Oct

The Longest Day of My Life… Please Help!

Hi Toolbox Fans,

Today I want to tell you about the one day of my life that plays over and over in my head.

It was the day I held my 2 year old son in my arms as he lost consciousness, turned blue and died in my arms.

It all started as I sat working in my home office.

I heard my son cry and then he quickly stopped… at that point my wife called out that I needed to come quickly.

I ran out to the dining room and saw my son struggling to breathe… It seems he had aspirated some macaroni and cheese and was choking on it.

I had been trained in Heimlich, even infant Heimlich several times. I knew CPR and was confident that I could "turn things around".

I attempted the Heimlich maneuver… several times. I tried reaching as far as I could down his throat… no help.

As precious time ticked by I did everything I had been trained to do, there was no reversing the situation.

My wife was on the phone with 9-1-1 and they were giving us instructions for everything we were already doing.

After several attempts my son drifted off… his eyes closing and he started turning blue.

I lived probably 200 yards from our local hospital and so I snatched him up to run over there when it dawned on me that there was a large fence between me and the hospital.

As I ran out the front door I noticed some people across the street looking at a house for sale and I yelled to them …

"Please help me … My son is choking."

I was a basket case… I thought I knew what I was doing. I thought I had a plan. I had all the training… But nothing was working for me.

The strangers came over and attempted CPR on my son… who was in bad shape… Still nothing!

Just then the ambulance pulled up and the paramedics came up and took over the situation.

They had about as much luck as we had already had and they suddenly picked him up and ran away to the ambulance.

I yelled to them asking where they were going and they yelled back "to the hospital".

I ran inside and grabbed my keys. My wife and I hopped into the car and raced around the corner to the hospital.

I ran into the hospital running up and down the emergency room looking for where they had taken him and he was no where in sight.

He was in fact still in the ambulance and the local anesthesiologist had raced to meet him outside.

Douglas had been "down" for quite a while now and they still could not get any oxygen to him. That is when the doctor said to push the obstruction into his lungs… it was a last ditch effort to save his life.

They were able to do that and finally could start "bagging him" so that he could breathe.

They made us wait in the waiting room as they took him into the back of the ER.

As my family started arriving… The hospital sent out the Chaplin to talk to us. I LOST IT!…

I told the preacher that I was not prepared to go there and I would not speak with him… I shouted at him to get away from me.

I am not sure how much time went by when the doctor came out and told me that they were going to have to life flight him to the children’s medical center in downtown Jacksonville. (about 45 minutes away).

They told us that he might not make it to the hospital downtown and that we should come in and "say our goodbyes".

Shocked, stunned and still in disbelief.. we went into the back.

He was lying on the table, with at least a half dozen attendees… someone was "bagging him" so that he was getting some air into his lungs… but only one lung was open.

His little chest rise rising and falling with the bagging… but only on one side.

They told us that there was only enough room in the chopper for the patient, pilots and paramedics. We would not be going.

The next thing I know… the chopper lands and they rush into it. My wife and I followed them out to the pad and stood there clutching at each other as they flew away.

I have never in my life been as helpless as I was at that moment.

There I stood, as my only son flew away, not knowing if I would ever see him again… hell I didn’t even have any shoes on.

The thing that had never occurred to me was that most hospitals do not have thr right kind of equipment to work on such small patients.

All of the gear, tools and instruments required are so small and so expensive that almost no hospital has the stuff… even they were helpless to save him!

We pulled ourselves together and drove downtown.

As things turned out… There was only one surgeon capable of doing the operation required from Miami to Atlanta… he just happened to be at this hospital TODAY!

He was on his way out of the hospital going home when the call came in about a 2 year old on the chopper and he immediately went back in to scrub and get ready.

When the helicopter arrived they rushed him to the operating room and removed the obstruction… re-inflated his lungs and vacuumed all the mac-n-cheese from inside his lungs.

When we got there I asked at the front desk where he was and they had no idea…. He was rushed to the operating room so fast the hospital didn’t even know he was there yet.

By the time we caught up with him he was in a recovery room… attached to a ventilator and lots of other tubes, hoses and meters.

