"Orphan Doctor" Helps World's Children
NEW YORK, Dec. 18, 2009
"Orphan Doctor" Helps World's Children
Doctor Shows "The American Spirit" by Making Foreign Adoptions Easier for Kids and Parents
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Connecting Lives Worldwide
Dr. Jane Aronson is trying to make foreign adoptions easier for both parents and children. Michelle Miller reports on her story for tonight's "The American Spirit."
Dr. Jane Aronson, center, is known as the "orphan doctor." (CBS)
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Jolie Picks Up Adopted Baby Girl
(CBS) Inside her tiny office in New York City, Doctor Jane Aronson is a modern day medicine woman. A caretaker not only to her patients here, but also an ambassador to thousands more overseas, uniting little souls with American parents seeking to give them a home, as CBS News correspondent Michelle Miller reports.
While international adoption can offer potential parents more options, newly adopted children often have physical ailments.
Doctor Jane Aronson's Website
Worldwide Orphans Foundation
"These are children who are born small and somewhat immune compromised," Dr. Aronson said. "They are living in developing nations where there are risks of tuberculosis, parasites, exposure to hepatitis."
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The 58-year-old gained worldwide attention after treating Angelina Jolie's daughter, Zahara from a life-threatening bacterial infection shortly after she arrived from Ethiopia.
Dr. Aronson also provides an antidote for emotional issues as well.
"I've spent the last 20 years travelling to orphanages all over the world, to see the conditions that these kids grow up in." she said. "So I know when they arrive here how hurt, sad and empty and how yearning they are to love."
And Doctor Aronson isn't immune. That's why she helps new moms like Nanette Green bond with their daughters.
Nanette said that Abigail "didn't see me as somebody who was going to be her mama for the rest of her life."
But not anymore, thanks in part to Dr. Jane's guidance.
Dr. Aronson in "Glamour" magazine
Recently, Glamour magazine named her one of its women of the year, recognizing her work through the Worldwide Orphans Foundation. She started it 12 years ago to provide health care and a healthier life to children left orphaned by disease, war and starvation.
The adoption guru brings her work home. She and her partner Diana adopted two sons: 11-year-old Des from Ethiopia and nine-year-old Ben from Vietnam.
"Kids want a family who would do anything to have what we have," Des said. "A family who takes care of them, loves them and gives them hugs at night and tucks them in bed."
And in this holiday season, families who have already given light to an unwanted child say there is no greater gift.