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| LAURIE MICHELLE BAER Birth to 5 |
| Occasionally, we are graced with the presence of an earth bound angel. They are unable to stay with us for long, but while they do, they bring unprecedented joy and happiness to all they touch. While they are here, we bask in their goodness and marvel at their contribution to the world. When they leave, we are left with the devastation that comes with losing such a wonderful being...but we must remember...the earth bound angels are not ours to keep. They are ours to enjoy, learn from, and behold until they return home. |
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| When Laurie was six weeks old, she became ill and when I took her in to the doctor he immediately consulted a cardiologist and they diagnosed that she had a congenital heart defect. Within two weeks she went into heart failure and when they did the heart catheterization they determined that she had a single ventricle and pulmonary stenosis. She was put on heart medication and followed frequently by her cardiologist. At that time there was no surgery they could perform to correct the single ventricle, but when she got older they could do a bypass for the pulmonary stenosis. Her doctor told me to "take her home and let her grow". |
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| Laurie was born on October 31, 1976 at around 1:00 A.M. I only had about three hours of labor and the doctor barely made it to the hospital in time to deliver her. I remember asking if she had all her fingers and toes and they said "yes". That was all I knew to ask at that time. We would find out later that she was born with an uncommon congenital heart defect, one that would ultimately lead to her death at the age of 16 during open heart surgery. |
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| When she was four her cardiologist moved to Houston, so we followed him there. When she was almost six he told us her blood was getting too thick from the stenosis, that she needed to have a bypass. So On August, 23, 1982 she had a bypass done at Hermann Hospital in Houston. Then she started kindergarten the following month. |
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| Music - "Angels Among Us" by Alabama |
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