Baby grabs doctor s hand from inside the uterus 20 years later, he’s like this. It wasn’t until the fifth grade, when his entire class Googled themselves, that he realized he had a Wikipedia page. He always knew about the Hand of Hope Photo that captured him in utero at just 21 weeks gestation, undergoing experimental surgery to repair a lesion on his back caused by spina bifida.
But the weight of the picture never struck him until that day in school. Snapped by freelance photographer Michael Clancy in an operating room at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in 1999, the image captures Samuel’s tiny hand alongside the finger of surgeon Dr. Joseph Bronner. It appeared on the cover of USA Today and went viral, casting Samuel in the role of prolife poster child before he took his first breath 15 weeks later.
It also caused a controversy over what exactly happened in the operating room that day. Clancy claimed the fetus reached out through the incision in his mother’s uterus and clasped Brunner’s hand. He’s since written a book about the picture and become a pro life activist. Brunner claimed he manipulated the hand in the course of the surgery, pointing out that the fetus was anesthesized he’s refused to publicly discuss the photo since 2009.
For Samuel, the debates are relevant. The 16 year old is more interested in maintaining his grades in the gifted program at Alexander High School, winning his next Atlanta Junior wheelchair Hawks basketball game. And tussling with his little brother, Ethan.
Twelve and ten year old Zachary, who also has spina bifida. Most importantly, Samuel is living proof that a disability isn’t always a disadvantage. Every life has purpose, and anyone can dream big. Still, our baby boy Julie and Alexarmus struggled with infertility for three painful years. The couple met in their early twenties while they were both working at the Sports Shoe in Douglasville.
They dated a couple of years and married in 1993. Julie became a labor and delivery nurse, and Alex began his career in aerospace engineering. After two miscarriages, hormone treatments and intrauterine insemination, Julie became pregnant a third time in spring 1999. They were elated until 14 weeks along when she began cramping. She feared it was another miscarriage.
I figured it was over, recalled Julie. I had an ultrasound, and when I saw the little heartbeat was still there, I cried tears of joy. Relief was soon overshadowed by worry. The midwife told Julie and Alex that there was something unusual about the baby’s head. It was lemon shaped. She referred them to a specialist. Because 4 July weekend was coming up, the anxious parents had no choice but to wait for answers. So they went home and researched lemon shaped head online.
All the information pointed to the same diagnosis. Spina bifida, a specialist confirmed at the following week. Spina bifida is a birth defect that occurs when a baby’s spine does not form normally. As a result, the spinal cord and nerves are exposed like a gap in a zipper and often damaged impairment. Worsens, the higher up the spine the lesion occurs.
The cause of spina bifida is unknown, but one theory attributes it to the mother’s inability to process folic acid. The risk of having a child with spina bifida increases with each subsequent child. From her home in Lithia Springs, Julie’s mother, Elaine, crieder, did her own online research on the diagnosis. She bounced all over the Internet and came across an experimental fetal surgery for spina bifida being studied at Vanderbilt University. Performed while the child is in utero.
The procedure closes the lesion and minimizes other issues, such as a Chairi malformation, a neurological disorder that causes hydrocephalus and excessive accumulation of fluid in the brain. The biggest risk for fetal surgery is premature birth. It can also affect the mother’s future fertility. Among the options doctors presented to Julie and Alex was termination of the pregnancy.
But they wouldn’t hear of it, in part because of their faith, but also because of their struggle with infertility. That time was filled with bitterness and pain. When we finally had the successful pregnancy, said Alex, that was still our baby boy, the child we’d waited so long for, we would have done anything for him. A few weeks later, Julie was approved for the operation, and she and Alex traveled to Nashville to begin pre op evaluation.
During that time, they learned USA Today wanted to cover the surgery because 21 weeks gestation was one of the earliest fetal surgeries ever conducted. Their initial instinct was to say no. They were under enough stress already. Inviting the world into the operating room felt too overwhelming and invasive. But Julie’s sister changed her mind. Showing the world that every life is worth fighting for gave us the push to do the story, said Julie.
