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About 3 weeks ago Shannon received a call from a doctor at Children’s Hospital. She wanted to know if we would be interested in having Addyson participate in a case study. The study was designed around babies that had oxygen deprivation during birth, and that had received the cooling cap treatment. When we were going through Addyson’s birth, one of the toughest things for me to handle was the lack of information about the treatment. I would ask the doctors and nurses questions. “Have there been babies that have gone through this and have come out ok?” “Is there a chance she will be a healthy normal baby?” “Can you tell me about a baby that has gone through this and is ok?” I would always receive the same answer. “We just don’t know, you need to prepare yourself for the worst.” So we were very eager to participate in the case study. We wanted future parents to have hope, and to know that it is possible for babies to survive, and be “normal”.

Leading up to our appointment with the doctors, Shannon and I had a lot of the feelings and emotions rush back to us. It is amazing, it has been over 2 years, and we still cry about our Addyson and the miracle of her survival. Sometimes, I feel guilty. I think, she was only in the hospital 2 weeks. At the time it felt like 2 years. I feel bad because I think about all the parents that have their babies in Children’s Hospital for months!

The day arrived, and as we drove down to the hospital, I felt strange. I felt like I was in a dream. I could probably drive that route in my sleep. Twenty six months ago, I would have given anything to have little Addyson in the car seat behind me. Now she was, and healthy as can be. We pulled up to the parking garage. Suddenly all these memories are rushing back to me. I think I can remember where I parked every day for that week I was here. Now the tough part—I knew going into the hospital was going to be hard. I was holding Addyson’s hand and we walked in. It looked exactly the same. I looked around, suddenly it was October 2nd, 2007 again. I remember checking in at the front desk. I remember the lady asking me how to spell Addyson. I remember not remembering. Did Shannon want her name to have two d’s or just one? I remember my sister Caroline coming in and meeting us. I remember her telling me that I looked like a ghost, and very tired. I remember the sweatshirt I was wearing. I call that sweatshirt my lucky sweatshirt today. I was brought back to 2009 as we met the doctor and she led us up to the fourth floor, Shannon and I could not make eye contact. We were both tearing up, we were back, the place little Addyson spent her first night as a miracle baby.

The doctor led us into the same unit that Addyson spent her first week of her life. We were put in a little room, and waited for the case study to begin. We were hoping to see some of the same doctors and nurses that helped Addyson, but unfortunately we didn’t. We all sat around a little table and the test began. The test is called a Bayley’s Exam. It is a lot of hands on with toys, puzzles, books. The lady handed Addyson a puzzle with squares and triangles. No problem, she aced it. She looked at the lady as if to say, whats next? As the exam went on, she answered every question, knew every picture, knew every color. Even Shannon and I were amazed. I think we knew she was ‘normal’, but to see her react like she was, awesome! I could tell the doctor and the examiner were amazed as well. Addyson sat there for an hour and 15 minutes. The examiner told us that she had been doing this test for 20 years, and she was surprised by how well Addyson was doing. She was above a 26 month old child. Shannon and I know this is probably from watching and following her older sister, Ashlyn; still we were extremely happy to hear it. The next thing the doctors asked Addyson to do, was run to the door. She of course took off. They wanted her to kick a ball. No problem. The last question came. “Now you probably can’t do this yet, but can you try to jump for us?” Addyson has been jumping for months now. She lept and jumped 10 feet off the ground. Well, maybe a few inches. She even threw in a summersault. Ok, ok, enough of the proud parent.

We were told that Addyson was only the tenth baby to be tested that had gone through the cooling cap treatment. Addyson was a severe case when she was born. The doctor told us that there has been babies that have had mild cases, that are not close to doing as well as Addyson now. We will get all the results from the study in a few years, when they are done testing all the babies. I wanted to make sure that the information will get back to the parents that are suffering though this now. That is the whole reason I wanted to particatpate. I want future parents to have hope.

