I found out I was pregnant with my second
child in October 2004. I had my 20 week ultrasound two times because the technician
could not see all of the organs. They referred me to the genetics department to
have a second level ultrasound done. I found out that he had a single vessel umbilical
cord. I was told that all of his organs looked great and that he would probably
only have low birth weight. The doctor also told me that it is very common for babies
to be born with a single vessel cord. I went in for my 38 week appointment and was
sent to labor and delivery because my amniotic fluid was really low. I was excited
to meet our son Jordan Richard Bailey. When they gave me Pitocin the nurses rushed
into my room to move me because Jordan's heart rate would drastically drop. I finally
had dilated to ten and had him out in one push on June 23, 2005. He was blue and
very small. They immediately took him to the NICU and my husband followed. My husband
came into the recovery room two hours after I had Jordan and had a sad look on his
face. He told me that it did not look good. Jordan weighed 4 lbs 12oz. He had extra
digits on his hands and one extra toe and one of his eye's was under developed.
I went to visit him later in the day and found about twelve doctors surrounding
him and one doctor examining him. The NICU supervisor came out and said they wanted
to have a meeting with us. We went into the meeting along with my parents and my
mother in law, then the doctors came into the room. A nurse brought in a box of
tissue and we knew it was not good news. The genetics counselor said that he thought
that Jordan had Trisomy 13. They had done a genetic test on him that day but we
would not get the results back in for one week. The following day they decided to
do an EKG to see if his heart had any defects. We got there right as they were about
to start the EKG. After they finished they took us into another room and told us
even more devastating news. Jordan had two holes in his heart. The doctor also said
that his kidneys were not functioning properly. He said we needed to make a quick
decision. We had to decide whether or not to let him have surgery. They said that
the survival rate was not good if we opted for the surgery. We decided that we wanted
to let him go in peace. We did not want to be selfish. He would have been in pain
and would have suffered if we had him go through the surgeries. We had all of our
family and friends come meet and hold him the following day not knowing how long
it would be before he passed away. He got to be loved by each one of us. The next
morning at 4AM we got a call saying he was fading fast and that they did not think
he would live more than ten minutes. We live forty minutes from the hospital. I
made it there in 15 minutes and he was still alive when we got there. He died in
my arms at 5:50AM on June 26, 2005. We got to spend three precious days with our
son. I found out three days after he died that he did have Trisomy 13. I don't know
if it would have been easier to know before I had him. My son who is two years old
does not remember anything and we don't know how we are going to tell him about
Jordan. It has been an ordeal for my husband and myself. We have never dealt with
anything like this before. We said he will always be our guardian angel.
Sincerely, Loran and Josh Bailey drewski33103@sbcglobal.net