Ricky & Lizabeth Verjano are available to provide immediate phone support 305-968-1786  Verjanokids@aol.com

The story of our Journey:

In early August my husband and I found out we were pregnant, this would be our 1st. child together. We are consider by all who know us as the “Latin Brady Bunch”, but now we would be consider as “His, Mine, and Ours”.
You see my husband has 3 kids Julio 17 teen, Jonathann 18 teen, and Little Ricky 20. I have Nikole 9 years old and Nathon 17 teen, and now we were going to be blessed with a child of our own. We were all so excited when we found out we were going to having a girl, Nikole felt as finally she would not be the only girl in the house, and she was so happy. Words could not express the joy that Ricky, my husband had, “finally he would have a little girl which he wanted so badly”.

Our happy journey came to a complete stop, when on Dec. 28th 2005 at my 1:30 pm doctors appointment we found out that something was not well with our baby girl. The doctor told us that it look like our daughter had a diaphragmatic hernia, which meant that her diaphragm had not closed properly and that her stomach had passed upward by her heart, her lungs would most probably have a problem developing. All I could do was cry, and cry, and cry some more. At that time the doctor suggested that I delivery my daughter in Gainesville, Florida which is about 6 hours away from us by car, since one of the best doctors that operate this kind of condition was there, he also suggested that we do an amnio test, just to see if we were facing any other problems. (Early in my pregnancy my husband and I had refused an amnio due to the risk involved). But at this time we wanted to make sure that whatever we were going to face with our daughter we could be prepared so we could do whatever we could to help her. Our doctor also suggested since her stomach was close to her heart to see a fetal cardiologist, and that same day he sent us to one. Again more bad news that day, our daughter also had a heart condition, the lower and the side wall in her heart were missing, but the doctor told us that this was something that could be fixed with an operation, and should not be a big problem, that our biggest problem was her hernia, how much I wished that would have been so.

On Dec. 30th 2005 we received a call from our doctor, I know when I saw my husbands face that there was something else wrong, the partial amnio test came back and our daughter had a condition called Trisomy 13, which was consider to be incompatible with life as we know it, and that the consideration of sending us to Gainesville, Florida to have our daughter operated for her hernia was not suggested by him any longer, that we should enjoy the little time left of my pregnancy, and that he would do his best to have our daughter be born alive so that we could hold her, love her and just let her go to sleep in my arms. My heart stop, my knees gave out and all I could do is scream and cry.

Two weeks later the full results came back from the amnio test, and it told us that my daughter had Full Trisomy 13, we had so many questions, the doctor suggested that we go into the Internet to find out information, and to see some pictures of what to expect.

That night I went into the Internet, and found this wonderful web site, www.livingwithtrisomy13.org,  and met a wonderful lady Therese Ann, I e-mailed her that same night, I also saw some of the pictures of children born with this condition, and I could not believe what I saw, again that night my heart stop, and all I did was cry to the point that my husband logged me out and told me enough you don't need to see or read any more, our daughter will be ok, you'll see.

The next day Therese Ann called me and we talked for about an hour, she told me of her daughter Natalia, and for the 1st time in a two week period I felt that there could be some hope for our daughter. Thru this web site I meet so many wonderful people that help me so much, and made the following months a bit more easier to handle. Since I lived in Miami, Florida Therese asked me if she could give my number to a lady called Courtney she lived in Naples, Florida, who just 4 months earlier had lost her baby girl Gemma, and I said yes, (at this time I feel it was the best yes that I have ever given to anyone), the bond that Courtney and I have shared has been so unbelievable, she has been my shoulder to cry on, and truly someone who knew so well what I was feeling and going thru. Her husband Terry was also so wonderful he spoke to Ricky and was there for him if he needed to talk.
Our friends and family were all behind us, constantly praying to God for a miracle to happen, so many friends whom never went to church, or even prayed to God were praying for our little girl and our family, and Ricky and I got so much closer to God.

