Samuel as we called him was a sweet and precious little boy, from the moment of his birth he had a sweet disposition. Samuel was born on December 1, 1998, at 5:07 in the morning via c-section at Madigan Army Medical Center in Ft Lewis, WA.
When Samuel was born, he looked fine and had pretty good APGAR scores, they were 8 and 9, the average for most babies. Samuel was about 12 hours old when we noticed that he was bluish from the waist down, his blood pressures were different from the top portion of his body to the bottom portion and from left to right.
The doctors came to us the next day with a diagnosis of Coarctation, and then said he would need surgery to repair this. I remember feeling such a shock, Samuel was supposed to be the one with no medical problems, however in the end he ended up being the one with the most severe medical issue.
As I sat in my hospital room the night they transferred him to Children's Hospital in Seattle, WA, thinking to myself "why God" once again I am separated from my baby after it is born. What did I do, where did I go wrong? I did everything a pregnant mother does and then some, I went to my appointments like I should and never drank one drop of liqueur, never smoked a cigarette. But still something went wrong.
Thinking back to when I was pregnant with Samuel, I wanted a strong name, one that would carry him far in life. He was already destined to be a Charles Richardson, my husband had chosen to name him after his father, I on the other hand wanted a name to go with that. We already had a Charles in the house that being my husband, so we decided to call him Charles Richardson Samuel.
Samuel lived up to his name, from the moment of his birth to the moment of his death. Charles is German and means (man, strong), well Samuel definately was that and had to be to deal with all the pokes and prods from the doctors and nurses. Richardson is also German and means (stong ruler), and Samuel is Hebrew and means (asked of God).
Asked of God, is certainly what Samuel was, he was a blessing to have in our lives, and he touched the lives of many a far. Samuel had a smile that would melt the heart of the most cruel, and brighten the lives of anyone. He was never really a cranky baby and didn't cry much. Samuel's birth was a surprise to us, we hadn't expected have more children and had I wanted to get a tubal when I hit 25, but on April 17th 1998, I was sitting in the ER being told that I would soon have another addition to my family.
Samuel's life really made me grow up as an adult, I learned a valuable lesson from him during his long stays in the hospital. He taught me that no matter how life may go, and what situations in life that you may face, what roads you will travel down to always keep your chin up and a smile on your face and be "strong". Samuel was a very strong little boy, he kept going when most of us would have given up the fight.
Samuel was in the hospital from December 1, 1998, to December 18, 1998, and then again for 3 days in January, when they did a angioplasty on one of his valves. Samuel's overall condition was classified as Shones Syndrome. Samuel was due for his mitral valve replacement on May 5, 1999. He did not make it for the surgery and died the day before on May 4, 1999, at 1:50 p.m.
I remember the night before Samuel wasn't looking his usual, and I had asked the nurses to please get a doctor to come look at him. They told me not to worry and that he would be ok. I told them that I could guarantee that he would be on the ventilator in the middle of the night or by morning. Sure enough the next morning he was on the ventilator. I went into see him about 11:00 in the morning, I sat there holding his hand, he looked up at me with such sad puppy eyes and then he squeezed my hand as to say, "hey mom don't worry I'll be all right, I am a fighter. He then grinned at me and closed his eyes, I stepped out of the room at that moment and when I came back they would not let me in because he had gone into cardiac arrest.
I think Samuel knew he was going to heaven, I think his angels were there to take him home as I sat with him by his bed side. But he needed to say bye to mom before he left, his smile was to let me know that he was ok and that I would be ok. Life would go on.
Yes, I will be ok and yes I will go on, the pain will always be there, the hurts as I see another mother with a baby the same age as Sammy when he died is the worst hurt I feel at the moment. I have put all my efforts to go on into starting a nonprofit organization to help other families who have children that are seriously ill. You can learn more about this by going to the Shone's Kid's Heart Foundation web site.
