They looked at his dry lips. Cracked and full of dry bubbled saliva. The little bundle of joy had been hooked to the ventilator and ECMO for 1 month now. Intubated and sedated. Despite the fact he wasn't moving or talking at all, he was perfect. Everything else was perfect except his lungs. And other organs that cramped there.
His diaphragm was not properly built, causing his stomach, large chunks of his small intestine and kidneys to be up, both jamming his right and left lungs. This was the worst case ever for Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia where almost 90% of his diaphragm muscle was not there.
They were still waiting. Waiting for everything to be stabilised before he could go for surgery to put a fake piece of diaphragm for him - the gortex patch. But he was not stable at all, with dangerous state of pulmonary hypertension.
Mr & Mrs. Smith looked at his swollen and blueish body. They knew their son had fought a good fight. They could almost hear his spirit whispering to them that he was proud to be their baby even for a month. They could even see his spirit waving 'good bye' to them, telling mummy and daddy that he would be back to Home, happy and free, without wires hooked to him.
Mrs. Smith bent forward her body and said "Baby, we are so proud of you. These are the most beautiful days in our life we would not trade for anything else. Every single day we were here with you, we witnessed what called strength and beauty in the purest form."
Nurses and medical officers came and took off everything from him. This was the first time they saw him without wires. So perfect and handsome. They then put him on Mrs. Smith arms.
Cuddles and kisses were showered on him without a stop. It was the most beautiful yet painful moment, where you held your baby for the first time to say good bye to him. Mr and Mrs. Smith gave him kisses on his dry lips again and again.
"We love you, baby. We will see you again. And stay happy at Home and have fun."
He gained his wings and returned to Heaven, as tears of love dripped from Mr and Mrs. Smith eyes.
I wrote this to commemorate my friends' baby who just passed away from deadly disease called Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia (CDH). The one which almost took my son away. I am so proud of them and their son. I did not use their real names here.
If you do not know what freewrite is, it is a plan by @mariannewest and @improv to just free flow write out our thoughts, where there is no fear of whether what we write is good or not. Just relax and have fun and write in that 5-minutes-time. Here is the introductory post. Come on, you can start joining and have fun too! ☺ And now we have @freewritehouse, yay! Have a visit and you will not regret it!
art and flair courtesy of @PegasusPhysics
