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Derek Lynn Earnheart's Birth

This is the birth story of Derek Lynn Earnheart (05-06-90). My name is Angela and my husband's name is Shawn. We were very excited when we found out we were going to have a baby. This was our first and I had heard all the stories of morning sickness, backaches, etc. but my pregnancy was very easy. That is until the beginning of my 9th month.

I awoke early in the morning with an awful pain across my abdomen (it did not ease off) and this being our first baby, my husband and I naturally thought I was in labor. Upon arriving at the hospital, the pain eased and I felt silly like I probably had indigestion or something else. I was told I was in early labor and my doctor put me on brethene. This completely stopped my contractions and I rested through the night until the next afternoon. I was about to be discharged (5:00 p.m.) when the pain started once again. The nurses were checking the monitor and could not figure where the pain was coming from since I was not registering any contractions. To make matters worse, it was late in the afternoon and my doctor had left the hospital. The doctor on call visited my room and told me he thought I was having a gallbladder attack but that it would probably ease off in time. He said they would do some tests in the morning (it was around 8:30 p.m. at this time) and I had been doubled up on the bed since 5:00. My husband finally phoned my doctor around 10:30 p.m. to tell him what was going on and he ordered some tests to be done.

To shorten this long story, I had emergency gallbladder surgery at approximately 1:30 a.m. the next morning. The surgeon said if they had waited another couple of hours, gangrene would have set up - my gallbladder was that bad. What about the baby - they had everything ready to take Derek since anesthesia usually starts labor and they did not know if they could stop it. Well, they stopped my labor and when I awoke I was still pregnant and had about a 4 inch scar across my stomach (which was stretched to the limit already).

You can not imagine the pain to have a baby moving around inside squirming and kicking where you have just had surgery. I thought the pain of having a baby could not possibly be worse than the pain of having the baby kick where I had been cut - but I was wrong.

Two weeks later I was in labor and not having much pain, that is until the doctor started the pitocin drip since my pains were irregular. I honestly thought I would not be able to do this and told my husband I wanted to go home - I didn't want to do this. Looking back now it was a really short labor compared to some I have heard about (approximately 7 hours of hard labor). Derek was born at 6:30 p.m. on May 6, 1990 and he was a beautiful baby. I was so relieved it was all finally over and I could rest without pain and just watch this wonderful baby.

Derek and I were going to be discharged on May 8th and that morning the nurses brought him to my room for me to feed him. I had been feeding him all the day before and kept him basically in the room with me. This time when I tried to feed him, he acted like he was cringing or something and was making wimpering noises. I just had a feeling like something was wrong so I unwrapped him and felt him. I could tell he had a temperature even without using a thermometer.

I took Derek back to the nursery and told the nurses that he was running a fever. She said she would check him and let me know what was going on. With this being my first baby - I did not think much about it although I was very worried maybe he had a bug or something (I didn't know newborns could not catch a bug). When it was time for the next feeding the nurse brought my roommates' baby to her and I could see nurses taking babies to their mothers. No Derek. I went to the nursery to check on him and was told that the doctor would be in to talk to me shortly. Well the doctor did come in and my world dropped from beneath me when he told me the diagnosis. MY BABY HAD SPINAL MENINGITIS - CAUSED BY GROUP B STREPTOCOCCUS!

They already had him on antibiotics and a helicopter was called from St. Louis Children's Hospital to airlift him. I was confused, scared, anxious and everything else you can imagine. The doctor explained what spinal meningitis was (it is an infection of the fluid around the spinal cord and in the brain) and I could not stop crying.

I was allowed to see him before the helicopter took him away (Children's Hospital is approximately 250 miles from where we live). We later found out that his heart stopped two times on the helicopter ride.

I was released and had to go home - I was not able to travel since I had just had major surgery two weeks prior. The nurses and doctors were wonderful at Children's hospital every time I called to check on Derek. They were patient and understanding and I could not thank them enough. I was allowed to visit Derek that weekend and I was shocked to see him hooked to all those machines and there were tubes coming out everywhere. He weighed 6 lbs. 3 ozs. and the nurses said he was their big baby.

Derek stayed in the hospital for three weeks (the common treatment for spinal meningitis) since he had to have his antibiotics through an IV. He never had any episodes of seizures or anything else thank God and he does not have any problems from the meningitis - no hearing loss, no seizures, no vision loss or anything. Derek is our miracle child with all he had to go through to be born.

Derek is now a first grader and has tested at the top of his class. He loves reading books, swimming, riding his motorcycle, working on the race car with his daddy and playing with his baby sister Dakota who is now 8 months old. I am so thankful that Derek will never remember any of this because his mom will never forget.

I was not told much about Group B Streptococcus during this ordeal but I have since read everything I could get my hands on. I am the carrier of this bacteria and I passed this to my son when he was being born. A simple test could have been performed on me to see if I was "colonized" with the bacteria and I could have been given antibiotics during labor which would have greatly reduced the chances of Derek getting sick. I know this now.

My daughter Dakota was born on November 7, 1995 and is now a crawling, babbling, drooling, beautiful 8 month old. I was tested for GBS before delivery and was given preventative antiobotics in labor. Dakota did not get sick.

Thanks for letting me tell this story, this is the first time I have written about it and it feels sort of healing to write it down.

I would welcome any comments on this story. Please send email to Angela.