Japanese law impedes a U.S. family’s plan to donate newborn’s organs should she die

ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER | Deepa Bharath

Photo: Little Zephy's Mission

Fabian Gosin watched eagerly as his daughter Zephaniah – Zephy – was born.

Named after a prophet in the Old Testament, Zephaniah, which means “the Lord is my secret,” was born without sound, movement or breath.

All her dad, an Orange County native who served in the Air Force, can remember is this: “She was gray, like a raincloud.”

Doctors at the hospital in Okinawa, Japan, where Gosin lives with his wife, Lynsey, put Zephy on a table. She was born with the umbilical cord wrapped twice around her neck. She wasn’t breathing.

They frantically pumped her chest and whisked her away in an ambulance to another hospital. For 24 days, that’s where she has remained, on life support.

Doctors said Zephy had suffered hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy, which means her brain has been permanently and irreversibly damaged because she didn’t have enough oxygen to breathe. But her brain is still hanging by a thread, sending out feeble waves. Zephy hasn’t been declared brain dead – not yet. Continue reading

How to help

For more information and updates about Zephy's condition, visit the Gosins' blog: littlezephy.wordpress.com. To find out how to help, visit http://ift.tt/2dcFvPh

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