My co-worker's wife had a baby girl about a month ago. Her name is Eleanore ("Ellie";). When she was born, she was not breathing right and they also noticed she does not have the proper responses to stimuli. After she was stabilized, she was transfered to the local children's hospital so they can figure out what is wrong. It's been a few weeks and after extensive genetic testing and seeing specialized doctors, it appears that she has two problems: 1) there seems to be something wrong with her brain stem. Her brain looks normal, but the signals just aren't getting through to her body. She does not swallow and would choke on her own saliva. In her pictures she looks like a normal newborn except her arms and legs are flopped open; she won't curl into fetal position. She has very low muscle tone. She will not develop any abilities beyond what she has at present. 2) There is some problem with the part of the body that is in our throats that helps with breathing, swallowing, and making sure when you breath you don't swallow and when you swallow your lungs are cut off (sorry I don't know any of the correct anatomical terms). So far, the implications look like she will likely develop chronic pneumonia from the throat problem and will never physically develop properly b/c of the brain stem problem. A few days ago, the parents were given the choice to let Ellie go but they have decided to keep her around and see how she does. She had a trach put in and is breathing without a respirator but with "positive pressure". They are probably going to insert a G-tube soon (I don't know what that is...a feeding tube?). Anyway, any prayers and vibes would be appreciated. They would like to get her fixed up enough so they can take her home and care for her one their own for the little while they have. They are continuing with genetic testing to make sure there will be no implications for future children and we hope that Ellie's problems are not genetic (so far it appears that they were caused by some trauma in the womb - a stroke perhaps).