Barry
and Juliet had always dreamt of having a boy and a girl. They had Molly
first and when the scans showed their next baby was going to be a boy,
Juliette and Barry Dalton were filled with very happy.
Juliette
had needed an emergency Caesarean under general anaesthesia with Molly
after being induced, and she didn’t want to go through it again, and so
she dreaded the birth. “That’s why I guessed I was being so closely
monitored at the hospital near our home in Ballinasloe, County Galway,
in Ireland,” she said.
“I’d
been diagnosed with polycystic ovarian syndrome years earlier. I had
lots of cysts on my ovaries, making it harder to conceive.
It
had taken two years to get pregnant the first time, but I’d miscarried
at 11 weeks. Devastated, we vowed to try again and, luckily, after six
months I’d discovered I was expecting Molly. This baby boy had been
three years in the making and I’d had to take Clomid – a fertility pill.
Now it was only two weeks until our son was born,” Juliette narrated.
The
sonographer had just concluded the scan, and had told her she’s
expecting a baby boy, assuring her that the baby is healthy and
everything seem to be in place.
As it turned out, Juliette could only be delivered of her baby through Caesarean section yet again.
“We’re
just going to check him over,” a paediatrician said, taking the baby
into a back room as his wails filled the room upon delivery.
“You
have a baby boy,” the paediatrician began as she got back to the room.
There was a pause. “But he’s been born with no hands.”
Adam Dalton
Juliette
says how shocked she was and kept coming in waves. She couldn’t speak
nor think. “What do you mean he’s been born with no hands?” Juliette
heard her husband Barry ask. The paediatrician spoke softly, explaining
that their baby didn’t have any hands, and that his arms stopped above
the elbows.
“Come
with me, and you can see your baby,” the doctor said to Barry. “We’re
really sorry for what’s happened to your baby,” they Juliette. She
nodded, unable to answer. “Did you take anything while you were
pregnant?” She shook her head. “Of course not,” she told them, guilt
tearing at her. “I didn’t smoke or take drugs. “I took Clomid,” she
spluttered but the doctors shook their heads. “That wouldn’t have caused
this,” they said.
Juliette
couldn’t stop crying the baby was brought to her. It wasn’t huge
gulping sobs, but silent sobbing, where tears just tripped down her
face. “I was grieving for the child I’d thought I’d have, but who was
now gone. Instead my Adam was here and he was so vulnerable that my
heart was being ripped out of my chest,” she said.
“I
want Molly to be the first to see him,” she whispered. Barry’s mum
Sandra brought her in. “You have a little brother, she told Molly
gently, “but his hands didn’t grow.” Molly went straight over and kissed
him. “He’ll be OK,” she smiled. “Look, he’s got a finger.”
Doctors
said Adam wouldn’t crawl but he shuffled on his bum. He learnt how to
hold things between his stumps, and we had his club foot corrected.
Because one leg’s shorter than the other, he had to get a prosthetic
fitted for him to slip his leg into. He also got false hands, which were
basic with a pincer-movement, but he refused to wear them. He didn’t
need them anyway as he can do everything just as well without them. Adam
learnt to ride a bike with specially adapted handlebars. When we went
to the park, he’d jump and go on everything, showing no fear.
Adam
is an outgoing, happy little boy who is at school now and loves
football, trampolining and playing on his Playstation. He can type away
using the pointy bone at the end of his stump and is better than anyone.
He still hasn’t accepted that he’ll never have hands. He once asked his
dad, Barry, “Are my fingers under my skin, Daddy, waiting to come out?”
His parents would do anything to make their son fit in and Dorset
Orthopaedic has made him special false arms with drum sticks at the end
as he loves drumming. He says he wants to be a shopkeeper when he grows
up, but his mum thinks he could do anything.
Now
if people ask him why he doesn’t have any hands he tells them, “They
didn’t grow when I was in my mummy’s tummy.” Juliette registered Adam’s
disability on the world-wide register as she’d been taking Clomid before
she got pregnant. She was however told that no other person in the
world had ever had a baby with deformities after taking the drug, so no
one knows why Adam’s lower arms and hands didn’t grow.
“Barry
and I had DNA tests and nothing abnormal showed up but Adam faces a 50
per cent chance of having a child with limb deficiency. Adam is so
talented, brave and happy. He’s an inspiration to me and a lot of
others. I can’t ever feel down if Adam’s around. He’s only seven, but
never feels sorry for himself or complains. He doesn’t have any hands
but he has a big heart and even bigger grin – and that makes me proud to
be his mum,” Juliette says.
Nigerian artist Ayo Balogun aka Wizkid and his former boss, Banky W of EME are currently in a very tough fight.