Before we left, we decided to eat in the cafeteria at the hospital. I had eaten there so many times during that week 26 months ago. I could remember every table I had eaten at, and every conversation I had with Shannon on the phone while sitting and eating. I was very emotional, again, Shannon and I could barely make eye contact. We knew we were the lucky ones, the blessed ones. We were surounded by sick children with tubes stuck everywhere in their bodies. I think that is why I wanted to eat one more time in that cafeteria. That is where I felt hopeless, it’s hard not to. Parents wheeling their sick kids in and out of the cafeteria. You look at their tiny faces, they didn’t choose this. My heart breaks for them and their parents. We were getting ready to leave and a little girl probably about 4 or 5 came riding in on her new bright pink bike. Her mommy was holding a contraption of tubes and wires and wheeling that next to her. She will probably never get to ride that bike outside or without being attached to some machine or tubes. As I was sitting there, I was reminded of the true meaning of the holiday spirt. It isn’t about gifts, or worrying about how clean the house is before company arrives. It is about family and health. Why do we get so caught up in the tiny things? Our life would be so much different now, if things hadn’t turned out.

Everyday we ask ourselves, why did God choose Addyson, why did God heal her? She must have a higher purpose in life. It will be fun to watch her as she grows up. She has an easy, gentle spirit, I think she is connected to the angels somehow. As we drove off from the hospital, I looked over to Shannon and said, “I think that place is surrounded by angels.” Shannon said, “how could it not be.”

We love you Addyson Faith….You are our legend.

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At 3:30 am Shannon went into the operating room.  At 3:45 I was called in.  The anesthesiologist was sitting next to us.  At 4:00 am he started saying “Now get ready, this is going to happen really fast.  Get your camera out.  Now get ready, this is very exciting…….Oh no.  The baby is out(4:01 am), and this is not good.  The doctors are doing everything they can, they look very serious.   The baby is not breathing”  Now at this point I looked over to the little table where they took her.  The only thing I could see was her foot, it was black.

The doctors had put a tube down her throat, and they were breathing for her.  They took her out of the room.  So I sat there with my wife who had just finished with the C-Section.  The nurses said, “want to stay with your wife or go with your baby?”  What a horrible decision.  I think looking back, we were in shock.  Shannon told me to go with the baby.  As I walked behind the doctors and nurses pushing our new baby down the hall, she was lifeless.

Now from 4:01 to 7:00 am, the doctors worked on our baby girl, Addyson.  I just stood off to the side, not really knowing what was going on.  The nurses kept saying things like, “we will tell you what is going on once she stabilizes.”  As I looked down at Addyson, now breathing on her own but having seizures, she looked beautiful.  At one point she looked straight up at me and locked eyes with me.  I swear she was trying to tell me, “Don’t worry Daddy, I am going to be ok.”

As our family started showing up at the hospital, it was still unknown what was really going on.  A little after 7:00 am, we were told that Addyson had suffered severe oxygen deprivation.  It was unknown how long she had gone without oxygen.  Maybe hours, maybe days.  The umbilical cord was wrapped around her neck three times.  We were told it took two doctors to remove it, because it was so tight.  One of the doctors that delivered Addyson was on an experimental board for what they were calling the cooling cap.  So immediately they were cooling Addyson’s body.  They told us that Addyson should be taken to Children’s Hospital in Denver.  She would stay there for three days with this cooling cap on her head.

When your brain suffers from oxygen deprivation.  It can be deadly.  They had no idea how serious it was, but she had several seizures within those three hours.  With the cooling cap, they cool the head down which would stop any further brain damage from occurring.  It would NOT fix any damage that might have been done.  There were so many unknowns at this point.  So here I was, standing over our new baby.  Not able to hold her.  Shannon hadn’t even seen her yet.  The Flight for Life team comes in, and starts wrapping her up for her trip to Denver.  Shannon was able to see her for about 10 minutes before they took her to Children’s Hospital.

When my mom and I got to Children’s Hospital we were taken up to her room.  The hospital had just opened 2 weeks prior.  So everything was brand new.  They had already began putting the cooling cap on her head.  This is when the fear set in.  The doctors pulled us aside and said, “you need to prepare for the worst.  Your baby might have suffered severe brain damage.  You need to prepare yourself for Cerebral Palsy or extreme retardation.  Your baby may spend the rest of her life bound to a wheel chair and eating from a tube.”  So how do you deal with that?  Isn’t the birth of a child supposed to be the happiest day of your life?

