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Marga Servera is a woman fulfilled by achieving her dream. She tells us about it in this informative capsule about the adoption with Cystic Fibrosis.
When is the right time to adopt?
Marga and her husband decided to start the process in 2015, when she, at 39 years old, felt she was ready to become a mother. Family and economic stability were also decisive factors in her decision to pursue her dream.
Initial steps in the adoption process
In the first visit to the Mallorcan Institute of Social Affairs (IMAS), they were told all the documentation they had to present to prove their economic situation and, above all, medical reports to support the relevance that she, with Cystic Fibrosis, was in a position to adopt.
Was it a problem to have Cystic Fibrosis?
Marga explains how during the first years of the adoption process, with the medical reports presented, Cystic Fibrosis did not pose any impediment for the adoption committee to continue at the waiting list and to take the courses that were planned. From the beginning of the process, every year and a half they renewed all the documentation like any other couple.
A hopeful call… or not
The year 2020 was a critical year for Marga and her husband. After renewing the documentation, they were told in a videoconference that they had to go to IMAS for a face-to-face meeting, awakening the couple’s illusions as they thought they could be given the long-awaited news. Nothing could be further from the truth. They tell Marga that her health is not good, that her life expectancy is short due to her age and that she should have started the adoption process much earlier, so the adoption process was finished at that moment.
Misinterpretation of the medical report
In that call, they were told that, based on their case, they consider that no woman with Cystic Fibrosis can start the adoption process, so the Association starts working to reverse an erroneous decision based on ignorance.
The mistake starts from the fact that nobody can affirm that a person will die at a certain age. To say that because the life expectancy of a person with Cystic Fibrosis is 50 years, Marga had 7 years to live is something that we could not allow.
Our allegation was based on demonstrating, not that he would not die at the age of 50, because we do not know that either, but on demonstrating that nobody can say at what age a person will die. This was the basis for this decision not to affect the whole group of people with Cystic Fibrosis.
Normal life with Cystic Fibrosis
Marga had to prove that she was living a completely normal life, with the obligations imposed by Cystic Fibrosis, but doing the things that other people do. That meant having to prove that she worked at home because of the Covid regulations in force and not because she had Cystic Fibrosis. He had to prove that she was going shopping or visiting relatives with her credit card movements or photos at her nephews’ house.
Less is more
In an adoption process, the information in the medical report is crucial. The people who are part of the committee probably do not know about Cystic Fibrosis, so any detail can be interpreted in an incorrect way. After reading the doctor’s report, we deduced that some of the information provided could cause Marga’s personal situation to be misinterpreted.
It is clear that Cystic Fibrosis is a serious disease, but, in these cases, the report should reflect the personal situation of that specific person and not offer generic data of the disease that may not reflect the physical and health condition of that mother who intends to adopt. That is to say, truthful information, adjusted to the specific data of that person, brief and concise helps much more than a report with general statistics in which life expectancy and morbidity and mortality data are mentioned.
Rectification
After a few weeks of hard work gathering information, photos, proof of expenses in stores, a one-page medical report adjusted to Marga’s reality and a great defense on her part at the next meeting, the committee acknowledged its misinterpretation and rectified its decision to leave Marga and her husband out of the process.
The long awaited call
A few months after that meeting, IMAS called them to give them the big news. They were introduced to what is now their son, the person who has filled their home with happiness..