We were met in the waiting room by our family preacher…who was the first one there and actually the one who told them his name… it all happened so fast they didn’t even know his name.

Now we met with the doctors… They explained that he was down for a very long time. They prepared us for the impact of that and explained how the brain needs oxygen to function and that we have no idea what he’ll be like.. IF he recovers.

As you might imagine this was tough to hear. Of all the things in this world that you need to protect your children from… Mac-n-Cheese?

We stayed at the hospital for the rest of the day… and into the night. I laid awake in his room with one eye on the meters all night…watching his heart beat, watching the percentage of oxygen in his blood and praying.

About 1:30 in the morning he started stirring… not yet awake… he was pulling at the tubes and stuff. I went out to the nurses station and told them and they came in and sedated him some more.

The nurse said that he should not have been "coming to" yet and that this was a good sign.

About 6:30 in the morning he started again… once again I went to the nurses and they when I came back to the room he was trying to cry. But he couldn’t because of all the tubes down his throat.

They got a doctor in there and removed the tubes… finally he was breathing on his own. They sedated him some more.

A couple hours later.. My wife, her parents and I were standing there when he started to stir… finally his eyes popped open and he looked around.

We were all on pins and needles… after all the doom and gloom we were told about brain damage and all the other effects we were warned about, we did not know what was gonna happen next.

Douglas looked up from his bed and said… in a faint and raspy little voice… "Hi Grampa".

YES!… He knew who we were!.. so far so good.

It was just an hour or so later that he was pulling at all the tubes and meters attached to him and I went to the nurses station again… I told them to do something because I could not keep wrestling him back down away from all the gear.

The nurse called the doctor and he came in and was shocked at the recovery he was making… He took off all the tubes… he took off all the meters… he was just a boy now in a crib.

He stood up.. bouncing up and down saying he was hungry… I will never forget it … he said "MacDonalds, Let’s Go".

The doctor told us that there would be pneumonia because of the debris in his lungs… and last night at 1 am, he did have pneumonia… But now… NONE!

He was perfectly fine… They told us we could go.

To say we were shocked.. stunned .. amazed would be an understatement. Even the Doctors, nurses and attendants were using words like amazing and miracle.

I am not really sure how the media found out but the next thing I know we are the talk of the town… Stories on the local channel, featured story on the Children’s Miracle Network Telethon… a real event.

Why am I telling you all this?

Because I want you to help support the Children’s Miracle Network.

We do all we can to raise money for these very special hospitals that are the only hope for many families in crisis.

What you really need to know is that these hospitals not only perform miracles everyday… They even pick up the tab for families that cannot afford to pay!

These wonderful people dedicate their lives to helping children in the most important way possible.

I met so many families when I was there that I felt really bad as we left the building… some of these families had been here for months… some would be here for many months to come.

The heartbreaking stories of the families we met were so much worse than the story we had to tell that I felt like we were given a gift that they were all still fighting for.

I know times are tough… but nothing compares to when your whole world comes crashing down around you.

I want you to help and support these fine hospitals… not for me… not for my son or my story.

I want you to help support these fine hospitals for all the people that were still there when we walked away.

There are hundreds…even thousands of families that are going through much worse that we went through… months in the hospital…multiple surgeries and many times… not the best outcome.

Please help support these fine hospitals. Do it for the miracles they perform everyday… Do it for the families still suffering… do it for your children and your grandchildren who may someday need this kind of specialized care.

Let me personally thank everyone that has supported these hospitals in the past…

It was your support that saved my son’s life.

Thank you!

Sincerely,
Douglas Newberry…
The 1st… and the 2nd

PS. If we all do just a little… It will be a lot. Please help with whatever donation you can. I and many other families will appreciate it more than you can ever know.

Please Click Here to Support The Children’s Miracle Network

Share and Enjoy: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.

Comments

One Response to “The Longest Day of My Life… Please Help!”

Jana on October 25th, 2008 12:40 pm

Thank you for sharing that life changing experience, I am so glad that your son recovered so quickly. God bless you for supporting Children\’s Miracle Network.

Leave a Reply