Leila was born a perfectly happy, healthy baby girl on February 19th, 2008. We spent the typical three days in the hospital and then welcomed her home on February 22nd. Little did we know, we would have only hours to enjoy her before entering into the nightmare that began Leila's victorious journey.
We hadn't even settled in for the evening. Leila had fallen asleep, so we took advantage of the quiet time in between feedings and took a nap ourselves. An hour and a half passed. I awoke, disturbed that Leila hadn't woken to breastfeed, and immediately knew something was wrong in the chilling silence. When I first looked at Leila, she appeared to be sleeping but had no color in her skin and didn't seem to be breathing. I picked her up and her body went limp. I screamed for Alby and we checked for a pulse, for breath coming from her nostrils...but there was nothing. We truly thought at that moment she was already gone.
Alby ripped off Leila's pajamas, the ones we had so carefully selected to bring her home in, and I called 911 for help. We continued CPR for about 10-12 minutes until paramedics arrived. I remember a firefighter scooping up little Leila in his arms and rushing out the door. At that time, she had only pulseless electrical activity. She was clinically "dead."
We chased the ambulance to the hospital in our minivan. After what seemed like forever, we were allowed to see Leila. It was the scariest scene we had ever witnessed- unknown machines, tubes and wires everywhere, blood, and there was baby Leila, surrounded by about 15 medical personnel in the trauma unit of the ER. It wasn't how we'd imagined her grand welcome into the world.
Leila had suffered from a full cardiac arrest in her sleep. Doctors had gotten her heart restarted after about 20 minutes into the hospital stay, but she was being kept alive by advanced life support. There was nothing more they could do there. She would need to be transported to another hospital over 30 minutes away and would likely not survive the transport.
But little Leila surprised us even then. She made the trip successfully and was treated at St. Mary's with a cutting edge brain cooling treatment, "Therapeutic Hypothermia." Several days went by on the life support, but Leila was still unresponsive and multiple EEGs showed no brain activity. A CT scan reported abnormalities throughout the cortex of her brain. She had no response to pain or light, could not hold her own blood pressure or body temperature, and she couldn't even gag or cough. The extent of the damage was thought to have caused major brain stem injuries. We were given a terminal prognosis and doctors recommended we remove her support and say our goodbyes.
But we weren't ready to give up on Leila. We prayed constantly and hundreds of other wonderful supporters did the same. Everyone was rooting for Leila. We finally decided to try and wean the support, hoping with less shock to her little body, she could survive this. Still, the family came in and whispered what they thought would be their last words to her. It was the hardest day of our lives.
Leila's support was eventually removed completely and she was still hanging in there! The doctors still felt Leila was "vegetative" and would never eat, walk, talk, or even know who we were. They told us to prepare for severe cerebral palsy and major mental and physical disabilities.
But Leila wasn't giving in. She finally woke up. We got off to a slow start, but after about a month of recovery in the hospital, we were finally able to bring Leila back home. She was originally accompanied by a feeding tube, oxygen tanks, pulse ox, suction catheder, a full nursing staff...you name it. But after a few months of hard work and her strong will, Leila decided she didn't need those things anymore and ditched every single one!
Leila's victories didn't stop there. Through continual physical, speech and occupational
therapies, Leila has come a long way and continues to make progress every day. Her EEG
and MRI results now suddenly appear to be "normal!" If you met her today, you would
never believe this was her story. Leila walks, talks, and certainly knows who we are!
We are so proud to be Leila's parents and are honored that God chose us to raise this
special baby girl. After initially given zero chance of survival, Leila's success and recovery is
considered a true medical miracle. We will share her story around the world with the intent
that moms and dads everywhere will find hope, encouragement, and the strength to carry on!
You, too, may one day face an emergency...Learn CPR today so you can save a life!
