For Rick Santorum things were hectic enough with the Republican nomination race but Sunday night added to the difficulty. On Sunday night, Santorum’s daughter Bella, a Trisomy 18 patient, has been rushed to hospital.
On Sunday morning, Rick Santorum’s campaign released a statement saying that the Republican candidate and his wife “are admitting their daughter Bella to Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia this evening”. Santorum will “return to Florida and resume the campaign schedule as soon as is possible”.
Rick Santorum explained the reporters in front of the hospital Bella was in that the girl had been fighting pneumonia for almost 36 hours, however she kept being a “beautiful, happy girl”. Isabella Maria Santorum is only three years old and struggles with a genetic disorder called Trisomy 18.
Trisomy 18 also called Edwards Syndrome is a condition caused by a third copy of material from chromosome 18 instead of two. The disorder causes kidney malformations, structural heart defects at birth, mental retardation, growth deficiency, feeding and breathing difficulties and intestines protruding outside the body.
According to Victoria Miller, executive director of the Trisomy 18 Foundation, the condition is a common genetic disorder found in one in 3,000 births. Also, most babies die soon after birth or within a year after, however as Miller puts it, “every child is different”.
Dr. Robert Marion, Chief of Genetics and Developmental Medicine at Children’s Hospital at Montefiore and Albert Einstein College of Medicine, told ABC News that “most children with Trisomy 18 die in the first three months of life, and only 10 to 20 percent survive pas the first year”.
“Those who survive are almost always girls. The reason for this is that the condition is more lethal in boys, who die intrauterinely”, said Marion.
Bella has been diagnosed with Trisomy 18 just several hours after birth. Since then, Santorum’s overall take on health care and prevention changed. The Republican candidate said that one of the main reasons behind his motivation to run for president is to put an end to the Obamacare, saying it would make it harder for children like Bella to get treatments.
Bella isn’t the only children in the Santorum family suffering with serious health issues. In 1996, son Gabriel was diagnosed with a fatal birth defect and finally died, two hours after birth.
