The Begining

Emerson was born December 24th 2008 and was a healthy beautiful baby girl. Most of you that know her knows that she really has never been sick.


So here is where our journey begins. On Monday June 28th 2010 I was in my bedroom changing about to head to the mall with the kiddos and my husband was home for lunch brought the kids inside and he and our 5 year old son Joseph came in the room with me while I finished getting dressed. I called for Emerson and didn't hear her little footsteps coming so I went to look for her. I walked out into our back yard and found her in our pool bellyside up with purple lips and not breathing. I screamed for my husband and he, my brother, and son ran into the living room. I placed her on our living room floor and began CPR. (I was such a mess that I did not perform it the proper way even though I am certified) I was screaming and panicing so my brother took over CPR. Still we didn't get her back so my husband scooped her up and ran to the car and we drove her to St. Charles Parish Hospital which is about 3 minutes away from my house. My daughter was not breathing for a total of no more then 10 min. STCP Hospital did revive my daughter. They then transported us to Childrens Hospital where her true Journey began. (Emerson got out of our back door (which is a pull down knob, that we forgot to lock) and got into our swimming pool by climbing the ladder (that yes we didn't take out).

The second day Emerson was at Childrens she did not look at all like herself. Her eyes were all puffy she was intabated (helping her breath), blue, and had tubes coming from everywhere! Emerson's first days in Childrens' consisted of them keeping her in a drug induced coma keeping her cool and making sure she was stable. Emerson also had a CT scan to check for swelling and bledding and she had none, but we weren't out the clear yet it hadn't been 48hrs which is the hours of risk. But they did an MRI and she still had no swelling or bleeding BUT she does have permeant brain damage in her basal ganglia and her thalamus. The basal ganglia controls cognition, movement coordination, and voluntary movement. It is also the center where all the information is processed and then released to the other systems through the thalamus. The thalamus is located above the brainstem and it process and relays movement and sensory information. And recieves information from the cerebral cortex where the basal ganglia is located. So needless to say where her damage is it is very important. Here she is......

Begining the third day in PICU (Pediatric Intensive Care Unit) Emerson was already being lowered her respirtory help and breathing half on her own. She was urinating well but had trouble regulating her blood pressure, which is one of the many causes from her brain damage regulating her bp and temp. Emerson also had a Echocardiogram which was perfect. Thank goodness because we sure didn't need any other problems. During Emerson's stay in the PICU her tempature flucuated a lot.

By day four Emerson was lowered even more from the ventalator because she was breathing over the machine!! Also Emerson was coming off the sedations. Emerson also got a feeding tube put in through her nose and began getting fed 5ml. That day we found out Emerson is A + because she needed a blood transfusion because she was not making her own RBC (red blood cells) Emerson also contracted the H flu which is a bacteria infection. Also on day four Emerson was given steroids to help with her throat to not swell because she was scheduled (all things well over night) to get off the intabation! This day was also only the second day she got her teeth brushed and her hair washed :)


On day five Emerson was comletly off of her ventalitor!!!! Woohoo!!! Breathing completly on her own! :))))

Day six July 4th (Happy Late Fourth!!) Emerson had a lot happen this day. She had her a-line and catheter taken out. Her feeds were increased and her fluids were decreased. And she was scheduled for a rehab consult the coming Tuesday. Emerson was also being given breathing treatments because she had a partial collapsed lung, which will heal in time. Here is our baby girl the first time we got to hold her since the accident.......

Showing off her g-tube ^ brown tube...

By July 9th Emerson was well enough to go to the floor and begin thearpy. Emerson started thearpy at bedside because she was still in the evaluation stage. During our stay at the 6th floor Emerson had pulled out her IV in her neck and her feeding tube from her nose three times so by that point Emerson got a g-tube on July 15th.

Our stay on the 6th floor didn't last long because on July 18th at 9:00pm my daughter spiked a 105.8 fever and was struggling to breath. Doctors told us "This might be it, you may wanna call your family." And so we did. They rushed Emerson back to PICU and got her stable.

July 19th The doctors came in and suggested since she was struggling and spending all her time, energy, and calories on breathing it would be a good idea for her to have a trach (an opening in the neck leading directly to the trachea) because it would more easily and safely deliver oxygen to her lungs without working so hard. After much deliberation we decided that yes it would be best for her to have a trach so Emerson got her trach on July 23rd. Emerson spent that weekend in PICU and did sooo much better with her breathing so Wednesday July 28th she got moved back to the regular 6th floor back in her old room 612! And she began her thearpy consult. Her thearpy consult went better then the first time so we began full thearpy 3 hours a day for a week.

Daddy & Emmy before trach surgury!

Mommy & Emmy before trach surgury!