On December 19, 1993 I went in for a regular O.B. appointment and my doctor told me that I was 3 centimeters dilated. She told me to go do some Christmas shopping and to come back to the hospital that evening to be admitted. That evening we checked into the hospital. I was induced and the contractions started. The hours wore on and I wasn't progressing. Both my mother and my husband asked the doctor to do a C- section because I was in so much pain and the baby's heartbeat didn't seem to be regular anymore. The doctor refused. Finally 36 hours later at 6:32 p.m. on December 21st our little girl was born. She was 6 lbs. 10 oz. and beautiful.....But my mom noticed that she was unusually pale. She asked the doctor what was wrong but the doctor just said that the baby was tired. With my mom's insistence that something was wrong the doctor checked for a heartbeat and there wasn't one. Then there was a huge rush of doctors and nurses all around us as they tried to get her heart started again. After 8 min. she finally had a heartbeat. They rushed her to the N.I.C.U. She was there fighting for her life for the next 3 days. then on Christmas eve we had her transferred to a level 4 N.I.C.U so she could be put on diayisis. For the next 4 days she fought for her life with everything she had. But on the 8 th day they told us there was no longer any brain activity and we should take her off the machines ( her heart had stopped a total of 13 times during the 8 days and each time there was more and more brain damage). They unhooked her from the machines and handed her to her daddy. He held her for 20 min. and then handed her to me. I held her for about 20 more min. before we heard her take her last breath. She died at 4:10 in the morning on December 29th.
We later found out that the doctor was to blame for her death ( a nurse came into my room and told us to get lawyer). We sued the doctor for malpractice and 2 years later we won. My husband and I went on to have 3 more beautiful children in the next 3 years. They are not a replacement for our Vanessa but they did help us heal and continue to help us heal every day. |
