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"We miss
James more than anything. "
We
would like to thank Danielle Queen, mommy of angel,
Ivey Marie Queen for finding us and
telling us about this web site. Teresa and James |
My husband and I married very young and became pregnant within a year of being
married. We were extremely excited and nervous being young parents. My husband
was 20 and I was 19. My pregnancy was the best anyone could ask for. Never sick,
never issues with the baby. All my appointments were normal and my ultrasounds
as well. He never gave us any clue he was sick until unexpectedly my water broke
at 32 weeks.
At my next doctor's appt. My doctor immediately put me on bed rest and had me
start stress tests at the hospital 3 times a week. On our first test is when he
began showing us what we were up against. While on the monitors Tre's heart rate
dropped to 60 and didn't come up immediately. The nurses were concerned, but it
didn't happen again that day. When I went back for my next test he did the same
thing, so they decided that they would start to induce my labor to see if he
tolerated it ok. He did, so I went home again.
On my third test it became
evident something was not right, so I was admitted to the hospital for overnight
observations. All thru the night, not known by my husband and I, his heart rate
continued to fluctuate.
At 5 am on September 28, 1997 at only 34 weeks the
doctors rushed into my room and induced my labor because they said they could
take better care of him on the outside than on the inside. After 11 1/2 hours
our little angel was born. This was the first time we knew things really were
not going to be ok.
 The first thing the doctor said was he has a cleft lip and palett, then extra
digits. He immediately went to the NICU, I didn't even get to hold him. I was
able to give him a kiss and all I could do was tell him how sorry I was. He
weight 4lbs 4oz and was 17 inches long. As the days passed, we learned many
things we never wanted to hear, but the worst we still didn't know he had
Trisomy 13.
We were told he a bad heart defect. He had a hole in the top and
bottom of his heart between the chambers, both of the main arteries for his
heart were coming out the same side and one of those was 1/2 the normal size.
They immediately had to put him on some medication to help a valve stay open
that closes after birth so he could oxygenate himself. We were also told at that
time they suspected the trisomy and sent us to Eggleston's Children's Hospital
in Atlanta for the tests because if it was just his heart he was going to have
to have immediate heart surgery.
On Thursday October 3, 1997 we were given the worst news any person could hear.
Our son, my husband's name sake was going to die.
 We took him home to our local
hospital, we made the decision on Friday to have life support removed, they
removed his ventilator and we were able to finally hold him without tubes and
wires.
We had a whole day with him that way. It was fabulous. Our son passed
away on October 5, 1997 in the wee hours of the early morning. We miss him more
than anything and have always wanted to find someone to talk to that knows how
we feel. We finally have. We would love to hear from someone.
Teresa and James Owens
tojo6196@yahoo.com | 
