A good friend of mine from church needs your prayers! Big time. I am going to copy and paste her story from CaringBridge.com below:
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After three trips to the hospital and at least two attempts to start labor, the baby is here! Good news... The heart, lungs, kidneys and brain all appear to be functioning normally.
The not so good. Jennifer had placental abruption (placenta tore loose from the uterus) and hemorrhaged. This necessitated a caesarean section. She lost quite a bit of blood but, when we left the hospital an hour or so ago they did not believe that she would require transfusion. She will be fine, physically at least.
The baby has a number of issues. I believe I have told you that a bone is missing (the radial bone) from the right arm. There are two missing fingers on the right hand. The left hand is hyper extended and laying flush against the arm.
The parts that no one knew (well the Drs at least suspected but chose not to share) are the following:
1) The throat is closed and does not connect with the esophagus. So there is no connection to the stomach. Apparently the throat is not just closed but it is too 'short' and will required time and surgery to be 'stretched' to reach the esophagus. This will require a tube to be surgically implanted into the stomach for feeding to occur.
2) The anus is closed. It appears that the rectal canal exists so this may just be a matter of opening the anus. Of course, the part that is still unknown is whether the rectal canal is connected to anything...
3) There is no vaginal opening. In fact, they are going to be testing chromosomes to determine the sex of the baby. This too will require surgery to correct.
As it stands now, the baby will be undergoing surgery tomorrow to implant the feeding tube and create a colostomy. This will allow: time for the baby to stabilize, time to run additional tests and time to gain the strength to undergo the future surgeries.
The condition is called by an acronym: VATER (Vertebral, Anus, Trachea, Esophagus, Radial and Renal). If you want to know more this web site gives an overview:
http://www.tefvater.org/vater.html
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Please pray for my friends: Jennifer, her husband Jeremy & Baby Rebecca! Our God is a mighty God & I know His hand is present in this. You can read daily updates from Jennifer's parents HERE.
16 comments:
I for one will place them at the top of my list. My heart goes out to the entire family.
*sigh* praying hard for this family, Shauna.
A good friend of my husband's parents have a daughter with the same condition. Happy to say that she is now a thriving unstopable 3 year old. The first few months were scary and mutilple heart surgeries and issues with connecting the bowel and the vaginal opening. Let me know if your friend needs someone to talk to...I am sure that our friend would be a great source of information. Praying all goes well...
Hey Shauna,
I put a link to this post on my blog to inform my readers of this huge and urgent prayer need. I also sent out an email to everyone on my list. My heart goes out to your friends and their baby! I just can't imagine...
We'll be interceding on their behalf. Please keep us updated...I couldn't access Jennifer and Jeremy's updates for some reason.
Praying fervently,
Mindy
oh man.... I'll be praying!!
My heart is aching for Baby Rebecca and family...they will be in my thoughts and prayers!
Oh my! That is so sad. I will definitely be praying for them. Do you mind if I make a post about it and link it to your page?
Sending LOTS and LOTS of prayers! Keep us posted on the baby amd Momma.
I'm praying right this second. Oh, my mama's heart... HURTS.
My heart hurts too! I KNOW God is bigger than this - but it's hard to believe sometimes.
PRAYING!
So sad for this family, but believe with all my heart that God is in control of ALL things. Praying that peace and healing comes to this family and that God will give you and the rest of the church strength to support them as they walk this road.
I 'know' some babies (through online groups) with this condition. Little sweetie has a tough road ahead....
I am praying too. I will try and put the link on my blog too, if I can figure out how to do that.
This family is very much in my prayers. Shauna, can you work on their link? I wasn't able to access it.
how heartbreaking. :( let me know if you get the link fixed. God Bless that family and their sweet baby!
I am going to put a link on my blog as well for this prayer request and also forward to Fellowship Church prayer ministry.
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