Chapter 5
When Angelize was first born, she suffered from what is called a Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia. That is a birth defect that occurs when the diaphragm doesn't fully form which allows organs to enter the chest and prevents the lungs from proper growth. Daisy had gone through a normal pregnancy and was under the impression that she was delivering a perfectly healthy baby girl. Once Angelize was delivered, she cried as any normal baby would but within a matter of seconds the crying had stopped. Jaidin approached the nurses and the doctors to see why she had stopped crying, but what she saw was an image that would be embedded in her mind for life. There on the table was her newborn niece, her body was turning blue as doctors performed CPR on her. Once the doctors noticed that she was watching so closely, they rushed the baby out of the room. Daisy had no idea what was going on and started asking for her baby. Jaidin looked at her with tears in her eyes and told her that her daughter had stopped breathing. It was only a few minutes later when a doctor came in but to the ladies it seemed like it had been hours. Dr.Maguire had come to inform them of what was happening but provided no comfort to the obviously distraught women.
"The baby was born with a congenital diaphragmatic hernia. Basically one of her lungs didn't fully developed because her organs were applying too much pressure on it. She needs to have surgery immediately to have even a slight chance of making it out alive. I'm going to be completely honest with you though, this is a highly rare defect and there is a 99 percent chance that your daughter will not survive."
"Wait...let me get this straight. You're basically telling me that my niece isn't coming back down here alive. What caused the hernia? Was it something that could have happened during the pregnancy?" Jaidin became irate at the doctor's harsh negativity.
"No. The cause of congenital diaphragmatic hernia is still unknown. Right now, she is having an endotracheal tube placed into her mouth to help her breathing. I don't want you to be frightened when the nurse brings her back in because she will have several tubes in her to keep her breathing and her heart beating. You will be allowed ten minutes with her and if you'd like, the hospital provides a chaplain should you want to baptize her before she goes into surgery."
"How long is the surgery? When she makes it out of the surgery, what is the estimated recovery time?" Jaidin wasn't about to let someone tell her that her niece wasn't going to make it. She was born into a family of fighters and she knew that this baby was going to put up a good fight for her life.
"Well with the remote possibility that she does make it out alive, the recovery time can vary from a few weeks to several months in the Pediatrics' Intensive Care Unit."
The door opened and the nurse had wheeled in the baby. She was placed in an incubator and there were tubes and machines connected almost covering her tiny body. The chaplain came in behind them and approached Daisy.
"Ma'am I know this is an extremely difficult time for you and your family but have you decided if you want her baptized?" The time was limited and she wanted her daughter to be baptized. With that in mind, she had Jaidin sign as the godmother and Jennifer as the second godmother. The baptism was done and they were down to two minutes with her. Although all three were beyond hysterical, they put on a smile when they noticed that just for a quick moment Angelize had opened her eyes and stared at them. From that moment on Jaidin knew that her niece would be fine and surprise the doctor that said she wouldn't.
Several hours later, Dr. Maguire came down to the waiting room. He informed them that she had made it out of the surgery fine but her biggest battle had yet to begin. He had doubts that she'd make it through the night let alone the next 24 hours. Once again to prove him wrong, she made it though the night, then day, then the week. Before they knew it, she had survived the month. As the time progressed, so did she. Little by little they removed the tubes from her. Before long she was taken off the ventilator and was breathing on her own. She was released when she was almost two months old and Jaidin made it a point to let the doctor know what a bastard he was for being so negative instead of giving them some sort of hope. With releasing her true feelings, they brought the baby to her apartment that her mother paid for so that in case of an emergency she'd be close by. Before they had taken the baby from the hospital, they were given a warning that she may suffer from lasting health problems, as she got older such as asthma and scoliosis.
That was all she could think about until Mary Procter rushed into the room. She had come to tell her that Angelize has regained consciousness and that the doctor has a few questions for her. The nurse escorted her to Dr. Wong, the new pediatrics doctor. They both entered the room that is where Angelize was being treated in.
