armas, who is being operated on by
surgeon named Joseph Bruner. The baby was diagnosed with spina bifida and would not survive if removed from his mother's womb. Little Samuel's mother, Julie Armas, is an obstetrics nurse in Atlanta . She knew of Dr. Bruner's remarkable surgical procedure.
Practicing at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in
Nashville, he performs these special operations while the baby is still in the womb. During the procedure, the doctor removes the uterus via C-section and makes a small incision to operate on the baby. As Dr. Bruner completed the surgery on Samuel, the little guy reached his tiny, but fully developed hand through the incision and firmly grasped the surgeon's finger. Dr. Bruner was reported as saying that when his finger was grasped, it was the most emotional moment of his life, and that for an instant during the procedure he was just frozen, totally immobile. The photograph captures this amazing event with perfect clarity. The editors titled the picture, "Hand of Hope." The text
explaining the picture begins, "The tiny hand of
21-week-old fetus Samuel Alexander Armas emerges
from the mother's uterus to grasp the finger of Dr.
Joseph Bruner as if thanking the doctor for the gift of
life." Little Samuel's mother said they "wept for
days" when they saw the picture. She said, "The
photo reminds us pregnancy isn't about disability
or an illness, it's about a little person." Samuel
was born in perfect health, the operation 100 percent
successful.
