Senator Sampson Calls for Life-Saving Surgeries to Help 10-Year-Old Brooklyn Girl Jewel Sulker

April 2, 2008

(Long Island, N.Y.) Jewel Sulker should not be alive. She has a corrupt digestive tract, brittle bones throughout her body and lives daily attached to medical equipment. She has a deformed bladder the size of a dime and has also lost both of her kidneys. Yet, the 10-year-old Brooklyn girl clings to life daily with the slim hope of receiving life-enhancing surgeries. But those close to her fear that time is running out.

For this reason, State Senator John L. Sampson (D-Brooklyn) today is making an appeal to local, national, and international medical community for help in identifying doctors able to perform the procedures needed to correct Jewel’s life-threatening health disorders.

“We are praying that the media will help us draw attention to the plight of Jewel Sulker,” said Senator Sampson, the ranking member of the New York State Senate Committee on Health. “Jewel may be the only child in the world living with so many medical abnormalities.”

About 150,000 babies are born with defects each year in the United States. There are more than 4,000 different known birth defects ranging from minor to serious and although while many of them can be treated or cured, they are the leading cause of death in the first year of life.

“My daughter continues to defy medical logic,” said Dianne Brown, mother of Jewel Sulker. “We are at a point where we’ve completely exhausted all options and time is running out. There has to be a medical specialist out there that can offer my baby hope and improvement in her quality of life.”

Prior to conception, Jewel’s mother publically disclosed that she was prescribed a hormonal-based drug to combat the irregularity of her menstrual cycle. She’s been taking the medication for approximately 10 years. After a routine check-up with her doctor, it was discovered that she was unexpectedly pregnant. The excessive hormones in her system, especially during the first trimester, may have contributed to Jewel’s birth defects.

“Not only am I trying to save my baby, but after 10 years of this blight, I’m reaching out to everyone thinking of having a child in hopes of protecting them,” Brown said. “If you are currently taking menstrual-regulating drugs, you must become aware of the potential impact on pregnancy and the risk involved. Lack of information to me shouldn’t mean lack of information for expectant mothers. You may find yourself in a similar situation like Jewel and I, where doctors refuse to see you, can’t look you in the eye and doors slam in your face.”

“The family is not asking for pity but help,” Sampson said. “In this country, the medical community will fly children in from around the world to save their lives with unimaginable operations and medical breakthroughs, but we have no solution for someone in our own backyard. I believe in our medical community and I know they will step up to help this family.”

Senator Sampson is asking specialists or health organizations interested in assisting with this matter to immediately call his district office at (718) 649-7653.