Baby Joseph doing well at home, father feels victorious

The Windsor Star has an updated report on Baby Joseph, the terminally ill Canadian child who was transported to St. Louis for a tracheotomy after Canadian doctors almost took him off life support.

Only months ago, the fate of 15-month-old Joseph Maraachli was a question mark. Doctors at London Health Sciences Centre in London, Ont., sought to take the infant off life support as he battled a progressive neurological disease.

But on Sunday, the round-cheeked baby was home in Windsor, resting in a cradle packed with plush toys. Now and then he opened his eyes or wriggled a little, or moved his arms beneath father Moe Maraachli's occasional touches and kisses.

When Maraachli held out a finger at one point, Joseph's own stubby fingers curled around it.

He's breathing without a ventilator, Maraachli said, after surgery in St. Louis ? the airway-opening tracheotomy his family sought but couldn't get in Canada as they battled to bring Joseph home to die.

"I feel victorious," Maraachli said, smiling broadly as he stood by Joseph's crib. "I feel I won and my baby's alive."

But he's also been left with questions about why he and wife Sana Nader had to go to the U.S. for help.

"That's what makes me mad," he said. "Why I have to travel to St. Louis?

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