Former Embryo Update.

A/K/A The Fabulous Former Fetus Fanfare!

The State: Embryos saved from Katrina bearing fruit
New Orleans — The baby album for Rebekah Markham’s soon-to-be-born child could include something extra special: photos of officers using flat-bottomed boats to rescue frozen embryos from a sweltering hospital in the chaotic aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

Markham is about to give birth by Caesarean section, nine months after being implanted with an embryo that nearly thawed when the flooded hospital lost electricity.

“It’s going to be exciting for the little baby, once he gets old enough to realize what it went through,” said Markham, a 32-year-old physical therapist whose husband, Glen, 42, is a New Orleans police officer. “Katrina’s history. A big part of history.”

The baby — the Markhams do not know whether they are having a boy or a girl, but are guessing it’s a boy — will be one of the first to be born from the more than 1,400 embryos rescued from New Orleans’ Lakeland Hospital two weeks after the storm.

And it isn’t just the Markhams who are tickled.

“That is great! I’m going to call all our officers and tell them. They’ll be pretty excited,” said Lt. Eric Bumgarner, one of seven Illinois Conservation Police officers and three Louisiana state troopers who sloshed through floodwaters to remove the embryos.

Bumgarner said he has often wondered what happened to the embryos: “One of these embryos could be the next president.”

Amen to that, Brother.