The hardest decision: To amputate your baby’s leg?

By ANDREW MCGINN
a.mcginn@beeherald.com

Ten fingers and 10 toes.

It’s all a parent wants when a baby is born.

Ten fingers and eight toes.

It’s how many Angie Bonnette and Jeremy Andrews got when their daughter, Chevie-Lynn Andrews, was born premature at 6:05 a.m. Oct. 12 at the Greene County Medical Center.

The absence of two toes on her left foot — a congenital defect — was something Mom and Dad could overlook.

“I didn’t care about her foot,” Bonnette, 24, of Jefferson, explained recently.

“All she has to do is smile and I start to tear up,” Bonnette added. “She’s so perfect.”

Except she’s not.

The decision they’re now facing is quite possibly the hardest being confronted by any two parents in Greene County.

They had no say over the number of toes on Chevie’s feet. In fact, the lack of two toes didn’t even register on an ultrasound, according to Bonnette.

But it’s entirely up to them whether or not to cut off their baby’s leg.

In addition to the foot abnormality, Chevie was born with a fibular abnormality, in which her shortened left leg will never keep up with the growth of her right leg.

“Hell no was my first thought,” Bonnette said, recalling their first visit in November to Children’s Hospital and Medical Center in Omaha, when the doctor suggested amputation.

Chevie this week turned seven months.

It’s recommended her parents make a decision before her first birthday.

Bonnette and Andrews were presented with just two options — to put Chevie in a brace, which would require a lifetime of surgeries, or to amputate the left leg before she even learns to walk and fit her with a prosthetic.

“With a brace, she would be limited,” acknowledged Andrews, 27. “She wouldn’t be able to do anything a regular kid could do. With a prosthetic, that’s all she’d know.”

Chevie’s condition is similar to that of Oscar Pistorius, the South African sprinter whose legs were amputated below the knee at 11 months.

Recent legal woes aside, Pistorius went on to stun the world, becoming the first amputee to compete in an Olympic track event during the 2012 games in London.

Chevie’s parents have decided to amputate.

“I know it’s best for her,” Andrews said.

“I do, too,” Bonnette said, tearing up, “I just don’t like it.”

For Andrews, a native of Louisiana who found his way north in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, amputation is the lesser of two evils.

“It’s a cruel world,” he observed. “I went to school with a girl with two braces and she still walked pigeon-toed. She ended up committing suicide. Her name was Sarah. I’ll never forget that girl.

“I don’t want that for my own child.”

Their daughter’s plight has only compounded the stress at home for a young couple already just barely making ends meet.

“Financially, we’re done,” Andrews said.

Their tiny, two-bedroom house across the street from Washington Park seems to get a little smaller with each day.

“All we do is fight,” Andrews said. “All we do is argue.”

The lack of a working car has made it virtually impossible to get Chevie back and forth to Omaha for what are supposed to be monthly doctor appointments.

An account in Chevie’s name has been established at Home State Bank.

“I don’t care what they say about me,” Bonnette said, “I just want to get her to Omaha.”