February 14, 1991…a day we will always remember. “Heart Day”
My wife Ellen and I were sitting in the old “Clinic ‘C’” at Riley Hospital for Children in downtown Indianapolis. The room was rather dark and outdated. Mickey Mouse sheets adorned the small bed where Ellen was laying. A small curtain separated us from other tiny patients being seen in this outpatient clinic. We didn’t have a baby…..yet.
Ellen was about 7 months pregnant and a previous ultrasound done by the regular OB was suspect, so we were sent to Riley for an echo-cardiogram That day we met Dr. Robert Darragh and begin a very long relationship with him, his colleagues, and Riley Hospital for Children.
“I have to tell you that your baby has a very serious heart defect.” Or something to that effect. The exact words are lost over time and the fog that such an announcement brings to one’s head. Our first baby. Serious. Cardiac. Stopped in our tracks like hitting a wall.
First surgery at 3 months old…1991
Dr. Darragh said some things about switching to a high risk OB at Indiana University Medical. He said something about after the baby was born they would have to monitor him/her to see how things went to determine the next step. However, the next steps would involve multiple surgeries to help the baby live. During this time we merely called the fetus “Buuud” because we didn’t know its name yet!
1991. This was before the Internet was available to us. Before Google searches. We spent some time at the IU Medical Library looking up Single Ventricle, Pulmonary Stenosis, Transposition of the Great Vessels. The texts were not very friendly to my non-medical background. Ellen had a medical background and educated me about the heart.
As I recall we stopped on the way home to have a chocolate milkshake and then played Scrabble. It’s interesting the things you do when you are in shock. We couldn’t email our family or post a Facebook status. So some painful phone calls took place, followed by explanatory letters outlining Buuud’s condition and the proposed plan of action at birth. It was out of our hands.
God had a plan and we had to see what would unfold. We have never asked “Why?”