Please Pray

This is a Caring Bridge journal entry from a friend from high school. He and his wife had a baby girl and this is the story:


Alyssa Evelyn Gunter was born on Sunday, January 18, 2009, (her due date) at Methodist Hospital in St. Louis Park. She arrived at 2:07 AM weighing in at 7 lbs. 4 oz.
Alyssa's delivery seemed to go really well. However, once she arrived it became clear that her umbilical cord was wrapped around her neck, likely cutting off the supply of oxygen to her brain for some amount of time. She was immediately taken by a team of nurses to check her vital signs. She was not breathing on her own and so they were breathing for her. It was all a bit of a whirlwind. Eventually they said that her color was coming back well and that her pulse was strong. Everyone in the room seemed to think that she would be just fine as I kept asking why she wasn't crying. Sometimes babies are just a little stunned from the whole process and need a little extra help. So, it was quite a surprise when they took her out of the room for further examination before I ever had a chance to see her. Thankfully Mark was able to stay by her side throughout the next couple of critical hours.
A little later he came into the room to let me know that the decision had been made to move her to Children's Hospital. A team came from Children's to take her in their mobile ICU. Once she was ready to go, they wheeled her into the room and I was able to see our little sweetheart for the first time. She is so beautiful! She looks a lot like Matthew did when he was first born, only the little hair that she does have is a little darker.
Then, they were all on their way to Children's. Alyssa was put on a cooling blanket to keep her body temperature down. The reason for this is following an incident with the brain there is often future damage done after the person is resuscitated. The hope with cooling is that it will prevent any further damage from being done. Alyssa was placed on the cooling within 3 hours of her delivery which is well within the 6 hour window they like to see.
I was released from the hospital on Sunday afternoon about 12 hours after giving birth so that I could go see her at Children's. It kind of feels like an out-of-body experience as you walk in to the NICU to see your little girl covered with tubes and surrounded by machines. She is definitely one of the bigger babies around as many are premies.
Alyssa's doctor, Dr. Robert Couser, has done a lot of work with cooling and so we are in the best hands possible at this time. Unfortunately, there is evidence that the injury to her brain is severe and we are not sure that she will be able to make a full recovery from it. Right now we are trying to remain positive and optimistic as we wait for future testing. On Wednesday morning the cooling process will end and they will begin to bring her body temperature back up. At that time they will likely follow up with an EEG to see how much activity is taking place in her brain as well as a brain scan to better determine the extent of her injury. At this time her lungs and other organs appear to be doing well, but she has not experienced any alert periods and is unable to swallow (which allow her to come off of the respirator).
Mark & I thank you for your prayers and support and feel fortunate to have such a wonderful family and group of friends. Matthew is so proud to be a big brother and doesn't seem to be too concerned with things at this point. We showed him Alyssa's picture last night. While we were worried about him being a little scared, he just wanted to know if she had lotion on - we are guessing it was because she is just in a diaper like he was after his bath last night. He did paint a picture for her that she know has hanging bedside.
Alyssa was named after her great-grandmother (my grandma, Evelyn) who passed away last year at the age of 99. Evelyn's birthday was 12/18/09 and Alyssa's is 1/18/09. We pray that Alyssa has the same strength fight and determination that her great-grandmother did, for if that is the case, this battle is far from over.
A special thank you to Dr. Couser, the nurses and wonderful staff at Children's for all they are doing to help Alyssa and us during this difficult time.
We will continue to keep you updated as we learn more about Alyssa's condition. In the meantime, we ask for your continued prayers for Alyssa's strength and health. Thank you!