Pathway to Recovery for Olivine
Donation protected
Around 4 pm on June 11th our baby Olive (20 months old), broke past the pool gate for an unsupervised swim, unnoticed. She was always so brave and a water baby at heart.
Everything is so fresh in my mind. I can't forget, even if I try. It haunts me every quiet moment. It wakes me up throughout the night.
It was a normal late afternoon. This Texas heat is so hot and it gets a little cooler about 4. I had just sent her and her older sister outside to water the plants. It was their usual chore that they enjoyed doing together. I was preparing for dinner in the kitchen, peeling some beets and sweet potatoes to roast in the oven. They were Olive's favorite. She likes them crunchy with just some salt, pepper, and garlic powder. I kept looking over at my sweethearts through the window. They were fine. Maybe wasting some water but they were smiling so it was worth it. Scarlett was giving Olive's stuffy raccoon a shower with the hose. It just took a moment. Maybe it happened when I turned away to wash my hands and put the peels in the compost container. I didn't notice she went to the pool gate. I still heard the water running and didn't look outside. I thought everything was fine.
I didn't know the pool gate latch was faulty. It looked closed from the visual inspection I did from the living room before I sent them out. I know how dangerous pools are and have always checked it. I just got used to it always being secure when I went out there. I felt like I was being maybe a little paranoid always doing that. What were the chances that this time when I didn't check it, it was not 100% secure?
As I was putting the compost peels in the container, my husband came out of the office. He has been working from home with the Covid outbreak. He came to see how dinner was coming along in the kitchen. We talked for a moment, maybe it was a few minutes, I don't know. I told him to make a chimichurri sauce for the veggies. I am so thankful he didn't. Instead, he went to inspect the water wasting outside, aka plant watering. I went back to peeling the last of the beets and then I heard a scream from the pool area. My heart stopped.
He found her fully submerged in the deep end. I am so thankful that he went looking for her. He ran with her body into the kitchen. All the veggies for dinner got violently tossed aside. He knew infant CPR. He started chest compressions and breathing. Foam was coming out of her nose and mouth. Her eyes were rolled up. I called 911 and got the EpiPen. The injections were not enough to start her heart. The paramedics arrived. They gave her more. They rushed her out the door into the ambulance. Her heart started beating faintly halfway to the hospital, but she still was not breathing.
These first days have been very sleepless for our family. My husband has not left Olive's side at the hospital. She barely made it through the first night. The room was so cold to induce hypothermia for helping her brain inflammation. Dozens of IVs were in every available vein in her body, pumping her full of pharmaceuticals to stabilize her.
The MRI shows that she has significant brain damage to her Basal Ganglia, the coordinator of the brain which relays signals from the other areas. Her hippocampus and higher level thinking were undamaged.
That means she is trapped in there! She is without the ability to focus her eyes, move her body purposely, or express herself. I see her suffering in small silent tears dripping from her eyes as they roll back into her head. I can't let my baby live like that! Please help me break her free by healing her brain.
Olive is going to get treated by Dr. Fabian, the CMO of CBCells.MX! She will receive WJ-MSCs Intrathecally, Intravenously, Intramuscularly, and Nebulized! She has HOPE to walk again!
I wish so bad I could go back in time and beat on that gate to make sure it was shut or skip making dinner and just be with my precious little ones. Please check your pool gates. We didn't have the camera for the pool charged otherwise we would have gotten the motion detection. We were going to hook up electrical to it but just didn't yet. I am beating myself up over all the things I could have done! Why didn't my mommy instincts let me know that something was wrong? I took safety for granted and I feel like I have lost my baby forever. Keep your babies safe around water!
I would do anything to have the life we had back with the boring routines. I wouldn't get annoyed at changing 10 poopy diapers a day or listening to the whining from teething pains. I wouldn't rush those bedtime stories anymore. Every morning I wake up I wish it would be from her on the baby monitor, but that is all gone. I took all those annoying parenting moments for granted and now they are gone.
These are the hopes we have to restore our sweet baby Olive. Please help us. Share her story! Save a life!
How you can help:
1. Please share sweet Olive's story on next-door, facebook, your neighbors, etc. Join her support group. Spread awareness of how devastating a few minutes underwater can be. Everyone hears about these incidences and that "the baby survived and is recovering". Her story is the hard facts of what "recovery" is like that most people don't hear. You never know whose baby might get saved by sharing. If it convinces just one parent to start swim lessons or make an upgrade to their pool security, then you probably just saved a life and a family, and only God will know. Facebook Link Here for Sharing
2. Pray, please I beg you to pray for her. Please ask your pastors and prayer groups to pray. She needs a miracle. Please don't let her live like this locked in her damaged physical body. She is so young, sweet, and innocent. She needs healing energy so badly.
3. If you know of any therapies that could help her, any doctors that know how to heal from a hypoxic ischemic brain injury, please write me. Has anyone been through this? What they did do to help their precious little ones? What was their recovery like? I am so new to this and so traumatized. I am trying to learn what to do but there is so little I know. [email redacted]
4. The stem cell treatment by Dr. Fabian is not covered by insurance. Please help if you can afford to.
I am overwhelmed on how to keep her alive and take care of my newborn. She needs suctioning from her lungs every half hour otherwise she may drown in her secretions in the night. Can you imagine trying to sleep knowing that when you wake up your baby could be dead? The only way I feel like I can keep her alive is to hire a nurse, at least for nighttime. I can't find nursing care with the shortage. Please if you are a nurse, come care for sweet Olive on this journey!
