{"id":228907,"date":"2020-08-16T13:31:31","date_gmt":"2020-08-16T18:31:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=228907"},"modified":"2020-08-15T21:11:36","modified_gmt":"2020-08-16T02:11:36","slug":"doctors-baby-down-syndrome-survive-miracle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/doctors-baby-down-syndrome-survive-miracle\/","title":{"rendered":"Doctors said their baby, who had Down syndrome, wouldn’t survive… but a miracle happened"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Michael Schachle of Tennessee is a living, breathing miracle. Diagnosed at 19 weeks gestation with both Down Syndrome and fetal hydrops \u2014 a serious condition causing significant swelling in two or more body compartments such as the lungs, heart, or abdomen \u2014 Michael’s parents Michelle and Daniel learned that his chances of survival were zero. While some babies with fetal hydrops alone do live after birth, the combination of hydrops and a chromosomal diagnosis was essentially a death sentence.<\/p>\n

According to the National Catholic Register<\/a>,\u00a0Michelle and Daniel were told, “There\u2019s nothing you can do; he\u2019s not going to live. We can take you over and induce labor now, or you can wait and let nature take its course \u2014 but he will die.” But the strongly pro-life parents of 12 other children had a different plan. Refusing to induce labor, which would certainly lead to Michael’s death due to his early gestational age, they chose instead to pray for a miracle.<\/p>\n

Daniel is an insurance agent for the Knights of Columbus, a Catholic fraternal organization, and he and Michelle decided to pray specifically for the intercession of the Knights’ founder, Fr. Michael McGivney. Daniel told the Register<\/a>, “As a dad, I didn\u2019t see it as my job to kill my child. I was incensed that I was asked to.”<\/p>\n

The Schachle parents never asked for Michael to be healed of the Down Syndrome, only of the fatal fetal hydrops diagnosis.<\/p>\n