A mother who has been flooded with horrific TikTok comments about her baby’s appearance has hit back at ‘trolls’ who told her to “put him out of his misery” and refer to their son as “it”.
Amber, whose baby boy Derek was born with holoprosencephaly, shared a video on the platform of him after he’d just woken up.
According to the National Organization of Rare Disorders, “Holoprosencephaly (HPE) is the failure of the prosencephalon, or forebrain, to develop normally. The forebrain is a region of the brain in the fetus that develops into parts of the adult brain, including the cerebral cortex. Instead of the normal complete separation of the left and right halves of the forebrain, there is an abnormal continuity between the two sides”.
In the video of baby Derek waking up, mum Amber says: “Hi Derek, are you waking up now?”
Although the video received plenty of positive responses many people also left a range of cruel jibes in the comment section.
One user wrote: “I’m eating right now”. Another said: “I’m sorry but that scared me”.
Amber was also barraged with judgmental accusations after posting the video.
One person commented: “You wouldn’t put an animal through this so why a tiny helpless baby. Must have shown on scans”.
Many people did not refer to Derek as ‘he’, instead referring to him as ‘it’.
Amber posted a series of other videos explaining Derek’s condition and hitting back at ‘trolls’.
In the footage, she explained that there were signs during her pregnancy that something may be different about her baby, but she did not know the ‘full picture’ until she was eight months pregnant.
While she and her partner considered an abortion, they decided to continue with the pregnancy, although it was suggested by doctors that Derek may not survive past birth.
Amber explained: “We were ready to let him go. We were ready to say goodbye and if it’s selfish to want to meet him before that, then yeah we’re selfish parents”.
“But I’m so glad that we did because he lived. He wasn’t dying. He wasn’t suffering. He was fighting to stay alive”.
She also explained that, while she is happy to answer questions about her son’s condition, she slammed people who made nasty comments about him.
“There’s no reason to just straight up say, ‘put him out of his misery’, or ‘put IT out of IT’s misery’, or ‘put it down’. There’s no reason for that”.
Amber also explained that she wants to share videos of Derek in order to show people that babies like him are capable of living happily.
A spokesperson for Right To Life UK, Catherine Robinson, said: “It is incredibly disheartening to witness the visceral prejudice that so many people clearly still hold against people with disabilities. Well done to Amber and her partner, who not only refused a late-term abortion because of their baby’s condition, but for hitting back at the vile abuse and misconceptions they have had directed at themselves and baby Derek online”.
Image credit: TikTok/embertorres0
