A little "hand of hope"... an amazing story or a hoax?

I am grateful to Sancho, blogging at Tilting at Windmills, who posted this amazing story following a moving email a reader of his blog sent him.

The email, with the subject line "Hand of Hope" read as follows:

Please read before viewing picture - it's worth it!

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 foetus 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.

Now see the actual picture - and how awesome and completely incredible it is.... pass it on. The world needs to see this one!

This is the picture:



An amazing story or a hoax?

Some readers of 'Tilting at Windmills' took exception when one of them, showing prudence, checked this story out.

Frankly, when I first read it, my instinct was to do the same. Call me a cynic if you like. The fact is, there are far too many hoax emails constantly going around and arriving in my inbox on a regular basis. All you have to do is check out places like Urban Legends or Hoax-Slayer to verify what I am saying is the reality... and that hoaxing emails abound!

This one however, is true... but it has to be said, the email does exagerate a touch!

According to About.com's Urban Legends' Analysis, the amazing photo (above) was taken by Michael Clancy and originally published in USA Today and The Tennessean on September 7, 1999, is authentic. It began circulating via email within weeks of its first appearance in newspapers.

The accompanying text is basically accurate, as well. The photo was taken during a surgery performed by Dr. Joseph Bruner and Dr. Noel Tulipan at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville on August 19, 1999 to treat a 21-week-old foetus for spina bifida. The operation was a success, and three months later a healthy Samuel Alexander Armas was delivered by C-section.

Doubts have been raised about the assertion that the foetus actually reached out of the opening in the womb to grasp the surgeon's finger, inasmuch as there are at least three different accounts of precisely what happened at that moment, two of them from eyewitnesses:

This amazing photo, taken by Michael Clancy and originally published in USA Today and The Tennessean on September 7, 1999, is authentic. It began circulating via email within weeks of its first appearance in newspapers.

The accompanying text is basically accurate, as well. The photo was taken during a surgery performed by Dr. Joseph Bruner and Dr. Noel Tulipan at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville on August 19, 1999 to treat a 21-week-old foetus for spina bifida. The operation was a success, and three months later a healthy Samuel Alexander Armas was delivered by C-section.

Doubts have been raised about the assertion that the foetus actually reached out of the opening in the womb to grasp the surgeon's finger, inasmuch as there are at least three different accounts of precisely what happened at that moment, two of them from eyewitnesses:

• Email text (above): "During the surgery on little Samuel, the little guy reached his tiny, but fully developed, hand through the incision and firmly grasped the surgeon's finger."



• Photographer Michael Clancy: "Samuel came out from under anesthesia too soon and thrust his clenched fist out of the surgical opening to his mother's womb. In my opinion, Samuel was in pain. Dr. Joseph Bruner reached over and gently lifted Samuel's hand, and Samuel reacted by squeezing the doctor's finger."



• Surgeon Joseph Bruner: "Depending on your political point of view, this is either Samuel Armas reaching out of the uterus and touching the finger of a fellow human, or it's me pulling his hand out of the uterus ... which is what I did."

Urban Legends analysis summarises:

"Perhaps it all boils down to semantics. Dr. Bruner has stated elsewhere that Samuel's hand "appeared" in the uterine opening before he reached out and lifted it, lending credence to photographer Clancy's version of events. In any case, although it appears the email does exaggerate when it says the foetus "reached ... through the incision and firmly grasped the surgeon's finger," something akin to that really did happen.

Such quibbles don't lessen the impact of the photograph itself, which Dr. Bruner has described as "powerful" and Michael Clancy calls "miraculous." It should come as no surprise that both the image and Samuel Armas' success story have figured prominently in the abortion debate ever since."

So... there you have it... this amazing story is true... and it did happen. I hope you were as moved by it as I was!

Update on Samuel Armas

Here's an update on little Samuel, written by Charles W. Colson on BreakPoint Commentary in January 2000.

Samuel, the baby in the photograph, was born healthy and active five weeks after his operation.

Today, instead of looking forward to life as a paraplegic, he enjoys the prospect of running and playing like other kids.

You can read more here.

The last available update on young Samuel was posted on Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, around 2003... and at that time, he was coming along: Samuel Armas.

I wonder how he is today? He should be nine years old now? I do hope he's growing up healthily and well!