For three days she laid heavily sedated with a cooling cap on her head.  It looked like a tiny little helmet.  The nurses at Children’s Hospital were amazing.  I would drive up early and drive home late.  I had our oldest daughter at home, Ashlyn, so I would come home at night to be with her.  Shannon was still in the hospital.

After three days, they slowly started to warm Addyson up, and took the cooling cap off.  The nurses kept saying things like, “wow, she is really responding, she looks good”  She was very swollen and still pretty sedated.  I remember the first time I heard a noise from her.  A small little cry, felt so good to hear her cry.  So at this point it was a bit of a waiting game.  It looked like she was doing ok.  Everything was working, bladder, etc.  Shannon finally came with me on Saturday to see Addyson. Our oldest daughter Ashlyn came up on Sunday to see her.

So after a series of brain scans and brain tests, we were waiting and waiting for the results.  The neurologist came in and started poking and prying Addyson, and said “She is responding like a normal baby”  He was with about 5 interns so he was teaching them how to give an exam.  At one point he said, “well, she is looking pretty good, and her eeg and ekg look gorgeous”  I said “WHAT? did you just say??”  I said, can you please repeat that.  That was a very good sign.  Everything looked normal.  The doctors kept telling us, “don’t get your hopes up.  We still won’t know anything until she gets older, and we start seeing her motor skills develop.”

Addyson was able to return to PVHS after a week at Children’s.  She spent another week at PVHS.  She needed to learn how to eat before she could go home.  One of the nurses pulled us aside and wanted to explain how serious the situation was.  She said that Addyson really was a miracle baby, she said they didn’t expect her to recover from the trauma.  Especially that fast!   We later saw the same nurse at Target about a year later and she said, “I don’t know if you remember me, but I remember you.  Addyson is a legend at our hospital.”

When I took Addyson to the doctor today for her 18 month check up.  Our doctor told me that it is very rare for babies to be born w/ such oxygen deprivation.  They only see about 2 or 3 babies a year with the degree that Addyson had. She said they still talk about Addyson and ask about Addyson at the hospital.  She told me about a baby that had been born with very similar deprivation levels that Addyson had.  She said she told the family about Addyson and her success.  That made me feel so good.  The whole time at the hospitals, that is what I wanted to hear.  I wanted to hear a nurse or a doctor say to me, “yes this is horrible, this is bad, BUT, there have been babies that have pulled through this.”  Now Addyson is that baby.

So there you go.  I could go on forever.  Shannon and I feel that without the power of prayer, that Addyson would not have made it thru.  Everything fell into place.  From the doctor that delivered her(she knew immediately to start cooling her body and prepare her for the experimental cooling cap) to the nurses at Children’s Hospital.  Everything was set in place perfectly!  When the doctor said today that she was 100 percent positive that Addyson is completely normal, you can imagine my relief.  There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t thank God for what he has done.  Addyson is a fighter, we truly believe that God has a purpose for her in her lifetime.  He chose to heal her.

Addyson Faith, I love her middle name, it has a whole new meaning now.  Sometimes I just like to call her “Legend”  She has a way about her.  I think she is just happy to be alive.  When she falls, when she gets hurt, she just acts different than your average child.  It is like she knows, she knows she is lucky to be here and that little bumps and bruises are not going to keep her down.  Even when she gets shots at the doctor.  It is like nothing to her,  “bring it on” I think she is saying.  “I have been through a lot worse!”

Ok, this is way longer than I thought.  Thanks for reading…..Thanks for our entire family and friends for their support and prayers.  We felt it!

“I am not skilled to understand
What God has willed, what God has planned
I only know at His right hand
Stands One who is my Savior
I take Him at his word and deed
Christ died to save me this I read
And in my heart I find a need
For Him to be my Savior”     < Aaron Shust>

Tom (Legend’s Daddy)