On October 16th, 2009 a 26-year-old soon-to-be mother was watching T.V. with her mother. Suddenly she felt a tightening sensation that became her first contraction. For 9 months she had planned to give birth at her home but when she realized her baby was coming she started to panic. Panic that her baby's life may be in danger or panic that she needed multiple doctors' help, either way, she was right…eventually. She went to the hospital, had a C-section and in three days was home with a seemingly healthy baby.
Like all mothers she was tired, her baby cried, slept and ate. But one morning was different; her baby had just turned one and woke up with a cold. Being a new mother she worried, so to make sure she would do everything right she took her baby to the doctor. The doctor reassured her and said “It's just a cold give her some Pedialyte and she’ll be healthy soon.” Unfortunately he was wrong. A week passed and her condition was worse: the common cold became the flu, so again her mother took her to the doctor .“It's just the flu give her some Pedialyte and she’ll be healthy soon.” Unfortunately he was wrong.
Days became weeks and weeks became a whole month of her baby not recovering. Even though her baby was still sick the mother had to go to her best friend's wedding. This was the hardest decision she had ever made, but multiple doctors told her she could go and her baby would be fine. To be as close to her baby as possible she made her parents drive to the destination wedding with them. One night the baby vomited 6 times and could not stop urinating and drinking water. So the grandparents took her to the ER. While they had been waiting for what felt like and eternity a nurse walk passed them and asked a life-changing question, “Is your child diabetic?” The grandparents were understandably confused but at this point they just wanted an answer. The nurse checked their grandchild's blood sugar and it was one of the highest numbers they have ever seen. The child was then rushed to the ICU but by then it looked like it was too late. The child went into ketoacidosis (a coma caused by too many ketones in the blood), was pronounced with a 7 percent chance of living, and had to have multiple surgeries.
Doctors drilled into the child's leg bones to try and get some of the sugar out of her blood. When the child was out of surgery the doctors broke the news to the grandparents.
At the wedding the mother was with her husband and her phone suddenly rang. Seeing it was her mother, she picked it up. She heard her mother crying and was broken the news, that her child was a type one diabetic. The mother broke down into tears along with her husband. They immediately rushed onto a plane home. Ironically the T.V. show playing was about a diabetes fundraiser, but she couldn't focus on anything. When the mother arrived her child was in a ketoacidosis coma. The mother didn't know what that meant but soon learned it meant the child had too much acid in her blood. The child was given a 7% chance of living by the doctor, but even that was unlikely. It hadn't even truly sunk into the mother's mind that this was the state of her child, but soon after she had to learn how to take care of her child's condition.
She had to practice giving her child a needle on a banana. The doctors said the child had brain damage and needed to drill into her brain. While they were prepping the child for surgery the child wanted water. Her family taught her basic sign language and while communicating her thirst, the child switched from the hand with her I.V. to her free hand. Seeing this the grandmother yelled at the doctor “SHE DOES NOT HAVE BRAIN DAMAGE! CHECK AGAIN!” As the doctors could not operate without permission they scanned her brain again. The grandmother was correct. If the doctors proceeded with the operation they would have ruined the child's brain. For the next few weeks in hospital the child's condition got better and better.
Now she is 13 and one of the top students at Blyth Academy. Hi!