In the early morning hours of December 2, 1997, he woke me up complaining of a stomach ache He still had his feeding tube and was on a new formula with extra fiber because of problems with constipation, so I sent him to the bathroom to see if that would bring him so relief. It brought some relief and he went back to bed. He was in and out of the bathroom for the next few hours. I sent his sister Erika off to school and told her I was keeping David home today. The next time David got up his stomach was so distended! My husband and I packed him up and took him to the local ER The doctors weren't sure if his feeding tube was causing a blockage so they sent him for x-rays. What they discovered was that he was full of stool. They began the process of clearing him out. David was beginning to feel better and joking with the nurses. They wanted to do another x-ray to see how things were progressing so I told David smile pretty for the camera and not to give the nurses a hard time. We all laughed and he went on his way.
Within a few minutes they were wheeling him past us at such a rapid pace that I knew something was wrong. I tried to go into the examining room but they had called a code and wouldn't let me in. David had suffered a seizure. They didn't know what was going on, but the doctors thought maybe his electrolytes were off and caused the seizure. David was intubated and transferred to Children's Hospital. At the hospital we waited as and endless stream of Doctors went in and out of his room. The surgeon who had taken care of David since birth finally came in to talk to us. He informed us that David's condition was very grave. He suspected that scar tissue for the many previous surgeries was causing the problem, but the only way to know was to get him to the OR He honestly told us that he wasn't sure if David would make it. He took us in to see David as they were getting him ready for the OR My baby boy so full of life the day before, was now barely holding on. The surgery took about an hour and a half. We were updated every 15 minutes. When he was done, his surgeon told us that almost all of his intestines had to be removed because they were dead. If he survived the night, he would need more surgery in the morning, but that was a long shot. He was brought up to ICU right away. we waited for them to get him settled in. After about 10 minutes, his doctor told us that David was failing fast and that we should come in. I held my baby in my arms as best I could and he died in my arms at 4:20 p.m.
We miss him so much. His death has left such a void in our lives. The laughter he brought into our house is gone...but he lives in our hearts forever.
