"A child who loses a parent os called an orphan,
a husband who loses a wife is called a widower,
a wife who loses a husband is called a widow,
but there is no name for a parent who loses a child,
because there are no words to describe the pain"
When I was 16, my doctor told me I would be "lucky to ever have children". At that time, it really never meant much to me, I was 16 and all. When I was 17, we discovered that I was pregnant?? I will never forget that day, it was the happiest day of our lives! However, I found out I was pregnant, having a boy, & almost 5 months along all in one appointment. I know right? I was tiny & never had any symptoms, then got a baby bump overnight almost. I had some complications during my pregnancy. My doctor did several tests to be sure everything was ok with him since I was so far along, everything came back "A-okay". Noah was born June 6, 2002 & I barely made it to and through my High School Graduation. The first couple months of Noah's life everything seemed to be ok. Then Noah started to be really sick all the time. We would be at his pediatrician's office every day of the week. We begged his doctor to do several tests to try and find out what was going on, she just kept saying that there was nothing wrong & that we were overreacting. We took Noah to 3 different hospitals & nobody could find anything wrong?? FINALLY after Noah ended up quit breathing on 2 different occasions, his doctor listened to us & requested an echocardiogram to have his heart checked. Our whole family had already asked her to do this test like 10 times & she kept saying it wasn't necessary. So 2 days before the test, Noah was really really sick & we decided to take him to another doctor/hospital to see if they would be willing to help us. This doctor we seen had never seen Noah before & listened to his chest for bout 2 minutes & by the grace of GOD AGREED w/us something was for sure wrong with him & immediately told us to get him to Children's Hospital because his heart did not sound good at all!! I remember that moment like it was yesterday, I was relieved & yet worried at the same time. This meant there was for sure something wrong making him so ill. But I also thought YESSSS! FINALLY!! Someone is going to help us figure this out & Noah is finally going to get better. If that doctor hadn't agreed with us that day, Noah would have never made it through the night!! When we arrived to Children's Hospital he was admitted as soon as we got there. The doctor's got him hooked up to everything & called the Cardiologist team to come right away & do the echocardiogram. We were all so scared, they brought 6 different doctors in the room while doing the tests. Dr. Galantowicz (his cardiologist) sat us down & told us Noah had a heart condition called "Mitral Valve Stenosis". We were told that there was nothing that we could have done that would have caused it nor prevented it, some infants in RARE CASES ( 1 in 1,000 chances he said) are just born with a narrowed mitral valve. I remember that moment like it was yesterday, & I remember saying "ok well what do we do to fix it"? Dr. Galantowicz said that Noah would need surgery at some point, "it could be tomorrow, a month, a year, or even 10 years from now" he said. I remember thinking "okay we can get through this & it will prolly be a long time before he will need surgery". None of us were prepared for what was about to come. Noah was moved to PICU to be watched closer. He wasn't in there no more than 2 hours and he went into Cardiac Arrest! Noah had to have emergency open heart surgery at that moment. That was the worst feeling in the world, having to sign something that was basically life or death & all the chaos & everything happened so fast! I remember Chris & I never left Noah's side. When the doctor's were reviving him, we stayed right there with him. When he went into cardiac arrest the second time, we stayed right there while they pumped his heart & everything. We just didn't want him to feel alone. We didn't even leave the hospital like all the other parents, we slept on the waiting room chairs & floor every night! Noah fought so hard for 10 days straight. I never had a doubt in my mind he would recover from surgery. Noah's kidneys & liver ended up shutting down, he had seizures & so on. Noah ended up passing away on January 17, 2003; after fighting so hard for 9 long days! Dr. Galantowicz said that if Noah would have had the echocardiogram sooner like we had begged his doctor to do; then he would still be here with us today!!! But because he didn't get properly diagnosed in a timely manner, his heart was swollen & too big for his precious little body to handle. We struggle every single day not having him here w/us. It has been 7 years now since he went to Heaven, & it's still as hard as it was the day he passed. We would give anything to have our precious baby boy back in our arms. We miss him so much every single day & not a day goes by we don't think of him.
**RIP NOAH KADE RICHARDSON**
6/6/02 - 1/17/03
(For info on Mitral Valve Stenosis, go to this website:
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/mitral-valve-stenosis/DS00420 )
