About Me
THIS IS CARTER, AND HIS MOMMY (SIERRA) AND DADDY'S (JAY) STORY, TOLD BY GRANDMA (SIERRA'S MOM)........Sierra went into labor June 6th. We went back to the Dr' s office two times so they could hook up the fetal monitor and watch his progress. She was contracting hard, but just not enought to make her dialate. Her contractions were to the top, but still NO movement. On the second visit, I told her physician, she can't do this anymore. You have got to intervene. She agreed and sent her straight over to labor and delivery, where Sierra had already become a frequent flyer. They all knew her well, as she had been in so many times, with pre term labor. It was a difficult pregnancy to say the least.When we arrived they strapped her up and could see her contractions were very strong. She needed pain medication very fast, so the anesthesiologist was paged. Carter was fine at this point. All of his vitals and Sierra's were where they should have been. She was crying and definitely in pain, but she was managing to hold on until the epidural could be given.The anesthesiologist arrived and she was happy. He gave her the dose and her pain was gone. She could feel things, but it wasn't bad.Carter remained stable. THey also administered her antibiotic, as she was Group B strep positive. About 2.5 hours later, my husband and daughter arrived. Jay and I were already there. Jay went to get something to drink, and my husband walked in, and Sierra looked at me and said "I dont' feel right" and her head slumped to the side. She literally passed out. I went to get the nurse, and Sierra regained her consciousness somewhat, but didn't even realize her dad and sister were there. THe nurse said your fever is very high. We need to get it down. At that point Carter's heart rate was climbing. Sierra had a temp of 103 and Carter's rate was 223. She wasn't dialating, and he was in distress. Her blood pressure was 59/39 and she incoherent and weak. They gave her medication, a couple of times. Finally at midnight, the nurse came in and said, we are getting you ready for a c section. Jay are you going in? If so sign this, get your scrubs and be ready.We were all prepared for the surgery. They popped in and told us that the Dr was going to assisst another doc for a c but she would be back. Hang tight.Well hanging tight was 2.5 hours. Her Dr came back, her fever was down 2 degrees, and Carter's rate ahd dropped, but it had been high most of the time, well over the 200 mark and she was 102. She bacame an incubator for Carter. They had her start pushing at 2:20 and he was born at 3:30. Forceps were used, and he was born so hot you couldn't even touch him. He didn't cry or move. He grunted. He looked terrible.Sierra knew something was terribly wrong. They put him on her for about 30 seconds and took him to the nursery. He needed oxygen, and his lung was collapsed. They gave him oxygen for 24 hours and then took him out. Sierra could then feed him, but he had no interest and still kept having oxygen level drops. The nurses would come in, and say don't pay attention to that. Pay attention to me. I had 2 friends that were visiting Sierra when the monitors were going off, alerting us to Carter's low oxygen saturation. They either wouldn't come in the room, and became angry when Sierra or Jay would get them, or they would come in, and turn the alarms to OFF!!! Carter was also not feeding at all. He wouldn't suck, and they couldn't get him to eat. He stayed in the hospital for 4 days, and they finally released him. But,,,,,,,,,,,,still not feeding and still not getting good oxygen.So Carter comes home and he still is not feeding well, and wants to do nothing but sleep. He never wakes for food, diaper, nothing. I kept telling Sierra that he was sleeping too much, and she agreed, even calling her Dr, and the Dr said not to worry. Babies are tired after delivery..Duhhhhhhhhhh I had five kids and they never slept like Carter. Anway, it was Carter's 8th day in this world. Everything changed that day. We can see it in his pics. His color, facial expression, movement, every fiber of his little body took on a totally different aura. Finally that Sunday evening, 2 days later. Sierra had the forethought to video Carters' eratic breathing. She took video of it on her camera phone and sent it to me. I called her immediately and told her to get him to the hospital asap. She did, and the Dr, said he looked as though he was having periods of apnea, and said that he wanted to do a chest x ray. He did and his lung was collapsed for the second time. He was born with a collapsed lung and now 10 days later, he had another one. Same lung down again. So they admit him.Now previously in the week, Sierra had taken Carter to the Dr that delivered Carter and was going to be Carter's physician. According to her discharge papers, she was to take him for a weight check, becuase he was not feeding and they were concerned about his weight gain. Prior to Sierra leaving the hospital with Carter, we had already worked out that Carter would be her patient, and we would be self pay. She said she couldn't take him if he was medicaid, and I told her I would be financially responsible for Carter. I can't tell you how many bloody times she told Sierra during her pregnancy, in front of me, that medicaid just didnt' pay, and she was actually losing money. I offered to pay for Sierra's care and she jumped at the opportunity.