At that point Ricky and I had made a decision that if our daughter was strong enough to fight for her life; we were going to do everything in our power to help her no matter what our doctor or any other doctor said. With my friend Courtney's help I created a birth plan for our daughter; we had also made an appointment to see an infant surgeon to see if he would operate on her once she was born. This appointment took place on Feb. 7th 2006 at Memorial Regional Hospital, this doctor agree that if our daughter did fight for her life he would do the operation, he also invited us to see the NIC unit at the hospital that same day, so that we could see where our daughter would be as soon as she was born, since they would need to place a breathing tube in her due to the hernia. At the NIC unit we meet a wonderful nurse called Mary, who left us feeling so at ease. She told us that she would look after our little girl even if she was not the nurse in charge of her (and that she did). Later that afternoon I also had a regular doctor's appointment, and again disappointment. That week I had not felt my daughter moving as much as she was before, so the doctor did a test with a buzzer to see if she would move, and she did not, he saw that her heart was still beating but if we were to see her alive and be able to spend sometime with her I needed to deliver her now and not wait till March 14, 2006 which was her due date.

Our precious Katherine Elizabeth Verjano was born the very next day by c-section at 10:47 am, she weight 5lbs 5oz, and was 18in long. She was so beautiful, she had a smile that lit the room up, she had the most beautiful curly hair, and God had blessed her, she had no outwardly malformation, but still had the diaphragmatic hernia, her heart condition, and Trisomy 13. I only saw her for a brief moment, but it will be a moment I will never forget. My husband did have a bit more time with her since they had asked him to go to the NIC unit to see her. All the wonderful nurse and doctor's did everything they could to help my precious Katherine Elizabeth fight for her life, Mary helped us take pictures of Katherine Elizabeth while she was in the NIC unit, and also a wonderful nurse called Elizabeth baptized her when she saw that my precious Katherine Elizabeth was not going to make it. You see her little lungs could not handle it, and were collapsing, so once again they called my husband into the NIC unit and asked him what he wanted to do with our precious Katherine Elizabeth, and with much sadness he said let her rest
My precious Katherine Elizabeth Verjano passed away at 12:30 pm. She was brought to me, by all the nurse that helped her try to fight for her life before she left with her angle to heaven to be with our Heavenly Father. I was still in the recovery room, all the nurses were crying along with me. I was moved to a private room so that our family & friend could meet our precious Katherine Elizabeth, we all cried, held her, kissed her and took many picture with her. I had bought her a beautiful light green and pink outfit that the nurses put on her, and Ricky, my family and I were able to be with my precious Katherine Elizabeth until 6:00 pm, even up to that time our precious little girl still had a beautiful smile on her face, and was so at peace.

The time with my precious Katherine Elizabeth was just but a second, but it is a second that I would live over and over again if I could. In that brief time my Katherine Elizabeth brought so many people together, brought so many people closer to God by praying for her and our family, she brought joy and love to our family, she did so many wonderful things, even more so then many of us have done in our life time.

Please contact me if you have gone or are going thru the same, and you need someone to talk too. My e-mail address is katherineverjano@yahoo.com.

I also ask you to please visit Katherine Elizabeth's web-page, that our wonderful friend Courtney did for her, I believe in my heart that somehow my beautiful daughter's spirit inspired Courtney to write her story in Katherine Elizabeth perspective, www.preciouskatherine.com

We also want to thank everyone who help us thru our journey with our precious Katherine Elizabeth, just to name a few:

• Dr. Karen Hirschberg and Staff (my OB)
• Dr. Cesar Rosa, MD, Lashanda and Staff (my Perinatologist)
• Dr. Leslie A. Flores, M.D. and Staff (Katherine’s Cardiologist)
• Dr. Gary Birken (Katherine’s Pediatric Surgeon)
• All the Nurses and Doctors at Memorial Regional Hospital, at the NIC unit (Mary, Elizabeth, Debbie, Jackie, Tobey, Dr. Daula, If I forgot someone’s name I am sorry)
• All the nurses that took such great care of me after my c-section (Tammy, Anai, Mary, Susie, Lois, Linda, Roslyn, Maggy)
• Our Church Christ The Rock - our Pastor, Will and his Staff
• Therese Ann (Living with Trisomy 13 web-site and Natalie’s mommy)
• Courtney & Terry (Gemma’s Mommy & Daddy)
• Bess (Midwife and Emma’s mommy)
• Dave (Jackie’s Dad)
• Jessica (My sister)
• My entire family and friends
• All of our boys, and especially my daughter Nikole (who loves and prays, and misses her sister Katherine Elizabeth so much)

Thank you all for reading our story.
Lizabeth, Ricky, Katherine Elizabeth and Family
Verjanokids@aol.com