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| I am a 29yr old woman, mother to 5 children, all pretty much healthy. We were married in April of 2002, we bought our home shortly thereafter. We moved into our home on June 2nd 2002. Well on June 22nd 2002 we did a home pregnancy test, it was positive, wih mixed emotions we were overall happy. The next day we went to the naval hospital camp Lejuene and did the test they did to find out I was pregnant and took their pregnancy class on July 2nd 2002. I was put on prenatals at the time, I was probably about 6 week post conception. We scheduled our first doctors visit in August, the naval hospital likes to wait until you are 10-12 week along before a doctor or midwife sees you. The doctor did a portable ultrasound scan and everything seemed fine. She then scheduled a regular ultrasound in early September. My husband was able to go with me for the ultrasound. We were so excited we would find out the sex of our child. I was 15 1/2 weeks at this point. We did find out that we were having a son, we were so happy. The ultrasound tech went out and got the docotr, she told us it was just routine. He had me laid in very odd positions to get a look at every angle to better see our baby. He then told us there are some concerns he has and asked us if we would like to go in his office or stay there. Well we chose to go to his office. I figured it cannot be anything too bad. He explained to us that it appeared our son had a fatel birth defect called anencephaly. This was on a Friday. He made an appointment for us to go to Dr. Jefrey Wright down in Williamington, N.C, to do a level II ultrasound. Well unfortunately Dr. Wright confirmed this diagnosis plus they saw some other defects but were not sure at that time what was going on. They knew for sure he had anencephaly though. Well because they have to, they gave us a choice to abort, but as we are catholic and have a strong faith in the Lord we knew it was no choice. This was our son, our baby. We looked into organ donation, only some tissues would be able to be donated, if he met the weight requirements, there is much controversy in organ donation with anencephalic babies because they have no brain; they cannot be diagnosed as brain dead. It is a bio-ethics contraversy and has been done with success but not anymore. Anyway, we had genetic tests done on my husband and i plus had an amniocenthesis to see if it was genentic. The test came back normal, so this DEADLY birth defect my son had was caused from a lack of folic acid. I had known nothing about the devastating effects not taking a daily vitamin could cause. I then joined two wonderful support groups online in Yahoo, Anencephaly Support, which i am now a monerator of, and Anencephaly Blessings From Above. Both of these groups are for moms who carried to term or for as long as they could. Well, we started the monthly visits to the doctor and the fetal med doctor as well, everytime showing our son was doing well. In November 2002, on our visit to the fetal med doctor we found out the other birth defects they saw was spina bifida, which was causing his organs to push up under his ribs and causing pressure to his lungs and heart, but he was very active. I then wrote a comment card to the naval hospital about how i thought their care should start before a woman gets pregnant, whether or not she was trying for a baby. We were on birth control but still conceived. I recomended they start some sort of program about educating women. Well in December 2002, our case manager from the naval hospital contacted me to tell me the naval hospital wanted to start an education program on folic acid, and they wanted to know if they could name it after our son, who we named Gabriel Michael, after the angels in the Bible. It was an honor to me, they call their project, 'Project Gabriel.' On Jan 6th we went to the fetal med doc for a reg. exam through ultrasound. It showed my amnio water was rising, which is caused from these babies not being able to swallow properly. They told me to just take it easy, I should be ok. We scheduled another visit for 3 weeks. I saw my reg ob and he had no concerns. I started contractions the 3rd weekend but no dialation so they sent me home with tylenol-3 for pain. I was in extreme pain that next week. I went to see my new ob (the ob i was seeing was getting ready to deploy) on Feb 24. 2003. I measured to be 41 weeks when i was only 35 1/2 weeks. I was extremely uncomfortable, Gabriel was not moving that much anymore but his heartbeat was ok (120's heartbeat), the ob wanted to wait until i saw the fetal med doctor on Monday. My husband went with me on Jan 27, 2003 and they scanned me and found my water got higher, it was now in the danger area, either my uterus could rupture or my water could break and my placenta rupture. I was then told to go to the hospital. Because of deployments they could not do the c-section that night but did hospitalize me, just in case. They came in ever hour to hear Gabriel's heartbeat, which was down to 112 every hour. The last two times they checked it, it was up to 130, so i had some hope still. Anencephaly babies have a 50/50 chance of being stillborn. We had Gabriel stillborn at 8:02am on Jan.28, 2003.The doctors thought he would weigh 4 to 5 pounds, he weighed 1 pound 12.8 oz and was 11 inches long. I was 36 weeks, it just shows how much brain mass weighs. The eye tissue donation people came to hopefully be able to donate something. Unfortunately he was too small but they came in an cried with me and they truly appreciated the thought. I was upset that nothing could be donated but i knew i tried. We laid Gabriel to rest in North Vernon, Indiana, where my husband is from, on Feb 6, 2003, the saddest day of my life. It is in the works to put a tree up in his honor with the help of donations already given. We also got involved in a study on neural tube birth defects from Duke University, genetics. I also am an active volunteer wth the March of Dimes. I volunteer at the local soup kitchen and spread the word of folic acid there, in hope to help someone from going through what we did. The naval hospital's project is having a hard time getting the word out, and i would like to see a folic acid program on all bases. The March of Dimes is unaware of any program on any base. Now camp Lejuene has one. The local paper Jacksonville Daily News is doing a story on our family, to hope bring out this awareness of folic acid, Roselee is the journalist covering our story. I would love to see the military take an active role in folic acid awareness. Well we are now 4 weeks post partum, we are doing pretty good and the kids are doing good too. My husband's unit did deploy within the 2 weeks after Gabriel was born, they were able to let my husband stay behind to take care of his family, but when and if they need him he is ready to fight for his country. He is the head of the welding shop. The military is his career. As for me i am a subsitute teacher, in hopes to get my degree to teach physical education and health for high school, but that is a little way away. I still have a toddler at home. Please help, the best way to help stop another baby being born with anencephaly is to get the word out that women need to take 400mcg of folic acid daily, whether or not they are trying to conceive. Please take the banner below to display on your website if you have one. Love Suzette (Angel Gabriel's mommy) |
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| Music ~A Love So Beautiful~ |
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| IN MEMORY Gabriel Micheal Richart, son of Bradley and Suzette Richart of Sneads Ferry, N.C. was stillborn Tuesday, Jan.28, 2003, at Camp LeJuene hospital in North Carolina. Funeral Mass was conducted at 11a.m.,Thursday, February 6, 2003 at St.Joseph Catholic Church, with Father Joe Brown officiating. Burial is at the ST. JOSEPH Cemetery. Arrangements were done through Pickett Funeral Home, North Vernon, Indiana. Surviving with the parents are three brothers, Adam, Carlos and Antonio of Sneads Ferry; and two sisters Candice and Makayla of Sneads Ferry; and grandparents Charles and Roberta of Seymour,Indiana,B.k. and Eddie Barrier of Roper, N.C, and John and Patti Shearer of Rome, N.Y. Gabriel was preceeded in death by his Grandfather, Bernand Richart and uncle Daniel Shearer. Memorials may be made to the Gabriel Michael Richart Memorial Fund through the funeral home, Pickett Funeral Home,209 South street North Vernon,Indiana 47265,(812) 346-3311 |