However, with all of the difficulties that she had been having, we decided we should leave her covered. HOWEVER, I agreed to pay for Carter so that she could be Sierra's Doc as well as the babies.So in the hospital,she took care of him, circumsized him did everything and then told her to make the appt for his weight check. At that appt. Sierra went to the desk to make the appt, and they told her she had to find another Dr. That she wasn't going to see Carter, and she needed a new Dr.!! Sierra was livid. She called me crying. I told her to relax we would find one for the baby. She asked to see the Dr., she wouldn't come out. She called to talk to her, she wouldn't talk to her. So Carter is one week old now, and he has no Dr. In this town, they are hard to find. but we begin immediately searching and waiting for call backs. However, the water gets muddy when she takes Carter to the ER and they ask her who her Dr is. She tells them who her Doc is, because we are still looking and haven't found one yet. So they call the Dr, on call and he is admitted under her old Dr, the one that told her five days ago to find a new Dr.Morning comes and the Dr, that is covering for Sierra's Dr that is on vacation stops by, does absolutely nothing and leaves. This is Monday morning. I get out there and he looks terrible. He is losing oxygen in the 70-80's and they are doing NOTHING. No oxygen at all. I get a respiratory therapist in and told her I wanted oxygen asap. she says he looks much worse than this morning, goes to get the oxy and an RN tells her,,,,,,,let's wait awhile. I went into the hallway and said, oh no, we are not waiting. I want it now.About this time Sierra gets a phone call from her Dr's office, the one that told her to find a new doc. They are loudly, rudely telling her that she should have never given them their name. They WERE NOT his Dr, and they WOULD NOT treat him.I called back and said, now let me make sure I am hearing you correctly. You are REFUSING to see Carter? You just told her Tuesday to get a new doc, and she has been trying, so you are literally dumping this baby without him having a new physician and will not be seeing him in the hospital? She said that's right, I didn't stutter, and you guys got yourself into this mess, it isn't our problem. We told you last week, to find a new doc, our medicaid panel was full. In the meantime, medicaid had actually assigned this Dr TO Carter, yet they were STILL refusing his care. I then called the Dr that did the admitting and asked to speak to their office manager. I asked that she call and ask them if they were INDEED refusing his care. She called and unbelievably they said the very same thing. She said she was mortified. She couldn't believe what she had heard. But yes, they would not be out to treat carter and we were on our own.I went out to the nurses and told them I was checking him out and taking him to Riley. He had been there long enough with out proper care. He needed specialized care, and we were leaving. I was told the authorities would be called, if I did that. They would call Children services and tell them I was checking him out against medical advice. I promptly got on my cell phone, called my atty in Florida and he told me to let them call. I had them with me when I made the call. They could hear it all. Within minutes I had 2 administrators in the room.They did a sleep study, got oxygen for him that night and Riley was called first thing to have him transported after I raised hell with the Dr that said they wouldn't be over to treat him. Carter went without oxygen for 2 full days. They did nothing but harm him even worse, but depriving his little body of what it needed most. The ambulance arrived and you could see the look on their faces when they looked at Carter. They were disgusted. This wasn't even a ped ward,and there he was just getting worse and worse.So here we are. He has been admitted into Riley 8 times. we know he has brain damage to his corpus collasum, which literally tells every single system in your body how to function. He is hypotonic, has siezures, apnea, laryngo malaysia, 7 laxitives per day. and the g tube. We know he will need speech therapy, physical therapy and occupational therapy, when he is old enough, and he is a prime candidate for cerebral palsy. We hope he walks, but his muscle tone is terrible.Vision and hearing are of major concern as well. We hope he will walk with assistance, but have been told not to hold hopes high. It is such a waiting game. And the hard part is that this did not need to happen, He was perfect. This is hard on him. And really hard on the rest of us too! It should not have to be this way..........
