She had her tubes tied so that she could care for disabled child

THE baby's brain is only 1mm wide.

DEVOTED: Madam Yang and Yurong. PICTURE: GUANG MING DAILY

But her mother's love for her is immeasurable.

Huang Yurong, a 6-month-old Malaysian baby, suffers from hydrocephalus, a condition where fluid accumulates in the cavities of the brain.

Because of this, her brain has shrunk, and her head has ballooned to the size of a football.

Guang Ming Daily reported that she was also born with spinal deformities and her nerves are exposed. The baby also can't move the lower part of her body.

When her mother, Madam Yang Shu Jun, 38, was five months pregnant, she was told that her baby would develop spinal deformities and would be disabled for life.

She was then asked if she wanted to abort the child.

Madam Yang calmly replied: 'I want to keep her. I must give birth to her. Who can abandon their own flesh and blood?'

'I understood what I have to face if I went ahead. But I couldn't give her up. I told myself that it was a trial from heaven which I must accept.'

After Yurong was born, Madam Yang and her husband approached all the private hospitals in Penang to treat Yurong.

But they turned her down.

Eventually a hospital said yes, and it has now become Yurong's second home.

Madam Yang said Yurong, her third child, had already gone through a brain operation, which reduced the size of her head. It was about two times bigger before the surgery.

Yurong frequently waves her little arms to attract her mother's attention. But because she has kidney problems, Madam Yang has to drop by the hospital five times a day to collect her urine through a catheter, often in the middle of the night.

When asked if she was tired from taking care of Yurong, Madam Yang said: 'She's lovely, she never throws any tantrums. She is my child, I have no reason and no right to complain.'

She remembered quarrelling with a doctor after giving birth to Yurong.

She had asked for her Fallopian tubes to be cut, a process called ligation.

'I told the doctor that I wanted the operation so that I couldn't have any more children. I wanted to give Yurong and my two other girls my complete love and care.'

The doctor refused, but eventually gave in.

'I realised my daughter was a fighter. She has a strong will to live and is no normal child. I think my decision to give birth to her was the right one.'

Source: Guang Ming Daily

Disabled worker fails in discrimination plea

A father-of-four did not face discrimination by bosses at a Bradford job centre because of his disability, an employment tribunal has ruled today.

David Lambert, who uses a wheelchair and is often in severe pain following an industrial accident in 1996, claimed his managers should have taken his disability into account before verbally warning him for missing too many days off work at JobCentre Plus in Bradford.

Mr Lambert, 34, of Walden Drive, Heaton, Bradford, also should have been allowed to work from home occasionally because of sickness caused by a daily dose of painkillers, he told the Leeds Tribunal today.

He said: “All I can do is my best to get into work on a daily basis and what I would expect, especially from a Government department like JobCentre Plus, is that it takes my medical condition into account.”

But giving evidence the centre’s customer operations manager, Tim Dibb, said managers were justified in disciplining Mr Lambert in March, 2008, after he took more than 28 days sick leave in a year.

Because of Mr Lambert’s unpredictable condition, he would often call up the same morning saying he could not come to work, leaving about ten colleagues to deal with 50 extra compulsory interview appointments to find jobs for benefits claimants, he said.

And, if there were already too few staff in the office, job-seekers would have their interviews cancelled and simply turn up to sign on. Mr Lambert had been allowed to start work late when he was feeling ill, had been given a higher desk for his wheelchair and had been found a back office job when he found it difficult to interview job-seekers, Mr Dibb said.

And he told the tribunal there would be a “serious security risk” should Mr Lambert be allowed to take home his work – sensitive documents containing job-seekers’ personal details.

Tribunal judge David Burton sympathised with Mr Lambert but ruled JobCentre Plus managers had taken reasonable steps to account for his disability.

He said: “While this tribunal has considerable admiration for the claimant (Mr Lambert) for the efforts he makes to keep in work, we do not think that his claim is well-grounded and it is as a consequence of that that it is dismissed.”

Source: Bradford Telegraph Argus