Easing Babies’ Pain Is No Small Matter

* Thank you so much for printing the article, “Doctor Working to Ease Infants’ Pain” (Aug. 1). I am the mother of a premature baby who is now 19 months. During the weeks of visiting my son in the neonatal intensive care unit I saw my fair share of suffering babies. With my own child I identified early on which cries were of discomfort, pain, hunger or just wanting to be held. No one could tell me or convince me he was not in pain as a multitude of procedures were performed on him. It is easy to negate these tiny little patients since, after all, they cannot speak, and the medical field has refused to acknowledge they do have emotional and physical feelings.

Research now has shown us that a newborn distinguishes between his mother and a stranger holding him. In doing research in this area, I believe that the medical professions will discover the degree to which the nervous system is developed in these tiny patients, therefore confirming they feel pain, and also discovering the ability to tolerate anesthetics or pain-controlling agents, as long as the dosage is properly administered and monitored closely.

I believe that fear of liability when administering pain relief to babies is the culprit. Like everything else, no one wants to get sued, and this, coupled with the fear of the unknown, has slowed progress in this area.

I applaud Dr. Perry Eisner for “sticking up for his tiny patients.” He is a doctor from his mind down to his heart.

What a terrible introduction into this world. Think about it. These newborns have gone from the comfort of their mother’s womb, where everything is provided--warmth, security, nourishment--to a cold, bright and noisy hospital room, where they are subjected to medical procedures such as shots, having their blood drawn, IVs put in, worse yet, operations with little or no anesthetics. How barbaric! The true crime is that with all our economic backing, technology and sophisticated gadgetry we have made virtually no progress in this area.

LILLIAN WALKER

Huntington Beach