"Hey baby, you scared me. How you doin?" She smiled at her.
"Titi. I saw Dada when I was sleeping. I want to sleep more so I can see dada again." Angelize rolled on to her side and tried to go back to sleep. A short while later, she succeeded and fell asleep again. The doctor pulled her to the side for a few questions and a diagnosis. "Ms. Contreras, has your niece had medical problems in the past?"
"When Angelize was born, she suffered from a diaphragmatic hernia but I was told that it was taken care of."
"What hospital was she born in?
"She was born in Lenox Hill. Why? What do you think may have caused this attack? "It's too soon to tell but it may be that she might have a smaller hernia in her diaphragm which is causing her to have difficulty breathing. The reason that I asked where she was born is so that I can get her file. Gives me a more personal in-depth look into her condition. "
"So now what? She has to go into surgery again. I mean they said that a chance of reoccurrence was as rare as the defect itself.
"It is, if the first time was done properly. Now we'll schedule her for her second and hopefully last procedure. "If it has to be done then it'll be done. My next question to you is what caused her to be unconscious? I mean she was up talking to me one second and the next she out." "The unconsciousness could have been caused by the lack of oxygen that she was getting to the brain from her difficulty breathing. We can have the surgery scheduled for tomorrow afternoon if she is having a relapse. We'll know for sure once the test results come back but for now we're going to move her upstairs to pediatrics intensive care. Officer, we're going to do all that we can to make sure that she won't have to suffer through this anymore. The nurse will be right in to escort you upstairs. " "Thank you doctor." She sat next to Angelize and just stared at her sleeping. She became a little angry that now Angelize has to deal with the pain of surgery and recovery. It's all right before her fourth birthday. Once the nurse came in, they rolled her up to the fourth floor pediatrics intensive care ward. Angelize was still asleep and Jennifer had gone to her mother's to drop of Izayah so Jaidin decided to take a walk to the intensive care ward which was on the other side of that floor. The infinite possibility of her bumping into the Boscorelli's motivated her to make her way even faster. She knew that they would want to be there for her and Angelize even though they didn't know them that well.
She approached the nurse's station and asked for Rose's room number. As she approached the room she began to wonder what Rose was like. Was she going to be open to her newly discovered grandchild? Was she going to accept her into their family and accept her as Angelize's guardian? The question that plagued her the most was if Rose was going to blame her or Daisy for Angelize's relapse? Jaidin approached the door and inhaled, taking in a deep breath. The room wasn't only occupied by Mrs.Boscorelli but by a man that was on life support. She didn't mean to intrude on his family during their difficult time but she had to get to the other side of the room.
When she approached Rose's section, she was greeted by Maurice who was obviously pleasantly surprised by her showing up. "What are you doing here? I thought we weren't meeting till after 11. Ma this is Jaidin. She's the one that is raising Michael's daughter" "It's a pleasure to finally meet you Mrs.Boscorelli. How are you feeling?" She forced a smile to her face. "You too. But please call me Rose." The woman spoke in a low, weak tone. Noticing that the cheerful woman that he had met only a few hours ago wasn't as cheerful, Bosco got up from his seat on his mother's bed and asked her if something was wrong.
"I wish I could say no but I can't..." before she could explain what happened a nurse paged her over the intercom.
"Would Officer Contreras please report to the nurse's station in Pediatric Intensive Care Unit? Officer Contreras to the Pediatrics' ICU."
"I'll be back in a few." She rushes out of the room and Bosco follows behind her.
Walking next to her, he asks, "What's going on? Is it Angelize?"
"Yes, it is." They arrive at the nurse's station. "I was just paged. Is my niece alright?"
"Dr. Wong is waiting for you in the room." Jaidin and Bosco walk into the room.
Bosco couldn't help but stare at the little girl that laid in the bed. He couldn't believe that he was staring at a piece of his brother's life... a big piece. But it was a piece that he never had a clue about till it was too late. He couldn't help but notice just how much she looked like Mikey.
