|
"An
Angel in the book of life, wrote down our baby's birth
and
whispered as she closed the book...
too
beautiful for earth..."
Katelyn’s
Story
March 9,
1996-December 5, 1997
Let me say this is the hardest story I have ever
written. Katelyn was my granddaughter. Her story began March 9, 1996, the day
she was born. As most grandparents will tell you, our grandchildren are the most
beautiful and perfect in every way. My daughter was very young when she had
Katelyn. We brought Katelyn home when she was 1 day old. She was a good baby;
never cried and was a real joy. I just loved holding and spoiling my first
grandchild.
When she was 10 days old we had just arrived home from
church when my daughter noticed a difference in her color and breathing. I am a
firm believer in mother’s instinct. I asked her what was her gut feeling and she
said let’s get her to the hospital. So off we went. We lived about 20 minutes
from the closest hospital and made it in 10. They rushed her right in. My
daughter and I waited in the waiting room and sent a prayer up for God to keep
her safe. After what seemed like hours they called us into a room and told us
they were flying her to a children’s hospital 30 minutes away by car. They also
told us they didn’t think she would make it through the night. They wouldn’t let
us fly with her so back in the car we went. I beat the helicopter there. When
they landed the pilot had her wrapped in his coat and was running to the
hospital. I was running right beside him and he said he couldn’t tell us
anything. I said I just want to know if she was still alive. And he said barely.
So my daughter and I prayed (not one of those silent prayers) we made sure God
heard us.
The waiting began. 6 hours later they called us into a
room where my daughter’s heart doctor met us. My daughter, Christy, had to have
heart surgery when she was a baby. She had 2 big holes in her heart and only 1
valve where there should have been two. I had asked this doctor if Christy had
any children would they have heart trouble. He told me it would be 1 in a
million chance. Dr. Blancher told Christy that Katelyn had Hyperplasic left
heart. This means she was born with out the left hand side of her heart. He told
her there were 3 choices. 1. Let her go. 2. Put her on a list for a heart
transplant and he would guarantee she wouldn’t make it until then. Or 3, have 3
different heart surgeries to try and get her ready for a heart transplant. My
daughter looked at me and the hardest thing I have ever done was tell her,
“Baby it is your decision”. While on the end side I was praying. She looked and
me and said, “Mom I want her to have a chance”. With a sigh of relief I held
her. They let us go in for 2 minutes to see her before they flew her 8 hours
from where we lived.
It took me 6 hours to drive the 8 and when we got there we went right to the
hospital. They had all kinds of tubes and a respirator hooked up to her. They
told us she would always be on a respirator. She could not live with out it.
They sent us over to Ronald McDonald house. That’s where we stayed for 3 months.
We could only see her 3 times a day for 15 minutes. The doctor told us they had
to get her weight up to have the first surgery. This was March 20th. They wanted
us to meet with the surgeon, Dr. Alexander. Dr. Alexander was the surgeon who
did Christy’s surgery 16 years before. Now he was going to do her daughters. The
nurse told us to act as if everyday was the last day with Katelyn and to get all
the love and kisses we could.
Not a visit went by with out prayers for her. Even the nurses prayed with us.
Every Saturday was a party day celebrating 1 more week of life. On Easter Sunday
I was determined she was going to have an Easter dress and basket. The nurses
helped Christy dress her up in a dress for a newborn that was a mile too big.
But my baby had her new dress. We got pictures of her first Easter. She was 4
months old and was finally up to 10 pounds.
So surgery was set. We notified our pastor and family. They told us she had
about 30% chance of making it through surgery. The surgery was to take 8 hours.
10 hours later we were still waiting for some kind of word. The waiting room was
right across from the ICU where she would be. I went to the rest room and prayed
that God would please give me a sign of what was going on. And in a second of
weakness I said never mind I don’t want to know. I came out of the room crying
and there on the door was a sign that read KATELYN THOMPSON HEAD FIRST. I got
Christy and showed her and we could hear a gurney coming. All we could see was
that it was a baby and she was alive. Talk about some Thank you Prayers, boy did
we let them fly. The doctor told us the next 24 hours would tell the tale. 1
hour after Katelyn go
into ICU, they told us that Katelyn went in at 10 lbs. and came out at 14. She
was so badly swollen they couldn’t close her chest. So they let the pastor and
us in for 2 minutes. Doctor Alexander sat by her
room. The next morning he came and got us. He told us it was by Gods grace she
was still here. By all rights she shouldn’t have made it through the night.
A week later they closed her chest and the next day Katelyn pulled out her
respirator. They got the Doctor in there Stat. He watched her for 3 hours and
told the nurse to leave it out as she was breathing OK on her own. They told us
we needed to live there close to the hospital because she still needed 2 more
surgeries. After 3 weeks we got to bring her home.
Every week she had to go to the hospital for bunch of tests. They kept a heart
monitor on her because her voice box was damaged and she couldn’t cry. After 3
trips (which took 8 hours to drive) they said we needed to be closer to them so
we moved down there. I sold my home and we rented a place in Gainesville,
Florida… 5 minutes from the hospital. We had to be extra careful with Katelyn.
If she got a cold then into the hospital she would have to go. This went on for
over a year. The doctors told us they didn’t think she would have to have any
other surgeries. That she could go on the transplant list.
At 17 months old Katelyn was in the hospital getting over an ear infection. My
daughter stayed at the hospital with her. Since she was in a private room they
would only let one of us stay. So I would go home at night.
