Children's Care Fund Testimonial

Lorelai's Mom

Thursday the 29th at 1am my water broke. The next morning I was given Pitocin. It all went so smoothly. Well, except for the epidural, which is interesting in hindsight.

Thursday the 29th at 1am my water broke. The next morning I was given Pitocin. It all went so smoothly. Well, except for the epidural, which is interesting in hindsight. I was told there was a slight risk for bleeding, but it doesn’t happen much. Well by the time they were done there was a soaked towel of blood behind me. They were able to get the bleeding to stop and honestly no one thought anything about it.

Skip ahead to 10 cm dilated. Everything continued to go so smoothly. Then I started to get yelled at. PUSH PUSH! I yelled I am I am!! I’m pushing the same way I have been!!

Well I didn’t even know what happened but Lorelai’s shoulder was stuck. All I knew was there was this nurse straddling me kneeing me in the stomach as I pushed.

They got her out. As fast as they laid her on me is as fast as they took her off.

She was covered in meconium, which they knew beforehand so NICU was already in the room(this is what saved her life I truly believe).

But she wasn’t crying. WHY IS MY BABY NOT CRYING. There had to have been 30 people in that room by now. But I didn’t know why. All I could focus on was why is she not crying!! Help my baby , please help her. I was surrounded by nurses holding my hands. I didn’t know why. There was so many people around me. I looked down and saw the doctor frantically sewing and he was covered in blood but I didn’t care. I wanted to know why she wasn’t crying.

I heard “1 2 3” “1 2 3” they were doing CPR on Lorelai. I am just screaming and inconsolable at this point. They take her out of the room and then things with me started getting weird. Why can’t I see the nurses faces? They were blobs, that would come in and out. I felt weird. I looked at Brandon who was white as a ghost and I asked I am dying? He didn’t answer me and he was escorted out of the room.

I am then wheeled out and I say “where is my mom, I don’t feel good” and I hear “I’m right here, you’re okay” and at this point is when I actually knew something was wrong. Why is she actually here???? She was coming an hour after the baby was born. I know I asked for her but I didn’t expect to see her.

Next thing I know. I woke up in ICU intubated. I was then filled in on what happened.

Lorelai went without oxygen for two minutes and was life flighted to Pittsburgh. Erie started the process of this new whole body cooling that lowers body temperature to 92 degrees for 72 hours so the body slows down and uses less energy to heal and stop damage to organs. Erie can only start the process for 6 hours, but Pittsburgh can do the full 72. Then they would bring her body temperature back to normal and conduct an MRI.

I was told I gave birth and started to hemorrhage and lost a total of 3.5 liters(more than half of my blood). They have no idea why I wasn’t clotting. I didn’t rupture my uterus, nothing wrong with placenta. I don’t have a history or family history of clotting disorders. I had to undergo an emergency hysterectomy to save my life. I was told surgery was touch and go the entire time.

I spent the next 3 days in the ICU continuing to receive blood transfusions (thank you to everyone that donates) and monitoring my kidneys that suffered a lot of trauma. I then transferred to the postpartum floor for the next 5 days.

Lorelai finally had an MRI and just had an infarction her occipital lobe.

However, once she got cleared from the MRI She still needed to figure out the whole bottle thing so that’s why she remained in the NICU. I also had plans of breastfeeding but my body went through too much and it’s just not possible for me at this time.

The conversation then came up about transferring her up to me and just being in Magee’s NICU. It was a mess. Our teams at Children’s and Magee in Erie fought hard to have her transferred. It went extremely high up in Children’s from what I heard. And after three days they got it!! Lorelai was on her way to me.

I was discharged Friday the 8th. And she was arriving Saturday Morning.

The doctors and nurses that saved our lives are literal angels on earth. I want to thank Dr. Weibel who saved my life and Dr. Frederick who saved Lorelai. It is a true miracle we are here and we wouldn’t be without those doctors, the nurses and all of your prayers.

My stay started in the ICU for three days and 6 days on the postpartum floor. Everyone from the nurses, physical therapists to pct’s were like family to me during that time. There were nurses and physician assistants that checked on me daily that weren’t even still on my care team- just continued to take their own time to check on me. It was very emotional being separated from my daughter and I couldn’t have done it without the staff at Magee’s.

Once my daughter was in the NICU in Erie on the 9th day -it was like meeting another family. There were times I argued with staff because I just wanted her home so badly. They always understood where my anger was coming from during that time and were able to bring me back to the conclusion that she needed to be there without ever judging me or treating me any differently. She was sent home on day 37. This whole experience was traumatic, however it’s weird- I am thankful for all the people that are now lifelong friends and for everything I learned about caring for a baby during that time. I gained confidence I never knew I had. Every time I walked into Magee’s I saw someone I knew in the lobby from the staff and it was like it was our home during that time. It has been a surreal experience.

Children's Care Fund Bob-a-Thon Sponsors