"I just received her test results and it shows that she has a smaller hernia that just began to form on her diaphragm. The good thing is that we have caught it in time."
"Does she still have to go through the surgery?" Bosco was completely lost but still paid close attention to everything that was coming out of the doctor's mouth.
"Yes. But had the diagnosis been prolonged, the results could have been fatal. We are going to schedule her surgery for first thing tomorrow morning."
"The first time this procedure was done, I was told that she wasn't going to survive it. How risky is it now?"
"This time it isn't as invasive and risky as the first time but there is a very small chance that something could go wrong as there is in any surgery. Since it is dealing with shifting some vital organs, there is a higher risk than there is in performing a less invasive procedure."
"Basically, you're telling me in a nice way that I run the risk again of losing my niece. If I hear that it's only a small chance of something going wrong, I'm going to lose my mind. I mean there was a small chance of her even making it in the beginning. Then there was a small chance of this ever reoccurring. There was also the small chance her having to be on a ventilator for the rest of her life or her having brain damage. Now I have to deal with hearing that there's a small chance of something going wrong. Damn it... you've gotta give me something better than that."
"Jaidin, calm down. Doctor, what are her chances of making it through this surgery?" Bosco tried to calm the very angry Jaidin down. He couldn't blame her considering the cliff notes version that he just received of what's been going on in his niece's life.
"Who are you?" The doctor inquired.
"I'm her uncle. Now could you please answer my question?"
"There's an 85 percent success rate. She's a very strong child medically speaking but like I said there's always the possibility of human error. I'll be back shortly to hand you the paperwork associated with the surgery." The doctor leaves the two of them in the room. Jaidin sits next to her sleeping niece and could help cry. Why does such bad things have to happen to such a good little girl? Bosco rests his hands on her shoulders and gently began to rub them hoping that he'd offer her some comfort. Tears in her eyes, she looks up at him,
"She's never done wrong to anyone or anything yet she always seems to be the one getting hurt. Why do you think that is Maurice?"
"I don't know. I guess its just the way life works."
"The sad part about that is that it's true. Since she was born, she's been hurt time and time again. Her mother left when she was three months, she lost her uncle when she was almost a year old, diagnosed with chronic asthma at a year and a half. Then I though things would look up once she had Michael in her life. It did for a year and a half, you know. Then what happens? Just when things look up and start to go in her favor, she loses her father. Now this."
"This is only going to make her stronger. She's a Boscorelli, which means she's tough. She'll be fine and before you know it she'll be running around and being a normal little girl."
Turning towards him, she had to crack a smile. She now knew that he was definitely related to Michael by his charm.
"I guess you're right. Thank you for being here because I think I would have killed that doctor with all the hurt and anger I have inside of me."
"You're welcome." They locked eyes and he pulls her in for a hug when they heard a little voice say,"Titi, who's that?"
Separating from the embrace, they look at Angelize and couldn't hide the urge to hug her.
"Hey beautiful. How you feeling baby?"
"Fine. But who's that?" She insisted on knowing who had their arms around her aunt.
"Baby, this is your Uncle Moe. That's the man in the picture with your dada that you have at home."
"Oh... hi Uncle Moe. How did you find me?"
"Jaidin told me. She called me on the phone and I came to see the most beautiful girl in the world."
The three just sat there and talked for a while. After the doctor came back with the paper work for her to sign, Jaidin decided to bring Angelize to see her grandmother. It was what she wanted eventhough Jaidin wasnt sure that this was the right time. Wheeling her down the hall and watching as Bosco walked besided Angelize proudly holding her hand, she had no doubt in her mind that the time was right.
This chapter is one that was very personal because my nephew suffered from a diaphragmatic hernia at birth. The beginning of the chapter was based on my nephew's fight for his life. A year and 2 months later he's running around like a normal healthy little boy should. Let this be an inspiration to you.. Never doubt the power ofa person's will to live because even the smallest ones with the least likely chance to make it, make it through and knock the people who said they'd never make it past day one on their ass... Zahy, TIti Loves YA!!!
