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I want to share a story of a courageous and selfless act of love and faith of a young family in a small town in Iowa.
I have a son that was born with a heart defect called pulmonary atresia. - Pulmonary atresia (uh-TREE-zhuh) is a heart defect present at birth (congenital) that's normally diagnosed within the first few hours or days of life. In pulmonary atresia, the valve that lets blood out of the heart to go to your baby's lungs (pulmonary valve) doesn't form correctly. Instead of opening and closing to allow blood to travel from your heart to your lungs, a solid sheet of tissue forms. Blood from the right side of your baby's heart can't go back to the lungs to pick up oxygen.
- My son, Caleb, underwent two heart surgeries under the age of three. Not what anyone would wish on such a young child, but obviously necessary for him to survive. After his second surgery Caleb saw his pediatric cardiologist every other year. Every time we went knowing that at some point he would have to undergo another surgery and have his pulmonary valve replaced. Every year, including this year, we were told he was continuing to look great!! This positive news has been very encouraging all these years.
Caleb is now 27 years old, married, has a 1 year old and a 1 month old. Caleb and his childhood sweetheart, Jessica were married in 2010 and have seemed to live on a roller coaster. Through it all Jessica has been strong and kept her passion alive for helping others. She put herself through nursing school and is now furthering her career to become a nurse practitioner. Caleb has been a faithful and encouraging husband through everything.
Jessica and Caleb have sure had their trials of faith in their five years of marriage escalating to an all time high when their first son, Nolan, was born two months early weighing only 3 pounds. Jessica was diagnosed with pre-eclampsia which ended with a dramatic c-section. Their son was doing shockingly well for everything he had gone through, but Jessica developed high blood pressure again with blood clots in her lungs. She was sent to the ICU and mommy mode was on hold. Caleb was right there by her side every step of the way. Time stood still for the next month as mommy and baby worked through health issues. Step forward about one year and another son was added to their family this October. This time was better, a full term pregnancy and a healthy baby. Praise the Lord! However, one week after being home their newborn; the enterovirus hit their house with a fury. Caleb came down with it first and two days later their brand new baby, Cohen, developed it; which quickly turned into viral meningitis. The two parents rushed him to Children’s Hospital in Omaha where he was diagnosed with the illness. Little Cohen was in the hospital for five days before he was released. His little temp spiked over 103 for several days. During that time Jessica also contracted meningitis suffering the fever, painful neck pain, chills, etc. I am a witness in saying during this whole time she never once lost focus to where she needed to be… A mom and a wife but using her nursing knowledge to keep everyone on their feet! Caleb was by her side every step of the way. I’m happy to tell you that little baby brother, Cohen, is healthy and growing like a weed.
Jump forward three weeks; which was early Tuesday morning, November 10th around 1 a.m. Jessica and Caleb had their normal routine of parental responsibilities. Something very unusual happened, Nolan woke up in the middle of the night. Caleb and Jessica both got up since this was such a rarity. As Nolan started to settle back down, Caleb - who had to be up early for work- asked if he could go back to bed. Jessica enjoyed some extra snuggles as Nolan fell back asleep and then went to join Caleb about ten minutes later for a hopefully peaceful rest of the night sleep. Jessica went into the room, drowsily got into bed, and moments later noticed that Caleb was moaning and gurgling and shaking. His body began to shake, his color was pail and he was gasping for air. Jessica could have easily gone into panic mode, but because of her nursing skills, she miraculously went into nurse mode. She told me she doesn’t quite remember how it all happened so quick. She was calling 911 while putting her clothes on; unlocking the front door while calling me on another phone; and then went into action on Caleb. There was no pulse so she started CPR immediately. Five minutes later the ambulance and crew arrived along with the local city police, my husband and I. I can’t even describe the horror of seeing your young, full of life, healthy child being shocked into life on his bedroom floor. This is just my opinion, but my daughter-in-law was in charge that morning. Her drive for saving lives and putting her love for her health career paid off in the biggest trial of her life. Caleb was transferred to a local hospital and then life-flighted to the Med Center in Omaha. Jessica was right in the mix of it understanding the medical lingo and asking questions. My husband and I could do the only one thing….PRAY!!! Caleb is currently still in the ICU in the hospital fighting for his life. Surgery is pending on his heart until all test results are in. We are anticipating a positive ending to this story, even though most with a situation similar to hat Caleb endured, do not. Sudden Death Syndrome is a side effect for people with pulmonary atresia. This is as horrific as it sounds and only 4% who suffer from it survive. Many who survive are not able to function on their own. Caleb is doing great and constantly improving! He is definitely a miracle!
