Future Major League all-star pitcher Tommy John was born on May 22, 1943 in Terre Haute, IN. There were major complications during the delivery and doctors were forced to use an untested experimental procedure to save both the baby and mother. Thankfully both mother and Tommy came through it in fine condition. This procedure became the standard way of dealing with certain complications in childbirth and became known as the “Tommy John Section”. **
Over the years many mothers who have successfully given birth via the Tommy John Section named their boy Tommy. The first such case was at the very same hospital only a week later. A woman came into the emergency room suffering some sort of nervous breakdown, which triggered premature labor. She was uncommunicative, but doctors estimated she was about 6 weeks premature. The doctors were able to save both the baby and mother, but little Tommy was born deaf and blind. The doctors later found the reason for the mother’s nervous breakdown. The woman came into the emergency room clutching a newspaper article which read as follows:
“Captain Walker didn’t come home; his unborn child will never know him. Believe him missing with a number of men; don’t expect to see him again.”
** Source: Portions of this story from The Onion Newspaper.
Over the years many mothers who have successfully given birth via the Tommy John Section named their boy Tommy. The first such case was at the very same hospital only a week later. A woman came into the emergency room suffering some sort of nervous breakdown, which triggered premature labor. She was uncommunicative, but doctors estimated she was about 6 weeks premature. The doctors were able to save both the baby and mother, but little Tommy was born deaf and blind. The doctors later found the reason for the mother’s nervous breakdown. The woman came into the emergency room clutching a newspaper article which read as follows:
“Captain Walker didn’t come home; his unborn child will never know him. Believe him missing with a number of men; don’t expect to see him again.”
** Source: Portions of this story from The Onion Newspaper.
