Kyle Patrick was born at 10:11 AM at Columbia Hospital in Milwaukee. He was 8 pounds 7 ounces and 19 inches long. Nice size baby!! It was a quick delivery. Mom and Dad went to the hospital at 7:30 AM. Dr. Cornell was already there with another delivery-how lucky!! By 9:30 AM I was situated in a hospital bed. Dr. Cornell asked if I wanted her to break my water (recalling what had happened with our son Kevin) and I said, "Sure." I was waiting for my epideral when I realized Kyle was going to be born now and there was no waiting. His APGAR scores were 3, 8 and 9. So far so good. Kyle was too tired to eat so we let him rest. Grandma Sweetie came to visit with Kyle's brother Kevin (3 years old) and Aunt Peggy. Everyone left and Mom and Kyle tried to get some sleep. I kept leaning over checking on Kyle-maybe I knew something was up. Dad came back after getting something to eat, and I tried to get Kyle to eat, but he still had no interest. The nurses didn't seem too concerned until later that afternoon I pointed out that his hands were still pretty blue. The nurse unwrapped him and discovered that his lower half was blue. ( I wasn't aware of what she saw. ) The nurse took him to the nursery and casually said we'll look at him in the nursery. Dad followed and I took a shower. I guess I didn't want to think something was wrong. Later a doctor came and said Kyle had fluid in his lungs-a common problem, considering it was a fast birth. Kyle had swallowed some of the amniotic fluid. He needed some oxygen and would need to remain in the hospital for a few days. They were going to transport Kyle to Saint Mary's where they specialized in neonatal problems. We were both pretty upset, but little did we know what was about to happen.
7:30 PM
By now we are at Saint Mary's Hospital. My OB dismissed me and said I had to return to Columbia by 11:00 PM. Dan had to wheel me around in a wheelchair. The doctors now inform us that something else must be wrong. Kyle was not responding to the oxygen. A doctor said his heart did not look normal and his liver was enlarged. They were going to transport him to Children's Hospital of Wisconsin. They started to hook Kyle up with all sorts of IV's and were taking blood samples. Kyle was crying but we couldn't do anything for him because he was in an enclosed incubator on full oxygen. It seemed to take forever for the transport team to come and get him ready for transport. Emotionally we were wrecks. The nurses took pictures of Kyle because it may have been the only ones we ever had of Kyle. I remember calling my parents and telling them to meet us at Children's because they may never get to meet Kyle.
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10:00 PM
We arrive at Children's. Kyle is taken to the NICU and examined. They perform an Echo and we have to wait in the waiting area. We were waiting to speak to a pediatric cardiologist to learn about Kyle's condition. My parents and Dan's sister had come to join us. Finally the doctor comes out (11:30 PM) and tells us that Kyle has something called HYPOPLASTIC LEFT HEART SYNDROME. He gives us the three choices: surgery, transplant, compassionate care. To this day the only thing I remember is the word surgery and kept thinking these people will make my son better. I don't think I fully comprehended the situation until many days later. There was no time for it to all sink in. I went back to the hospital and Dan went home where his Mom had our other son Kevin. I don't think either one of us slept that night.
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March 18, 1999
I was dismissed from the hospital and we went right over to Children's. Kyle was going to have his cath done by Dr. Berger. They wanted to keep the ductus open to give Kyle time to stabilize before surgery. He tried to perform this task right in the NICU. He began around 1:30 PM and came out by 4:00 PM. We were nervous because it was not suppose to take that long. He said he just could not get in and wanted to move Kyle down to the cath lab where the equipment was better. Once there, the most he could do was insert a 1 mm tube. (The plan was to insert a balloon to open it to 2 mm, but this was not possible.) Immediately his SATS went up to 80-90%. Perfect-or so we thought. Half an hour later the tube collapsed and we would have to do surgery tomorrow. The rest of the family came to the hospital that night to meet Kyle and lend a shoulder to cry on. We met with Mary Anne Kessel who explained the procedures. My husband asked all the questions-his mechanical mind was right on track. I couldn't even think straight. We would come to rely on Mary Anne a lot in the next couple of days.
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