This super sweet story about artist Karl Kesel and his wife adopting a baby and then selling his Silver Age comics collection to pay for medical bills is a great way to end the week. The Kesels had been assigned a drug affected baby and this meant their child was born with a methadone addiction and has to be hospitalized for six weeks:
Isaac was born, sadly addicted to methadone, and had to go through withdrawal, which is a long and I’m sure not fun process. It took about six weeks for him to be weaned all the way off the methadone, and some of those weeks were very tough. He was very inconsolable; we couldn’t soothe him, clearly he was agitated. He was on a morphine treatment during that time period, but each day, they cut that back just a little bit more and so his body had to pick up the slack and clean himself out a little more. It took about six weeks, but now he’s just a kid. He’s a very happy kid and seems to have no major effects from the drugs. There might be some learning disabilities later on. The doctors have told us we might not really know until he enters school. We might find he has a little trouble with math, with reading or something like that. Right now, he seems to be very, very normal. We’re extremely happy. He brings a lot of joy into our life.
As mentioned above, Kesel is selling a stunning Silver Age comics collection to pay the medical bills. You can purchase something at Blastoff Comics. “I’m selling my past to gain a new future,” he told CBR, and the whole story is touching in the extreme.
Wonderful story. Wonderful family.
Little Isaac really won the great parents lottery.
such a beautiful baby and wonderful people with lovely hearts <3
nice to hear about this story
I think this story is sad – and an illustration of where publically-funded medicine is just better
Comics or a son? I think they made the right choice.
Kesel is a Saint. I hope he fetches enough to buy that poor kid a lifetime supply of ice cream, on top of the more pressing bills.
William, think again. Public ally funded medicine leads to rationing and cutting loses and government decisions on human lives. The Kesels are making a difference because they choose to do so. This is the happiest story I can remember.
No it doesn’t. Publically-funded medicine means that people do not become bankrupt (or in this case lose precious possesions) to pay health bills. I’d rather live in a country where rationing is on the basis of what the country can afford rather than what I can afford. There’s far more rationing, on the basis of ability to pay, in the US system than in the publically-funded systems, particularly as in all such countries there’s a private health system where people can pay to get what the public system won’t provide. There’s no ‘government decisions on human lives’ – if the government won’t pay for it then you can. The US system is exactly the same except that for most people the government will never pay for it
In a good system this baby would get this treatment as a right not just because their adoptive parents have a comic collection they can sell.
Shave one hundredth from the defense budget and universal healthcare could be completely free for all.
But both political parties favor instigating wars than anything so rational.
Good story, but why they adopted a baby like that? The kid may have learning disabilities later on which is very difficult to deal with.
Living in Canada – public health care is the way to go…
They adopted “a baby like that” because “a baby like that” needs a home.
That also seems to me like the kind of thing that a humane society should encourage and support, even if the adoptive parents don’t have valuable assets they can sell.
All health-care systems involve “rationing” of some kind… the only question is on what basis, and that’s what the political struggle in Washington is about.
My new heroes.
They’re nobler and more heroic than most superheroes are these days.
Best wishes to all of you!
What the Kesels have done by adopting this child makes them true superheroes. I wish them all the best.
They care enough to have taken on a tough assignment; the fact that they knew the baby would have problems and they adopted anyway means this child has a much better chance of growing up with caring people and support to help with whatever kinds of problems that may develop. I wish there was a way to send them some energy, they may need that more than anything, if my own grandson is any measure of what they will deal with (he’s a cutie but so energetic, always on the move).
William, there is just as much evidence to postulate this could would have been aborted under publicly-funded medicine.
I’m so happy for the Kesels! Way to go! Hope you do more awesome Superman comics, too! Cheers!
How many forced abortions has the NHS authorized again?
First I need to state that the Kesels’ are heroes – this baby needs a loving mum and dad and that’s what it got.
But secondly, availability of abortion has nothing to do with funding model and no system in the developed world ever said you have to abort your child because we can’t afford to treat it afterwards. In fact it makes it easier to not abort, knowing that it can be treated afterwards.
Scott, you clearly have Down’s Syndrome if you think that stuff is true. Imagine how much better you could be if you could’ve gotten treatment for your disability early in life courtesy of a universal healthcare system.
@Lobster
You’re an idiot.