Twitter Used for Saving a Life
Everyone knows that social networks are useful for spreading the word just about anything, keeping in touch with friends, and making new connections. Social networking sites always claim to be a community, but did you ever think it was really true? Apparently it is, and this community has recently come together to help save a young life. That’s exactly what happened for Jaeli Brow, a little girl born in June of 2009.
Jaeli was born with a rate chromosomal mutation – one that doesn’t even have a name – that makes her incapable of absorbing most forms of nutrition. This problem extends to almost all kinds of formula and breast milk as well. The condition can be lift threatening for obvious reasons. At the time of birth, little Jaeli was just over 5 pounds and hasn’t gained much more.
The diagnosis is quite complicated. It involves an unbalanced translocation of a couple of chromosomes and is so rare that only about three other children in the entire world have received the same diagnosis. And to top it off, Jaeli was born with a cleft palate, two large holes in her heart, and has only narrowly escaped open heart surgery.
When Jaeli consumes milk or formula that her body can’t handle, the repercussions are severe. There is often extreme vomiting as well as bleeding in both her nose and mouth. It was eventually found that Jaeli could successfully stomach one particular type of milk, which the Brow family obtained from the Human Milk Banking Association of North America. Unfortunately, this milk costs $4.25 an ounce and Jaeli consumes at least 30 ounces a day. You can see how this can add up quite quickly. In October 2009, the situation became dire when Jaeli’s family began struggling to afford the milk.
Because doctors and the scientific community want to continue testing different forms of treatment and less costly nutrition solutions, they cannot categorize the expensive breast milk from the milk bank as a necessity for survival. As a direct result, insurance companies won’t pay for the milk which makes it very expensive for the Brow family. The hospital won’t release the milk without direct and prompt payment.
When this became widely known to the Brow family’s friends, a couple of posts were put up on Twitter and other social sites such as FaceBook and MySpace. With these announcements about Jaeli’s plight, almost 100 donors, many of whom are perfect strangers, made donations to purchase meals for the baby. Parents from all over began making donations and have continued to do so.
Though her prognosis is uncertain, the donations made it possible to feed Jaeli for about two more weeks – at just over $3,000. The Twitter followers (mostly of @angengland) have not only made donations but multiple tweeps and tweets regarding the urgency of the situation. It just goes to show that Twitter really does form a tight-knit community that spans across the globe. And who knew social technology could help save a life?
To Follow the Progress of Jaeli and/or to make a donation please goto to Angela England’s Blog for more Details
8 Responses to “Twitter Used for Saving a Life”
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That is such a sad story, I hope the little girl gets well soon, my heart goes out to her.
“Rare”
Amazing, my heart goes out to that little girl. GOD BLESS HERE!!
My friend @chrisstrouth got a kidney from twittering!
That is truly amazing as well !! Do you have a link to the story?
Of course, spending huge amounts of money to keep a child alive who has this many defects and permanent health problems is not realistic. If they grow up, what would they eat? Expensive milk forever? Custom hugely expensive food?
If I had been the delivering doctor, I would have just said the child was stillborn. Less cruel to the child and the parents that way.