A picture began circulating in November. It should be "The Picture of the Year," or perhaps, "Picture of the Decade." It won't be. In fact, unless you obtained a copy of the U.S. paper which published it, you probably would never have seen it.

The picture is that of a 21-week-old unborn baby named Samuel Alexander Armas, who is being operated on by surgeon named Joseph Bruner. The baby was diagnosed with spina bifida and would not survive if removed from his mother's womb. Little Samuel's mother, Julie Armas, is an obstetrics nurse in Atlanta. She knew of Dr. Bruner's remarkable surgical procedure. Practicing at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, he performs these special operations while the baby is still in the womb.

During the procedure, the doctor removes the uterus via C-section and makes a small incision to operate on the baby. As Dr. Bruner completed the surgery on Samuel, the little guy reached his tiny, but fully developed hand through the incision and firmly grasped the surgeon's finger. Dr. Bruner was reported as saying that when his finger was grasped, it was the most emotional moment of his life, and that for an instant during the procedure he was just frozen, totally immobile.

The photograph captures this amazing event with perfect clarity. The editors titled the picture, "Hand of Hope." The text explaining the picture begins, "The tiny hand of 21-week-old fetus Samuel Alexander Armas emerges from the mother's uterus to grasp the finger of Dr. Joseph Bruner as if thanking the doctor for the gift of life."

Little Samuel's mother said they "wept for days" when they saw the picture. She said, "The photo reminds us pregnancy isn't about disability or an illness, it's about a little person" Samuel was born in perfect health, the operation 100 percent successful. Now see the actual picture, and it is awesome, incredible and emotional.

Wow. Just a few of the wonders of His hands

Incredible! marvelous! wonderful!

That unborn babies life was saved because of advancement in modern science!

Im too moved to type.Wow

Awwwwwww

What a wonder !

The Lord is God.and All the time too.wow

Is tha what the uterus looks like Awww

Oh my God!

God, pls, i want to be a surgeon,

Don't know why, but my head just starts to swell anytime i look at this picture.
Allah is great.

awww. .

This is the boy now 9 yrs old after he won a backstroke swimming event almost 10 years after that operation

http://carolmsblog..com/2009/05/finger-grasping-baby-in-womb-is-nine.html

God be praised! His mercies endureth forever more.

As touching as it may look, I now have some doubts about this picture.

1) Why does the woman's stomach look like a piece of crumbled aluminium sheet? I have personally witnessed surgeries and tummies dont look like that (unless you are operating on a 90yr old)

2) The organ that is being operated is partially placed on top of green piece of cloth ?

3) Spina bifida is not fatal.

^^^ Thank you! That sure doesn't look like a human body to me sef.

Indeed God is awesome.

@ naijafrend kindly educate us more

My new screen saver

naijafrend:

As touching as it may look, I now have some doubts about this picture.

1) Why does the woman's stomach look like a piece of crumbled aluminium sheet? I have personally witnessed surgeries and tummies dont look like that (unless you are operating on a 90yr old)

2) The organ that is being operated is partially placed on top of green piece of cloth ?

3) Spina bifida is not fatal.

You never born abi you never see person born, that flat attractive stomach will look like a matrass after small labor. you don wanna imagine

The picture does look kind of weird, though I don't pretend to be an expert.

But if it's true, thank God Almighty.

@aisha 2, I have been through all of it , be it witnessing it or going through it, and that is precisely why I said I had my 'doubts' ! Once again  I repeat it is not the size , it is the skin that I talked about !

Now that I have looked into it, I have some more doubts, If the doc was operating the foetus, and that too on his spine, how could he move his hand? Shouldn't he be under anesthesia?

@nijafriend. i partially agree