Loyal readers, I hope you are continuing to check the blog for the stories that we have been posting, sharing others’ stories of Shaken Baby Syndrome and how Noah, our little fighting angel, has inspired other readers in some way. Below is a story that is hard to read, but it paints a truth about the tragedy of SBS. It reminds us again of the fragility of an infant’s life. Be prepared to grab your tissues, but take the sadness that emerges from this story and arm yourself with the knowledge that by spreading Noah’s story and this blog to everyone you know, you are educating the world one person at a time.
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I am the business manager for surgical services at one of the largest medical centers in Washington. We are also a children’s hospital.
Being one of two children’s hospitals in the area, I have seen a lot of the kids come through our OR for various reasons, some as simple as ear tubes, to things as complicated as open-heart procedures on a 4-week-old. As a Catholic hospital, much of what we do and how we do it focuses on care of the whole person, including their spiritual being. I see everyday the miracles of modern medicine and the miracle of prayer.
My most memorable moment was working late one night and walking into the OR to collect some paperwork for my employees. Earlier that day the organ harvest team was called in to do retrieval on a 3-month-old baby who had been shaken to death by his mother’s boyfriend. 3 months old and his life was cut short because he had colic and cried too often and too long. I literally tripped over the red coolers that contained this precious angel’s organs.
At the time I thought, “Who left this stuff sitting here?” – Until I looked down and saw the words “live organs” written across the top. My mind was racing as I walked into PACU to see a group of employees standing around with tears in their eyes, praying not only for the baby, but also for the numerous families who would be having their prayers answered later that evening when their child received the much-needed new heart, lungs, kidneys, liver and other organs and tissues.
While we all knew that our prayers would not save the baby on the OR table in our facility, we had faith that our prayers would be enough to protect the children who would also be going to other OR’s that night for their second chance at a normal life. When I read a story like Noah’s, I am reminded at how precious our little angels are and how we cannot take for granted any time that we have with them.
p.s. last year i registered myself, my husband, and our son as full organ donors, this story just confirms my good decision.
also, for anyone who is interested in becoming an organ donor, just because you have it checked on your drivers license does NOT mean that it will happen. you could end up at the hospital with no i.d. and they would never know you were an organ donor. you have to go to the website and sign up online. when you sign up online, they have specific nurses at the hospitals that keep everyone that signs up in there record books, so they can look up the names immeditatly.
hopefully that helps!
I love the fact that even with all of the stress your going through, you still manage to find time to share not only your story, but other stories as well. we continue to pray for baby noah and for the other children/families in your blog. 2 weekends ago, my son woke up from his nap with 103 fever and a strange rash on his cheeks, hairline and neck. we took him straight to the doctor and he immediatly sent us to lebohoneur (a childrens hospital here in memphis, tn) my son was admitted into the hospital, they put an iv in his arm, drew blood, put him on an i.v. and took chest xrays. we were there all afternoon and all night. while we were there we were singing songs to keep him cheerful, and when we got done he said he wanted to pray for baby noah. my son is only 2 1/2 years old, and it melted my heart that even when he is sick, he still wanted to pray for noah. even tho jacksons condition was NO WHERE near as dramatic as noahs, for one second in my life i felt how you felt when noah was in the hospital, scared, alone, sick, not knowing what would happen. we got lucky, they were never able to diagnose jackson, and they said if he had what they thought he had that he would be in intensive care by now. we were lucky enough to come out with out with a well child, and yall were not. thats why we continue to pray every single night for your sweet baby boy and your wonderful family. i dont know you, and most likely will never meet you, but your family has become our family, i worry for noah just as i worry for my own son. i hope everything is going well with the remodeling, and your pregnancy is going well. i cant wait to show my son new pictures of the baby and noah. good luck with everything in your life and you will ALWAYS be in our prayers. we love you, take care!
-Ashley, Dell, and Jackson Cofer
Memphis, TN
I have a 18 month little girl but for the first 3 months of her life she pretty much did nothing but cry with colic. There was absolutely nothing my husband or I could do to stop it.
No advice that we received seemed to work.
I too have a very bad temper but with the support I received her in Australia through their medical system it helped me realize when I was going to lose my cool and if my husband was not available I could call in one of the sisters through the community system to come help for a few hours — this is a free service — and amazing.
I also started to know the doctors in the ER on a first name basis as we would end up in there about every three or four days just to have her checked when it became too overwhelming.
As they would say if it gave me relief to have her checked bring her in as many time as I need to — they even stopped billing me because they could see the relief in my eyes.
I truely feel for both this little baby that lost her life and the family – I can’t help but think they just did not receive the support they needed. Everyone talks about how to handle depression after giving birth but now one talks or prepares you for a colic baby. More needs to be done in this area.
We are now thinking about having our second child and it is sad that the pregnancy and childbirth are not of concern to me ( labor no drugs and less then 1hour
but rather having anothe baby that has colic.
Thank you for all these stories. They are heart-wrenching, but need to be told. I’ve had the chance to talk with my husband about organ donation and I hope we never have to be there, but we believe organ donation is the right thing to do for us/our family. Thanks to the mother who was able to make this decision under the worst of circumstances.
Thank you for sharing these stories. I have shared Noah’s story with many people and will no doubt share these as well, the awareness is obviously very important.
Such a sad story but an excellent reminder about the benefits of organ donation. Talk about it today with your family while life is normal so that if you are faced with an enexpected crisis your views are already known.