"We miss James more than anything. " We would like to thank Danielle Queen, mommy of angel, Ivey Marie Queen for finding us and telling us about this web site. Teresa and James Link to video montage

My husband and I married very young and became pregnant within a year of being married. We were extremely excited and nervous being young parents. My husband was 20 and I was 19. My pregnancy was the best anyone could ask for. Never sick, never issues with the baby. All my appointments were normal and my ultrasounds as well. He never gave us any clue he was sick until unexpectedly my water broke at 32 weeks.

 

At my next doctor's appt. My doctor immediately put me on bed rest and had me start stress tests at the hospital 3 times a week. On our first test is when he began showing us what we were up against. While on the monitors Tre's heart rate dropped to 60 and didn't come up immediately. The nurses were concerned, but it didn't happen again that day. When I went back for my next test he did the same thing, so they decided that they would start to induce my labor to see if he tolerated it ok. He did, so I went home again.

 

On my third test it became evident something was not right, so I was admitted to the hospital for overnight observations. All thru the night, not known by my husband and I, his heart rate continued to fluctuate.

 

At 5 am on September 28, 1997 at only 34 weeks the doctors rushed into my room and induced my labor because they said they could take better care of him on the outside than on the inside. After 11 1/2 hours our little angel was born. This was the first time we knew things really were not going to be ok.

 

The first thing the doctor said was he has a cleft lip and palett, then extra digits. He immediately went to the NICU, I didn't even get to hold him. I was able to give him a kiss and all I could do was tell him how sorry I was. He weight 4lbs 4oz and was 17 inches long. As the days passed, we learned many things we never wanted to hear, but the worst we still didn't know he had Trisomy 13.

 

We were told he a bad heart defect. He had a hole in the top and bottom of his heart between the chambers, both of the main arteries for his heart were coming out the same side and one of those was 1/2 the normal size. They immediately had to put him on some medication to help a valve stay open that closes after birth so he could oxygenate himself. We were also told at that time they suspected the trisomy and sent us to Eggleston's Children's Hospital in Atlanta for the tests because if it was just his heart he was going to have to have immediate heart surgery.

 

On Thursday October 3, 1997 we were given the worst news any person could hear. Our son, my husband's name sake was going to die.

 

We took him home to our local hospital, we made the decision on Friday to have life support removed, they removed his ventilator and we were able to finally hold him without tubes and wires.

 

We had a whole day with him that way. It was fabulous. Our son passed away on October 5, 1997 in the wee hours of the early morning. We miss him more than anything and have always wanted to find someone to talk to that knows how we feel. We finally have. We would love to hear from someone.

Teresa and James Owens
tojo6196@yahoo.com