My praise in this story is our faith that God is strong. My praise is that God allowed certain things to happen so that Jessica could be at the right place at the right time. My praise to this story is that I have an angel in my family that has the biggest compassion to save lives and help people. Little did she know that the very one that has the biggest impact in her life would be at her mercy. Her courageous and selfless act of heartfelt medical knowledge went in to overload the night her husband needed her the most! I cannot thank her enough! Their story doesn’t end here. She faithfully tends to his bedside while nursing their newborn 24/7. When he is sleeping she is on her computer and studying every medical term that has been thrown at her this past week. I am not one to ask for help. We are a strong family who takes care of their own, but I feel prompted to get their story out and ask if anyone would like to help this family out financially, they are sure would appreciate it. Between their last two years of hospital bills with children and herself and now with her husbands pending monstrosity of bills, its going to be very difficult to keep up. If you can't help financially, Jessica has asked to spread awareness and share importance of taking a CPR course. You never know when you may have to use the skill of saving a life, whether it's a stranger or child or spouse.
Thank you for reading my story. Regardless of the spreading of our story, our mission will be to push for CPR education. We also want to share our faith and hope that God will never give you more than you can handle. For Jessica and Caleb looking back on the chain of events…everything was put in to order at the right time for her to be at the moment she needed to be .
I have a son that was born with a heart defect called pulmonary atresia. - Pulmonary atresia (uh-TREE-zhuh) is a heart defect present at birth (congenital) that's normally diagnosed within the first few hours or days of life. In pulmonary atresia, the valve that lets blood out of the heart to go to your baby's lungs (pulmonary valve) doesn't form correctly. Instead of opening and closing to allow blood to travel from your heart to your lungs, a solid sheet of tissue forms. Blood from the right side of your baby's heart can't go back to the lungs to pick up oxygen.
- My son, Caleb, underwent two heart surgeries under the age of three. Not what anyone would wish on such a young child, but obviously necessary for him to survive. After his second surgery Caleb saw his pediatric cardiologist every other year. Every time we went knowing that at some point he would have to undergo another surgery and have his pulmonary valve replaced. Every year, including this year, we were told he was continuing to look great!! This positive news has been very encouraging all these years.
Caleb is now 27 years old, married, has a 1 year old and a 1 month old. Caleb and his childhood sweetheart, Jessica were married in 2010 and have seemed to live on a roller coaster. Through it all Jessica has been strong and kept her passion alive for helping others. She put herself through nursing school and is now furthering her career to become a nurse practitioner. Caleb has been a faithful and encouraging husband through everything.
Jessica and Caleb have sure had their trials of faith in their five years of marriage escalating to an all time high when their first son, Nolan, was born two months early weighing only 3 pounds. Jessica was diagnosed with pre-eclampsia which ended with a dramatic c-section. Their son was doing shockingly well for everything he had gone through, but Jessica developed high blood pressure again with blood clots in her lungs. She was sent to the ICU and mommy mode was on hold. Caleb was right there by her side every step of the way. Time stood still for the next month as mommy and baby worked through health issues. Step forward about one year and another son was added to their family this October. This time was better, a full term pregnancy and a healthy baby. Praise the Lord! However, one week after being home their newborn; the enterovirus hit their house with a fury. Caleb came down with it first and two days later their brand new baby, Cohen, developed it; which quickly turned into viral meningitis. The two parents rushed him to Children’s Hospital in Omaha where he was diagnosed with the illness. Little Cohen was in the hospital for five days before he was released. His little temp spiked over 103 for several days. During that time Jessica also contracted meningitis suffering the fever, painful neck pain, chills, etc. I am a witness in saying during this whole time she never once lost focus to where she needed to be… A mom and a wife but using her nursing knowledge to keep everyone on their feet! Caleb was by her side every step of the way. I’m happy to tell you that little baby brother, Cohen, is healthy and growing like a weed.