Her memory of the surgery day is hazy. Maybe she cried. Maybe she held Alex’s hand until the last second before she was wheeled into the operating room. She doesn’t recall. What she does remember is a sense of peace. This was the right decision for their baby, and she was sure of that.
Alex’s memory of that day is vivid. After Julie was taken back for surgery, he sought solitude in a hospital bathroom, dropped to his knees and prayed for his wife and child. Staff photographer at The Tennessean, Michael Clancy was ecstatic about his first freelance assignment with a national publication. Usa Today hired him to photograph Julie’s surgery. The reality of shooting a surgery hit the 43 year old the night before. He hoped the risky procedure would go smoothly.
He also hoped he wouldn’t get queasy. When Clancy was ushered into the operating room, he was assigned a place to stand and ordered not to move. He was positioned at the back of the room behind Julie’s head. He counted 13 people in the room, including the medical staff and the USA Today reporter. He was nervous, and the tension was palpable.
The room quiet as a whisper as the surgery began. Unable to move closer, Clancy whipped out the lenses on his Canon EOS One N film camera to get a variety of shots. His movements were calm and deliberate as he watched the surgeon wield the miniature instruments specially made for fetal procedures. Near the end of the operation, when Julie’s uterus was outside of her body, Dr.
Brunner briefly stepped away. The surgeon said something inaudible to Clancy, but it made the staff giggle, and Clancy exhaled happy for a moment of levity. Then something pulled his attention out of nowhere without anyone near it. I saw the uterus shake and watched in disbelief as a fist burst through the incision, said Clancy. I felt like I was the only. One who was amazed.
It was like a medical staff had seen it before. Dr. Brunner looked at me. Then we both looked back at the fist and watched as it flailed back and forth. Dr. Brunner grabbed a tiny hand, and I immediately reacted. I pulled my camera to my face, held the motor drive, and fired as fast as I could. I could see the baby’s hand squeeze Dr. Brunner’s finger. I was in absolute shock. Clancy shot four frames before someone grabbed him around the waist from behind.
I didn’t know who it was, but I said, what the hell? Recalled Clancy. I just captured the earliest human interaction ever photographed. I witnessed something truly amazing. Hand of Hope Julian Alex saw their baby’s first photo with the rest of the world on September 1799. There, on the cover of USA Today, was a picture of their baby’s hand completely emerged from Julie’s uterus, his fingers alongside the surgeon’s fingers.
Tears ran down their faces as they marveled over the image and fielded phone calls from family and friends. I instantly knew how special that photo was, and not just to us, said Julie. We wanted to show the value of our son’s life, disability or no disability, and that we do anything for him because we value him.
We accomplish what we wanted. In the 17 years since the Hand of Hope Photo was taken, it’s still recognized worldwide. It was quickly adopted by the prolife movement, appearing on posters at rallies, and. The Armis family has become involved with. The effort, speaking out against abortion locally and internationally. The photo was not without controversy. Over the years, Brunners challenged Clancy’s retelling of the events. He did not respond to request for comment, regardless of which account is accurate.
For the army family, the photo is. An affirmation of what they knew all along. Their baby boy was fearfully and wonderfully made it’s not so bad. Samuel Alexander Armis was born screaming on December 2, 1999, at 36 weeks gestation. His back was healed and he was healthy. He stayed in the holding nursery for 6 hours as a precaution and was brought to his mother’s room around 11:00 p.m. Alex, who had already given Samuel two bottles in the nursery, was asleep in the chair by Julie’s hospital bed. She chose not to wake her husband as she held her firstborn.
For the first time, she unwrapped a swaddle and admired his five pound, eleven ounce body. He was perfect. Samuel learned to walk around 21 months of age and has worn braces on his lower legs to support his ankles ever since. He’s had to undergo various surgeries over the years on his bladder, his heel cord tendon, and the muscles around his eyes.
Despite the challenges and the risks, Julie and Alex knew they wanted another child. So they returned to the infertility doctor and underwent intrauterine insemination again. A year later, the Army’s second son, Ethan, was born healthy and typical. Then a year later, Julie discovered she was pregnant again.