#fightOlivefight
Everything is so fresh in my mind. I can't forget, even if I try. It haunts me every quiet moment. It wakes me up throughout the night.
It was a normal late afternoon. This Texas heat is so hot and it gets a little cooler about 4. I had just sent her and her older sister outside to water the plants. It was their usual chore that they enjoyed doing together. I was preparing for dinner in the kitchen, peeling some beets and sweet potatoes to roast in the oven. They were Olive's favorite. She likes them crunchy with just some salt, pepper, and garlic powder. I kept looking over at my sweethearts through the window. They were fine. Maybe wasting some water but they were smiling so it was worth it. Scarlett was giving Olive's stuffy raccoon a shower with the hose. It just took a moment. Maybe it happened when I turned away to wash my hands and put the peels in the compost container. I didn't notice she went to the pool gate. I still heard the water running and didn't look outside. I thought everything was fine.
I didn't know the pool gate latch was faulty. It looked closed from the visual inspection I did from the living room before I sent them out. I know how dangerous pools are and have always checked it. I just got used to it always being secure when I went out there. I felt like I was being maybe a little paranoid always doing that. What were the chances that this time when I didn't check it, it was not 100% secure?
As I was putting the compost peels in the container, my husband came out of the office. He has been working from home with the Covid outbreak. He came to see how dinner was coming along in the kitchen. We talked for a moment, maybe it was a few minutes, I don't know. I told him to make a chimichurri sauce for the veggies. I am so thankful he didn't. Instead, he went to inspect the water wasting outside, aka plant watering. I went back to peeling the last of the beets and then I heard a scream from the pool area. My heart stopped.
He found her fully submerged in the deep end. I am so thankful that he went looking for her. He ran with her body into the kitchen. All the veggies for dinner got violently tossed aside. He knew infant CPR. He started chest compressions and breathing. Foam was coming out of her nose and mouth. Her eyes were rolled up. I called 911 and got the EpiPen. The injections were not enough to start her heart. The paramedics arrived. They gave her more. They rushed her out the door into the ambulance. Her heart started beating faintly halfway to the hospital, but she still was not breathing.
These first days have been very sleepless for our family. My husband has not left Olive's side at the hospital. She barely made it through the first night. The room was so cold to induce hypothermia for helping her brain inflammation. Dozens of IVs were in every available vein in her body, pumping her full of pharmaceuticals to stabilize her.
The MRI shows that she has significant brain damage to her Basal Ganglia, the coordinator of the brain which relays signals from the other areas. Her hippocampus and higher level thinking were undamaged.
That means she is trapped in there! She is without the ability to focus her eyes, move her body purposely, or express herself. I see her suffering in small silent tears dripping from her eyes as they roll back into her head. I can't let my baby live like that! Please help me break her free by healing her brain.
Olive is going to get treated by Dr. Fabian, the CMO of CBCells.MX! She will receive WJ-MSCs Intrathecally, Intravenously, Intramuscularly, and Nebulized! She has HOPE to walk again!
I wish so bad I could go back in time and beat on that gate to make sure it was shut or skip making dinner and just be with my precious little ones. Please check your pool gates. We didn't have the camera for the pool charged otherwise we would have gotten the motion detection. We were going to hook up electrical to it but just didn't yet. I am beating myself up over all the things I could have done! Why didn't my mommy instincts let me know that something was wrong? I took safety for granted and I feel like I have lost my baby forever. Keep your babies safe around water!
I would do anything to have the life we had back with the boring routines. I wouldn't get annoyed at changing 10 poopy diapers a day or listening to the whining from teething pains. I wouldn't rush those bedtime stories anymore. Every morning I wake up I wish it would be from her on the baby monitor, but that is all gone. I took all those annoying parenting moments for granted and now they are gone.
These are the hopes we have to restore our sweet baby Olive. Please help us. Share her story! Save a life!
How you can help:
1. Please share sweet Olive's story on next-door, facebook, your neighbors, etc. Join her support group. Spread awareness of how devastating a few minutes underwater can be. Everyone hears about these incidences and that "the baby survived and is recovering". Her story is the hard facts of what "recovery" is like that most people don't hear. You never know whose baby might get saved by sharing. If it convinces just one parent to start swim lessons or make an upgrade to their pool security, then you probably just saved a life and a family, and only God will know. Facebook Link Here for Sharing
2. Pray, please I beg you to pray for her. Please ask your pastors and prayer groups to pray. She needs a miracle. Please don't let her live like this locked in her damaged physical body. She is so young, sweet, and innocent. She needs healing energy so badly.
3. If you know of any therapies that could help her, any doctors that know how to heal from a hypoxic ischemic brain injury, please write me. Has anyone been through this? What they did do to help their precious little ones? What was their recovery like? I am so new to this and so traumatized. I am trying to learn what to do but there is so little I know. [email redacted]
4. The stem cell treatment by Dr. Fabian is not covered by insurance. Please help if you can afford to.
I am overwhelmed on how to keep her alive and take care of my newborn. She needs suctioning from her lungs every half hour otherwise she may drown in her secretions in the night. Can you imagine trying to sleep knowing that when you wake up your baby could be dead? The only way I feel like I can keep her alive is to hire a nurse, at least for nighttime. I can't find nursing care with the shortage. Please if you are a nurse, come care for sweet Olive on this journey!
#fightOlivefight
Fundraising team (4)
Tamara Lahey
Organizer
Spring, TX
Mike Lahey
Team member
Karen Lahey
Team member
Bonnie Mazock
Team member
