Thank you God for Shin Splints- Part 3

The helicopter arrived in Lufkin to take my baby to Shreveport. I could not go since I had a c-section. Glenn wanted to go ahead so he could be there when they arrived. The dr. told him to just wait until the helicopter was in route. Then he said to a close friend that was there with us, that he was not sure he would make it to Shreveport so he wanted Glenn to wait a little bit. That is when we knew things were in a bad way.



It took them a while to prep him and stabilize him for the helicopter ride. No one could ride with him except for the nurses. To let you know how sick he was, he was on 100% oxygen and only saturating 65%. In contrast, room air is 21% oxygen and we normally saturate 98-100%. He was in a very critical state.



There are not words to describe the sound or the feeling when the helicopter took off. I had told Glenn to go with Chase all the way to the helicopter and I wanted our families to go with him. We had about 50 or so people at the hospital with us at this time. Actually, they had been there since the word got out very early that morning that things were not good. Anyway they all lined the hallways as Chase was carried out to the landing pad. I had not realized that in sending everyone to be with Glenn and Chase, that had left me by myself.



As I sat in my room I was numb. I really thought this was happening to someone else. My phone rang and it was my childhood pastor from Tyler. We had all remained very close. I picked up the phone and heard him say, "Karen, this is Bro. James and I want to pray with you right now." He had NO idea what was going on at that time, in my room of silence, but the Holy Spirit directed him to call and pray with me. After he prayed I heard the loudest most horrible noise I have ever heard....the propellers of the helicopter starting up. The noise was so intense that I felt the vibrations. I just laid the phone down. As I heard the engines get louder and louder I soon heard the whirling of the helicopter taking off. That helicopter was taking my baby. My first born. I very likely would never see him again, alive. As the helicopter flew away, I could still hear it even when it was miles away. I just sat there...numb and alone for a long while. Everyone else was still downstairs. Glenn was gone. About 10-15 minutes had gone by and my sister came back into my room. I couldn't talk. She saw the phone was off the hook and she asked me if someone was on the phone. I jerked back into reality and told her yes, Bro. James was. She picked up the phone and he was still there. Still praying. Wow.



After Chase arrived at Schumpert in Shreveport and the doctor assessed him, she called me. She was very honest. Very kind, yet very honest. She told me she did not know if he was going to live or not. She just didn't know. She said he was as sick as he could be and still be here. She said that children do not get any sicker than he is. They were going to do everything they could, but there was not much that could be done for him. He had Persistant Fetal Circulation (PFC). This is a condition to where the valve doesn't close at birth to change over from breathing fluid to breathing air. There was no way to close this valve. It would just take time....if he had any time. He was on an osculating ventilator that breathed 600 breathes a minute. He was medically paralyzed. They wanted him to not be stimulated in any way and for his body to not put for any effort. There are only 8 of this particular ventilators in this region and it was amazing that 3 were being used right there in NICU Shumpert. There were 21 week twins that were on them as well. Things were bleek. (to be continued)