
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, March 26, 1990                   TAG: 9003262172
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

BONE DISEASE BABY ANDY'S SHORT LIFE

ANDY MOORE lived a short life full of the kind of suffering that makes people ask, "Why?" The Roanoke infant suffered from a rare bone disease that left him blind, hard of hearing, undeveloped physically and frequently in discomfort. The six months that he lived were full of crises.

Doctors had said Andy's best chance for survival depended on a bone-marrow transplant, which is expensive and requires a suitable donor. The marrow of his mother, Sue Argabright, couldn't be used in a transplant. When doctors were unable to find a donor, Argabright filed suit to force Andy's father to determine whether his marrow would match. The father agreed to submit to the tests voluntarily, but his marrow wasn't compatible, either.

Argabright was unable to work and care for her son, too, so she was dependent on welfare. Had a marrow donor been found, the transplant would have been costly - as much as $180,000. Argabright worked hard to raise money to pay for it, and had received contributions of about $14,000. Medicaid took care of most of Andy's medical expenses, but would not pay for a bone-marrow transplant.

Andy had been at Bowman Gray/Baptist Hospital Medical Center in Winston-Salem since late January, undergoing an experimental therapy. In the end, it didn't work: He died in his mother's arms Friday.

Was Andy's brief life valuable? With such a display of tenacity of the human spirit - in the baby, in his mother and in their supporters - how could one think not?

by CNB