The Boy from Baby House 10: From the Nightmare of a Russian Orphanage to a New Life in America

by Alan Philps, John Lahutsky

Overview

In 1990, a young boy afflicted with cerebral palsy was born, prematurely, in Russia. His name was Vanya. His mother abandoned him to the state childcare system and he was sent to a bleak orphanage called Baby House 10. Once there, he entered a nightmare world he was not to leave for more than eight years. Housed in a ward with a group of other children, he was clothed in rags, ignored by most of the staff and given little, if any, medical treatment. He was finally, and cruelly, confined for a time to a mental asylum where he lived, almost caged, lying in a pool of his own waste on a locked ward surrounded by psychotic adults. But, that didn't stop Vanya.

Even in these harsh conditions, he grew into a smart and persistent young boy who reached out to everyone around him. Two of those he reached out to—Sarah Philps, the wife of a British journalist, and Vika, a young Russian woman—realized that Vanya was no ordinary child and they began a campaign to find him a home. After many twists and turns, Vanya came to the attention of a single woman living in the United States named Paula Lahutsky. After a lot of red tape and more than one miracle, Paula adopted Vanya and brought him to the U.S. where he is now known as John Lahutsky, an honors student at Freedom High School in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and a member of the Boy Scouts of America Order of the Arrow.
In The Boy From Baby House 10, Sarah's hus band, Alan Philps, helps John Lahutsky bring this inspiring true-life story of a small boy with a big heart and an unquenchable will to readers everywhere.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781429958103
Publisher:	St. Martin's Publishing Group
Publication date:	02/15/2011
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	305
File size:	546 KB

About the Author

ALAN PHILPS is a reporter for the Telegraph, UK, who first broke the story about the appalling conditions in the asylum where Vanya—John—was being held. His article led to the closing of the children's wing. Philps lives in London with his wife Sarah.

JOHN LAHUTSKY was born in Russia, where he was placed in first an orphanage and then, due to his cerebral palsy, a mental asylum. In 1999 he was adopted by Paula Lahutsky, a school psychologist from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. John graduated from Pennsylvania State University Lehigh Valley in 2019 with a degree in corporate communication.

Table of Contents

Preface xi

1 The Half-Open Door 1

2 A Voice in the Silence 17

3 Pineapples and Peacocks 38

4 Beyond the Reach of Angels 51

5 A Superhuman Feat 58

6 Nobody Cares 65

7 The Mother's Tale 80

8 The Rat 88

9 Message from the Gulag 97

10 The Sour Grape 105

11 A Narrow Escape 119

12 Babes in the Wood 128

13 Cognac and Chocolate 137

14 Groundhog Day 147

15 The Blame Game 151

16 Narrow Escape [Reprise] 156

17 The Empire Strikes Back 162

18 Christmas Pudding in July 184

19 The Caged Bird 195

20 One of Us 199

21 Candle Power 211

22 Potentially Very Good News 221

23 Ticket to Santa Barbara 228

24 An Evil Trick 231

25 A Prisoner of the Caucasus 237

26 A White Lie 243

27 Unforgiven 248

28 Reunited 254

29 A Bit of Sleuthing 259

30 The Sister's Tale 267

31 The Vanya Effect 275

Epilogue: The Boy from Bethlehem 280

How This Book Came to Be Written 285

Editorial Reviews

Muckraking memoir exposes Russia's nightmarish orphan-care system. Aided by British journalist Philps, Lahutsky recounts his experiences in the "children's gulag," a Stalinist-era relic that operates to this day. Now a high-school student living with his adoptive mother in Pennsylvania, at the time the book opens Lahutsky was a toddler named Vanya, abandoned by his birth mother and diagnosed with cerebral palsy. He was sent to the titular orphanage, a decrepit human warehouse whose head doctor was a superstitious peasant rather than a medical professional. Children with physical disabilities like Vanya's were routinely declared mentally retarded by Russian authorities, then consigned to orphanages where therapy was nonexistent. But Baby House 10 was the Taj Mahal compared to the internat (asylum) to which Vanya was later shuttled to spend the rest of his life. A hellhole in which children were sedated and left in steel-barred cribs soiled with their own urine and feces, the internat spurred reporter Philps, his wife and some humane Russian caregivers to make heroic efforts to save Vanya. The book details his tortuous ordeal with the Russian state bureaucracy and an aborted adoption by a British family, as well as his ultimate connection with a loving American mother. None of his setbacks snuffed out Vanya's indefatigable resilience, which was his salvation and comprises the most remarkable part of his story. An emotionally draining but haunting document of human cruelty, kindness and survival.

Kirkus Reviews

“…a reminder of the power, strength and resiliency of the human spirit...” —Bookreporter.com

“This account of a young boy's narrow escape from an oppressive Russian child-care system will shock you, move you, and ultimately inspire you. The book exposes an appalling injustice, then reminds us about the power of persistence, hope, and compassion. Vanya and those who save him are absolutely inspirational.” —Alvin Townley, author of Spirit of Adventure and Legacy of Honor

“Aided by British journalist Philps, Lahutsky recounts his experiences in the 'children's gulag,' a Stalinist-era relic that operates to this day... A haunting document of human cruelty, kindness, and survival.” —Kirkus Reviews

From the Publisher