Update on Kylie Grace Chapman

First of all, I want to express my extreme and heartfelt gratitude for the hundreds of emails, phone calls, and letters of support and encouragement. You never realize how great people are until something rallies them behind a cause. It was absolutely wonderful and we couldn’t have made it through this without it.

For those who don’t know what I am talking about, I am now the father to what is probably the most beautiful baby girl ever born. (Definitely not biased) Our daughter Kylie Grace Chapman was born on March 22nd, and as quick as she was put in our lives, she was temporarily taken away from us. Born with Meconium Aspiration, she was taken on a helicopter ride to Kansas City to the wonderful Mercy Children’s Hospital hours after birth. If you’re wondering what Meconium Aspiration is, I’ll try to explain as good as I know it. (You can also read a little more about it here: http://kidshealth.org/parent/medical/lungs/meconium.html)

The way it was explained to me, before Kylie was born she was very distressed inside the womb. When babies get this way, a reaction is to have a bowel movement. Well, these early bowel movements are like a poison to these babies, and with it all around them they breathe it in. In most cases doctors are able to suck this out of their wind pipe before they take their first breath. This was not the case for our little girl. She had breathed it in deep into her lungs. According to one of the nurses her x-ray was the worst they had ever seen. This Meconium filled her lungs and was killing the inside of them making hard for to put oxygen into the blood stream, in turn causing her heart to work so hard she was in danger of it giving out. With fast acting doctors, they made a decision to get her to a hospital that had more technology and specialized care. So they loaded her up and flew to KC with me and Jeremy following behind. They immediately had her hooked up to a High-frequency oscillator, and were providing her with Nitric oxide to help her maintain a healthy oxygen level. We were told that best case scenario she would be off the ventilators in 4 days, but for us to expect 3 to 4 weeks. Our Kylie surprised them all day after day doing what I could only call the impossible. Every time we would come to her bedside we were greeted to another positive report of her progress. Needless to say, 4 days later she was off those ventilators and on her way to learning how to breathe and eat on her own. We still had to stay another 7 days to complete her rehabilitation. Every day I was there, I continued to recognize how amazing our little girl was. With all the help from all the caregivers at the hospital and the continued support from friends sending cards and visiting we were able to leave the hospital with our little girl to be a family.

We are now home, learning how to sleep on Kylie’s schedule. This has been an incredible journey. One I hope no family will ever have to go through. We love our little girl, and can’t wait to learn all the marvelous things she’s gonna teach us. She has wrapped all her grandparents, as well as her uncles around her tiny little fingers. This is one incredible little girl.

by: John