When Angelize was first born, she suffered from what is called a Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia. That is a birth defect that occurs when the diaphragm doesn't fully form which allows organs to enter the chest and prevents the lungs from proper growth. Daisy had gone through a normal pregnancy and was under the impression that she was delivering a perfectly healthy baby girl. Once Angelize was delivered, she cried as any normal baby would but within a matter of seconds the crying had stopped. Jaidin approached the nurses and the doctors to see why she had stopped crying, but what she saw was an image that would be embedded in her mind for life. There on the table was her newborn niece, her body was turning blue as doctors performed CPR on her. Once the doctors noticed that she was watching so closely, they rushed the baby out of the room. Daisy had no idea what was going on and started asking for her baby. Jaidin looked at her with tears in her eyes and told her that her daughter had stopped breathing. It was only a few minutes later when a doctor came in but to the ladies it seemed like it had been hours. Dr.Maguire had come to inform them of what was happening but provided no comfort to the obviously distraught women.
"The baby was born with a congenital diaphragmatic hernia. Basically one of her lungs didn't fully developed because her organs were applying too much pressure on it. She needs to have surgery immediately to have even a slight chance of making it out alive. I'm going to be completely honest with you though, this is a highly rare defect and there is a 99 percent chance that your daughter will not survive."
"Wait...let me get this straight. You're basically telling me that my niece isn't coming back down here alive. What caused the hernia? Was it something that could have happened during the pregnancy?" Jaidin became irate at the doctor's harsh negativity.
"No. The cause of congenital diaphragmatic hernia is still unknown. Right now, she is having an endotracheal tube placed into her mouth to help her breathing. I don't want you to be frightened when the nurse brings her back in because she will have several tubes in her to keep her breathing and her heart beating. You will be allowed ten minutes with her and if you'd like, the hospital provides a chaplain should you want to baptize her before she goes into surgery."
"How long is the surgery? When she makes it out of the surgery, what is the estimated recovery time?" Jaidin wasn't about to let someone tell her that her niece wasn't going to make it. She was born into a family of fighters and she knew that this baby was going to put up a good fight for her life.
"Well with the remote possibility that she does make it out alive, the recovery time can vary from a few weeks to several months in the Pediatrics' Intensive Care Unit."
The door opened and the nurse had wheeled in the baby. She was placed in an incubator and there were tubes and machines connected almost covering her tiny body. The chaplain came in behind them and approached Daisy.
"Ma'am I know this is an extremely difficult time for you and your family but have you decided if you want her baptized?" The time was limited and she wanted her daughter to be baptized. With that in mind, she had Jaidin sign as the godmother and Jennifer as the second godmother. The baptism was done and they were down to two minutes with her. Although all three were beyond hysterical, they put on a smile when they noticed that just for a quick moment Angelize had opened her eyes and stared at them. From that moment on Jaidin knew that her niece would be fine and surprise the doctor that said she wouldn't.
Several hours later, Dr. Maguire came down to the waiting room. He informed them that she had made it out of the surgery fine but her biggest battle had yet to begin. He had doubts that she'd make it through the night let alone the next 24 hours. Once again to prove him wrong, she made it though the night, then day, then the week. Before they knew it, she had survived the month. As the time progressed, so did she. Little by little they removed the tubes from her. Before long she was taken off the ventilator and was breathing on her own. She was released when she was almost two months old and Jaidin made it a point to let the doctor know what a bastard he was for being so negative instead of giving them some sort of hope. With releasing her true feelings, they brought the baby to her apartment that her mother paid for so that in case of an emergency she'd be close by. Before they had taken the baby from the hospital, they were given a warning that she may suffer from lasting health problems, as she got older such as asthma and scoliosis.
That was all she could think about until Mary Procter rushed into the room. She had come to tell her that Angelize has regained consciousness and that the doctor has a few questions for her. The nurse escorted her to Dr. Wong, the new pediatrics doctor. They both entered the room that is where Angelize was being treated in.
