WINDSOR - A terminally ill baby has had a breathing tube inserted into his trachea at a hospital in St. Louis, after a London, Ont., hospital would not perform the procedure.
Doctors at SSM Cardinal Grennon Children's Medical Center performed the tracheotomy on Joseph Maraachli, of Windsor, Ont., this morning.
He will spend seven to 10 days in intensive care and be transferred to another St. Louis hospital before heading home to Windsor.
The procedure was the centre of a dispute between the parents of the baby, who has a fatal neurodegenerative disease, and the London hospital.
The London hospital had said the baby would be transferred to the Windsor home on a breathing machine and then placed in the arms of his family before the machine was withdrawn.
But the transfer would not involve performing a tracheotomy prior to being sent home, something Joseph's family had fought for.