I had laid out a change of clothes and had a bag all packed for when the call
came in about a heart. Katelyn was to come home the next morning. About midnight
my daughter called crying, “Mom how fast can you get to the hospital”? I wanted
to know what was the matter but she just kept crying. I lost it I yelled at her,
“Christy what the heck is wrong”? Her reply was “They have a heart for Katelyn”.
So I jumped to get dressed and couldn’t find anything. I just grabbed. I went to
the hospital with my shorts on back wards and my shirt inside out. I was running
down the hall so afraid I wouldn’t make it in time to give her a kiss and tell
her how much granny loved her. The nurse told me to slow down because we had
some time as they where still waiting on the heart to get there. We were of
mixed emotions. Thankful Katelyn had a heart and yet very up set another child
had to die for her have it.
That’s the one thing my daughter and I never prayed for. We did pray for God to
have his will and what ever it was we would praise him for it. We then prayed
for the other family knowing how they must have felt. What wonderful people for
them to give us such a gift.
We made the phone calls to family and our pastor. They arrived after the surgery
had started. It was a 12 hour surgery. There is a little room right next to the
waiting room and when a child didn’t make it they would call the family in
there. There were a lot of families that went into that room. I prayed God
please don’t let them call us to that room. After 13 and a half hours they
brought
1 hour after they brought her out of surgery she tried to turn over. We just
knew she was going to be okay.
The last time we got to go to our church Brother Bill preached about the woman
at the well. And when Jesus spoke to her with her child dead in the house she
replied all is well. Well that became my Motto. NO matter what it was ALL is
well. For 3 weeks after the surgery my daughter stayed with her during the day
and I stayed at night. They didn’t want us to leave just in case. So when I
slept it was in the back of a truck in the parking lot. Finally she got to come
home. She had to go back once a week to the clinic. You should have seen her
with her ball cap on and a hospital mask on and her sun glasses. Katelyn wasn’t
scared of anyone or anything. We were waiting for her appointment and there was
a child there and the little face was disfigured. We could see adults staring at
her. Made me want to smack them. Katelyn grabbed her and gave her the biggest
kiss. The mother cried. It was the first time another child had had anything to
do with her little one. Talk about 2 people that were proud. Katelyn had touched
her life. Boy, had she ever touched mine! She showed me how to live. How to
thank God for things we take for granted. To be honest, she was the reason I
went to church to start with. She brought my daughter so much closer to me.
November came and Katelyn was 20 months old when Christy got me up in the middle
of the night because Katelyn’s pulse was 210. When a transplant patient comes
into the ER they are not to wait. They are supposed to go straight back. Well,
they told us to have a seat. I took Katelyn’s pulse and it was 250 so I knocked
on the door and the nurse came and yelled at me to stop knocking on the door and
wait my turn. I grabbed her and made her take Katelyn’s pulse. She grabbed
Katelyn and off she ran. It seemed like days before the Doctor came out and told
us they couldn’t get her heart rate down. Her pulse was 350 and if they couldn’t
get it down her heart would explode. They wanted
to use electric shock. My daughter told them to do what ever it took. I went to
the phone and called my pastor and said ALL IS WELL and cried. After shocking
her twice they finally got it under control. A week later she came home.
We had our Thanksgiving and we had found a nicer trailer to move into on the 9th
of the month. The first of December we took Katelyn to have her Christmas
pictures made. We had all our Christmas shopping done .We had packed and my
daughter was taking a load of stuff to our new place and I took Katelyn to her
regular clinic appointment. She had to have an Elcho cardiogram (ultra sound of
the heart) She had to have one every week. Well, this time it was different. The
doctor said there might be something wrong and he wanted to admit her. So I got
in touch with my daughter and they admitted her. She was playing and eating
french fries which was her favorite food. They didn’t put her in ICU so I went
home that night but was back there at 7am. She was playing. At 9am they rushed
her into ICU. At 10am they called us into THE ROOM. They told us they didn’t
think there was anything they could do. I can still hear my daughter saying,
“Mom I can’t lose my baby”. I told her to pray as hard as she could. We prayed
for a healing and for God to have his will. The doctor came in and said it was
just a matter of time. That he didn’t know how she was still hanging on. My
daughter told them she wanted to hold her. So they took us in and they placed
her in her arms and I put my arms around them both. My daughter told her, “Baby
you have fought hard to stay with mommy and mommy and granny love you so much.
But God loves you even more and he needs you to go home. So it is okay to go.
Just take grandpa’s hand and he will take you to God”. And he did.
My daughter laid her on the bed and gave her a bath and dressed her in a pretty
dress. The hospital made arrangements with the funeral home for us to pick her
up there and take her back home. They placed her in her car seat and she looked
like she was asleep. We drove the 8 hours back home.
My daughter didn’t want a regular funeral… she wanted it to be just like when we
went to church. Which Katelyn loved. The church was packed. They sang her
favorite songs and family after family stood up and told us how Katelyn had
touched their lives. Brother Bill preached on the woman at the well again with
tears running down his face. His wife, Miss Marion, sang On Holy Ground. That
was the first time I ever saw her having to stop in the middle of a song. Bill
told us we prayed for a healing and Katelyn got the ultimate healing.
I have been asked if I believe in ANGELS. Well, I know one personally.
By: Shirley Goodwin
Katelyns Poem written by her Mother
http://www.louiseslodge.co.uk
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
RETURN TO STORIES PAGE
HOME
|