"Hey baby, you scared me. How you doin?" She smiled at her.
"Titi. I saw Dada when I was sleeping. I want to sleep more so I can see dada again." Angelize rolled on to her side and tried to go back to sleep. A short while later, she succeeded and fell asleep again. The doctor pulled her to the side for a few questions and a diagnosis. "Ms. Contreras, has your niece had medical problems in the past?"
"When Angelize was born, she suffered from a diaphragmatic hernia but I was told that it was taken care of."
"What hospital was she born in?
"She was born in Lenox Hill. Why? What do you think may have caused this attack? "It's too soon to tell but it may be that she might have a smaller hernia in her diaphragm which is causing her to have difficulty breathing. The reason that I asked where she was born is so that I can get her file. Gives me a more personal in-depth look into her condition. "
"So now what? She has to go into surgery again. I mean they said that a chance of reoccurrence was as rare as the defect itself.
"It is, if the first time was done properly. Now we'll schedule her for her second and hopefully last procedure. "If it has to be done then it'll be done. My next question to you is what caused her to be unconscious? I mean she was up talking to me one second and the next she out." "The unconsciousness could have been caused by the lack of oxygen that she was getting to the brain from her difficulty breathing. We can have the surgery scheduled for tomorrow afternoon if she is having a relapse. We'll know for sure once the test results come back but for now we're going to move her upstairs to pediatrics intensive care. Officer, we're going to do all that we can to make sure that she won't have to suffer through this anymore. The nurse will be right in to escort you upstairs. " "Thank you doctor." She sat next to Angelize and just stared at her sleeping. She became a little angry that now Angelize has to deal with the pain of surgery and recovery. It's all right before her fourth birthday. Once the nurse came in, they rolled her up to the fourth floor pediatrics intensive care ward. Angelize was still asleep and Jennifer had gone to her mother's to drop of Izayah so Jaidin decided to take a walk to the intensive care ward which was on the other side of that floor. The infinite possibility of her bumping into the Boscorelli's motivated her to make her way even faster. She knew that they would want to be there for her and Angelize even though they didn't know them that well.
She approached the nurse's station and asked for Rose's room number. As she approached the room she began to wonder what Rose was like. Was she going to be open to her newly discovered grandchild? Was she going to accept her into their family and accept her as Angelize's guardian? The question that plagued her the most was if Rose was going to blame her or Daisy for Angelize's relapse? Jaidin approached the door and inhaled, taking in a deep breath. The room wasn't only occupied by Mrs.Boscorelli but by a man that was on life support. She didn't mean to intrude on his family during their difficult time but she had to get to the other side of the room.
When she approached Rose's section, she was greeted by Maurice who was obviously pleasantly surprised by her showing up. "What are you doing here? I thought we weren't meeting till after 11. Ma this is Jaidin. She's the one that is raising Michael's daughter" "It's a pleasure to finally meet you Mrs.Boscorelli. How are you feeling?" She forced a smile to her face. "You too. But please call me Rose." The woman spoke in a low, weak tone. Noticing that the cheerful woman that he had met only a few hours ago wasn't as cheerful, Bosco got up from his seat on his mother's bed and asked her if something was wrong.
"I wish I could say no but I can't..." before she could explain what happened a nurse paged her over the intercom.
"Would Officer Contreras please report to the nurse's station in Pediatric Intensive Care Unit? Officer Contreras to the Pediatrics' ICU."
"I'll be back in a few." She rushes out of the room and Bosco follows behind her.
Walking next to her, he asks, "What's going on? Is it Angelize?"
"Yes, it is." They arrive at the nurse's station. "I was just paged. Is my niece alright?"
"Dr. Wong is waiting for you in the room." Jaidin and Bosco walk into the room.
Bosco couldn't help but stare at the little girl that laid in the bed. He couldn't believe that he was staring at a piece of his brother's life... a big piece. But it was a piece that he never had a clue about till it was too late. He couldn't help but notice just how much she looked like Mikey.
