First Born Girl...

Now I would like you to take a breath, sit down and read this story...

A mother of 4 boys 3 brothers and an older half-brother found out she was pregnant once again. She was a bit alarmed at first, she had already had 2 miscarriages (both girls and the last one almost killed her). But everything was going great, though the April hail storm the size of soft balls turning the roof into Swiss cheese was a financial set back. The home owners association that her husband was president of came through and the neighborhood helped each other through this tough time. Mother’s Day came and went; it was very nice, the boys were on best behavior. Within 2 weeks she went into labor, took a bus to the hospital and contacted her husband at the office.

A baby girl, oh my gosh a full term baby girl, her husband was ecstatic and seeing his wife had named their last baby after him, he figured turnabout was fair play and named this little wisp of a girl after her mother, yes a little girl junior! Everything was going as planned when her mother went to her 6 week check-up and brought her little girl, the apple of her eye with her to the appointment.

The doctor said you are doing fine now let’s see this little “junior”, after listening to the babies chest, then her back, he closed the door and listened again. He asked her to come back to the office with her husband later that week. She did not understand but when her husband got home she expressed the doctor’s request. When they got to the office they came in, sat down the doctor put his head in his hands and started to cry. When he had composed himself he told her parents their little girl would not see her 3rd birthday. She was born with a congenital heart defect, the term he used was Eisemenger Syndrome, and it was fatal.

Both were in total shock this is not happening, God was not a cruel God, why? Well, her parents would not take this as a final answer and took their little girl to the local Women’s Hospital. They were given the same answer, take her home and make her life as comfortable as possible. Treat her as you would any little girl and let her live out her final days happy. HAPPY thought the parents, HAPPY? NO, this was not going to happen.

Her father sat down with pen in hand and started to contact his Army superiors that happened to be doctors, dentists actually but none the less doctors. And doctors always know other doctors, right?  This thought crossed his mind as he penned the pleadings for help or advice.
Months later he received a Christmas card from his direct superior from the Army, his office was in Buffalo. It was grim. Eisemenger Syndrome, he called it was fatal; an experimental surgery was in the works so experimental it had not even been attempted by the major surgeons in Buffalo yet. His words were “So sorry Mac, so very sorry.” As they read the letter they thought, not our little girl she was only 7 months old, yet she was showing signs of deterioration, no not my little “junior.” But looking at her they could see the blue pallor creeping over her face. This was a reality check.

That month they had again heard about the experimental surgery for Eisemenger Syndrome from a friend. Doctors in Minnesota had been successful and a team at University of Michigan was experimenting on dogs.

           
  

So her parents started checking out their options a doctor at a leading hospital right around the corner was just starting a protocol to help “Blue Baby Syndrome”. The most telling symptom is cyanosis a bluish pallor of the face. After writing a letter to the hospital they waited. A letter arrived from a member of the cardiac team and the answer was sorry, we cannot help. Her parents were dogged and went to see the cardiologists and after a meeting with the head doctor, he called his team together and said it was a no-brainer there could only be two outcomes she would make it or not, the later was a condition they did not want to discuss at length.

The hospital sent a telegram for another examination with the whole team after a meeting they were given the go ahead. The next few months were to be a whirlwind of doctor appointments her birth doctor came to the house weekly for her penicillin shots. No walking, no crying, no exercise in fact nothing except putting on weight. Her parents took her in shortly after her first birthday and told she was not making any headway no growth nor weight gain. The team gave a surgery date for the following month.

I think of life, as if tossing a pebble into a pool of still water and watch as the ripples go to a shore then continue back crossing each other making new ripples as the pool becomes still again.

August 31 marks the 59th year of the surgery performed in 1956. Oh yeah, this is my story, my life as a “junior”. I would like to say Thank You God and to my Mom for not giving up on me, and to all the friends and relatives that I have rippled through, on this journey my life. Happy Mother’s Day to all of my friends that are Mother’s out there!

Kathy McQuillen