The parents of a baby girl with facial disfigurements have hit back after vicious online trolls branded her a ‘monster’ and said she should be ‘killed’.
Naffi and Racheli Goldman, of Manchester, have revealed their heartbreak at comments left by strangers’ after they posted pictures of their daughter Batya on Facebook.
The couple has come to the defense of their little girl who was born with a rare condition that has left her with a malformed skull and a twisted spine, as well as leaving her deaf, blind, and unable to breathe on her own.
A 3D scan in Tel Aviv, Israel, during the pregnancy revealed the health issues, with Doctors telling the parents that Batya, who will be aged one in less than a week, was ‘not compatible with life’.
Seven months into the pregnancy which had taken two years to happen, Naffi and Racheli were given the option of aborting their child.
They refused, and insist they don’t regret bringing their little girl into the world and are now raising £500,000 to pay for her care costs.
Jewelry dealer Naffi, who admits he was initially ‘frightened’ by his daughter’s bulging eyes and unusually-shaped head, said: ‘When we saw the comments on our photographs we were horrified. We didn’t think people like this existed.
‘What people were saying was dreadful. People said they have never seen such an ugly child. They said our child is a creature. One person said what we are doing is abuse and someone told us she looks like some kind of monster.
‘People said, “why bring a creature into this world, you should have killed her”. It broke our hearts.’
He added: ‘We were told to abort straight away and the doctors knew she would be born with a serious medical condition.
‘They weren’t sure what, but they knew Batya would be seriously disabled. We were told she wouldn’t make it through birth and if she did, would die in infancy.
‘They said caring for her would make our lives unbearable. It was absolutely heartbreaking to hear and our world came crashing down. But we will look after the gift we have been given.’
Born on January 3, the baby was rushed to intensive care and suffered respiratory failure during infancy and is now kept alive by a ventilator.
Naffi said: ‘She had an enlarged head and her eyes were bulging. I could see straight away that her spine wasn’t straight. She was frightening to look at.
‘It was scary for us. We knew straight away that the future was going to be very, very hard for us.’
This month, mother Racheli, shared photos of her baby on Facebook and received messages like ‘do you think keeping this creature alive is the right thing to do?’.
Another troll called Batya a ‘sick fetus’ whilst one person said Racheli’s baby looked like ‘medusa’, known in Greek Mythology as a monster.
Both Naffi and Racheli have had to give up their jobs and spent 24/7 – in alternate shifts – caring for their daughter. She requires 80 procedures a day that keep her alive – including round-the-clock medication and feeding via a tube.
Around 80 percent of children worn with Batya’s disabilities die within 12 weeks but she has ‘found a way to survive’.
The couple had planned to live in the UK full time and had begun applying for citizenship for Israeli born, Racheli.
They hope to one day return to the UK to live if Batya is ever well enough to travel abroad.
They receive medical equipment from the Israeli government but are trying to raise money to pay for extra care.
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