Jump forward three weeks; which was early Tuesday morning, November 10th around 1 a.m. Jessica and Caleb had their normal routine of parental responsibilities. Something very unusual happened, Nolan woke up in the middle of the night. Caleb and Jessica both got up since this was such a rarity. As Nolan started to settle back down, Caleb - who had to be up early for work- asked if he could go back to bed. Jessica enjoyed some extra snuggles as Nolan fell back asleep and then went to join Caleb about ten minutes later for a hopefully peaceful rest of the night sleep. Jessica went into the room, drowsily got into bed, and moments later noticed that Caleb was moaning and gurgling and shaking. His body began to shake, his color was pail and he was gasping for air. Jessica could have easily gone into panic mode, but because of her nursing skills, she miraculously went into nurse mode. She told me she doesn’t quite remember how it all happened so quick. She was calling 911 while putting her clothes on; unlocking the front door while calling me on another phone; and then went into action on Caleb. There was no pulse so she started CPR immediately. Five minutes later the ambulance and crew arrived along with the local city police, my husband and I. I can’t even describe the horror of seeing your young, full of life, healthy child being shocked into life on his bedroom floor. This is just my opinion, but my daughter-in-law was in charge that morning. Her drive for saving lives and putting her love for her health career paid off in the biggest trial of her life. Caleb was transferred to a local hospital and then life-flighted to the Med Center in Omaha. Jessica was right in the mix of it understanding the medical lingo and asking questions. My husband and I could do the only one thing….PRAY!!! Caleb is currently still in the ICU in the hospital fighting for his life. Surgery is pending on his heart until all test results are in. We are anticipating a positive ending to this story, even though most with a situation similar to hat Caleb endured, do not. Sudden Death Syndrome is a side effect for people with pulmonary atresia. This is as horrific as it sounds and only 4% who suffer from it survive. Many who survive are not able to function on their own. Caleb is doing great and constantly improving! He is definitely a miracle!
My praise in this story is our faith that God is strong. My praise is that God allowed certain things to happen so that Jessica could be at the right place at the right time. My praise to this story is that I have an angel in my family that has the biggest compassion to save lives and help people. Little did she know that the very one that has the biggest impact in her life would be at her mercy. Her courageous and selfless act of heartfelt medical knowledge went in to overload the night her husband needed her the most! I cannot thank her enough! Their story doesn’t end here. She faithfully tends to his bedside while nursing their newborn 24/7. When he is sleeping she is on her computer and studying every medical term that has been thrown at her this past week. I am not one to ask for help. We are a strong family who takes care of their own, but I feel prompted to get their story out and ask if anyone would like to help this family out financially, they are sure would appreciate it. Between their last two years of hospital bills with children and herself and now with her husbands pending monstrosity of bills, its going to be very difficult to keep up. If you can't help financially, Jessica has asked to spread awareness and share importance of taking a CPR course. You never know when you may have to use the skill of saving a life, whether it's a stranger or child or spouse.
Thank you for reading my story. Regardless of the spreading of our story, our mission will be to push for CPR education. We also want to share our faith and hope that God will never give you more than you can handle. For Jessica and Caleb looking back on the chain of events…everything was put in to order at the right time for her to be at the moment she needed to be .
Organizer and beneficiary
Rena Johnson
Beneficiary