"I just received her test results and it shows that she has a smaller hernia that just began to form on her diaphragm. The good thing is that we have caught it in time."
"Does she still have to go through the surgery?" Bosco was completely lost but still paid close attention to everything that was coming out of the doctor's mouth.
"Yes. But had the diagnosis been prolonged, the results could have been fatal. We are going to schedule her surgery for first thing tomorrow morning."
"The first time this procedure was done, I was told that she wasn't going to survive it. How risky is it now?"
"This time it isn't as invasive and risky as the first time but there is a very small chance that something could go wrong as there is in any surgery. Since it is dealing with shifting some vital organs, there is a higher risk than there is in performing a less invasive procedure."
"Basically, you're telling me in a nice way that I run the risk again of losing my niece. If I hear that it's only a small chance of something going wrong, I'm going to lose my mind. I mean there was a small chance of her even making it in the beginning. Then there was a small chance of this ever reoccurring. There was also the small chance her having to be on a ventilator for the rest of her life or her having brain damage. Now I have to deal with hearing that there's a small chance of something going wrong. Damn it... you've gotta give me something better than that."
"Jaidin, calm down. Doctor, what are her chances of making it through this surgery?" Bosco tried to calm the very angry Jaidin down. He couldn't blame her considering the cliff notes version that he just received of what's been going on in his niece's life.
"Who are you?" The doctor inquired.
"I'm her uncle. Now could you please answer my question?"
"There's an 85 percent success rate. She's a very strong child medically speaking but like I said there's always the possibility of human error. I'll be back shortly to hand you the paperwork associated with the surgery." The doctor leaves the two of them in the room. Jaidin sits next to her sleeping niece and could help cry. Why does such bad things have to happen to such a good little girl? Bosco rests his hands on her shoulders and gently began to rub them hoping that he'd offer her some comfort. Tears in her eyes, she looks up at him,
"She's never done wrong to anyone or anything yet she always seems to be the one getting hurt. Why do you think that is Maurice?"
"I don't know. I guess its just the way life works."
"The sad part about that is that it's true. Since she was born, she's been hurt time and time again. Her mother left when she was three months, she lost her uncle when she was almost a year old, diagnosed with chronic asthma at a year and a half. Then I though things would look up once she had Michael in her life. It did for a year and a half, you know. Then what happens? Just when things look up and start to go in her favor, she loses her father. Now this."
"This is only going to make her stronger. She's a Boscorelli, which means she's tough. She'll be fine and before you know it she'll be running around and being a normal little girl."
Turning towards him, she had to crack a smile. She now knew that he was definitely related to Michael by his charm.
"I guess you're right. Thank you for being here because I think I would have killed that doctor with all the hurt and anger I have inside of me."
"You're welcome." They locked eyes and he pulls her in for a hug when they heard a little voice say,"Titi, who's that?"
Separating from the embrace, they look at Angelize and couldn't hide the urge to hug her.
"Hey beautiful. How you feeling baby?"
"Fine. But who's that?" She insisted on knowing who had their arms around her aunt.
"Baby, this is your Uncle Moe. That's the man in the picture with your dada that you have at home."
"Oh... hi Uncle Moe. How did you find me?"
"Jaidin told me. She called me on the phone and I came to see the most beautiful girl in the world."
The three just sat there and talked for a while. After the doctor came back with the paper work for her to sign, Jaidin decided to bring Angelize to see her grandmother. It was what she wanted eventhough Jaidin wasnt sure that this was the right time. Wheeling her down the hall and watching as Bosco walked besided Angelize proudly holding her hand, she had no doubt in her mind that the time was right.
This chapter is one that was very personal because my nephew suffered from a diaphragmatic hernia at birth. The beginning of the chapter was based on my nephew's fight for his life. A year and 2 months later he's running around like a normal healthy little boy should. Let this be an inspiration to you.. Never doubt the power ofa person's will to live because even the smallest ones with the least likely chance to make it, make it through and knock the people who said they'd never make it past day one on their ass... Zahy, TIti Loves YA!!!