On Wednesday, October 2nd, Amanda noticed what appeared to be flu-like symptoms and felt very ill. These symptoms continued into Thursday and Friday. She took the day off work on Friday to rest and treat the symptoms. When she woke up from a nap at 8:00pm, she felt a gush of fluid as she stood up. She called the OB nurse line to explain the symptoms from the previous days as well as the fluid loss she had just experienced. They advised her to come to the OB Triage at Methodist Hospital so they could determine if the fluid was amniotic in nature. Upon arrival to OB Triage, they confirmed the fluid was amniotic. She had a high temperature and showed other signs of distress. They were able to locate baby Aubrey’s heartbeat and did a bed side ultrasound that showed a large amount of fluid still remained in the uterus.

This confused the doctor’s that were present. With the amount of fluid lost, the amount remaining in the uterus should have been much less. Amanda was admitted to the hospital for observation while the doctors determined how to proceed. There is no safe way to test the uterus for infection. The doctors decided to run other tests (including a flu swab) to rule out sources of infection elsewhere in the body. If the results of all testing came back negative, this would allow the doctors to conclude the infection source was the uterus.

Amanda and Spencer both wanted to fight for Aubrey's life at 19 weeks. They were not ready to deliver Aubrey and continued to wait for the test results. Unfortunately, blood tests showed the infection was continuing to spread inside her uterus. This alarmed medical staff and they recommended delivery of Aubrey before Amanda experienced further signs of sepsis. Amanda was given a medication to induce labor. The infection was progressing and she was getting very sick, very quickly. While resting, Amanda went into septic shock. Spencer notified the medical staff and Amanda was immediately surrounded. Once she was conscious and stabilized, they performed a D&E of Aubrey. After the procedure was completed, they were unable to stop Amanda’s bleeding.  Due to the severity of the sepsis and Amanda’s rapidly declining health, they performed an emergency hysterectomy. This was against Amanda’s wishes, but the only way to save her life.

Amanda remained sedated and was moved to the ICU to rest for the night. She woke up Sunday afternoon and was told what happened. She was distraught but was able to focus on her physical recovery over the length of her hospital stay. Spencer stayed by Amanda’s side every night of her stay. He was strong enough to be there for her physically and emotionally, while also dealing with arrangements for their daughter, Aubrey and the bereavement process on his own.

Amanda was approved for FMLA as well Short/Long Term Disability. While the STD pays at 100%, the LTD that she will receive during the whole month of November is only 50%. The doctor’s will not allow her to return to work until December 2, 2019. The doctor’s advised that Spencer be home to care for Amanda until November 15th, 2019. He needed to be home to help Amanda with everyday tasks that she could not complete herself and to take care of their other child. Unfortunately, Spencer had to return to work on November 4. Spencer was not approved for FMLA, and did not qualify for Short/Long Term Disability due to the fact that he and Amanda are not married. During his time away, he was only approved for an unpaid leave of absence from work.

We would like to help Amanda and Spencer and are asking for your help to ease their financial burden. Along with the medical bills and the temporary loss of income, they were in the middle of remodeling their home due to damage from a leaking roof. We want Amanda to be able to focus on her own physical healing as well as Amanda and her family to work through the emotional battle they have been facing every day since the death of their daughter/sister Aubrey.