3334

State: Pennsylvania
 
Hospitals provided:
Magee-Women's Hospital NICU
Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh NICU

Website:

www.shannonelizabeth.virtual-memorials.com

www.shannonsstar.com

If you would like to know how to help, or would like more information contact:

Kate Crawford - Project Leader   Kate@projectsweetpeas.com

Jessica Evon - Co-Leader       Jessica@projectsweetpeas.com

Kate's Story

Steve and Kate Crawford were expecting their first daughter, when they were told at their 18 week ultrasound that the baby had a life threatening birth defect known as Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia.Only half of babies born with this defect will live. After many ultrasounds, echocardiograms and fetl monitoring, the baby's outcome looked hopeful. Shannon Elizabeth Crawford was born January 16, 2007 at Magee-Women's Hospital and was transferred that same day to Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh. On January 17th, 2007, the couple found out their daughter also had a heart defect known as Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome. The combination was deadly and Shannon was given a 1% chance of surviving. On Janury 19th, 2007, it was decided that Shannon would not make it through any surgery, and prolonging life was not an option. Steve and Kate let their daughter pass quietly in their arms that night.

In June of 2007 the couple found out they were expecting again, only to miscarry their "Peanut Shelbe" in September. The couple was exhausted and felt hopeless at trying. To their amazement, they found out they were expecting once again in January of 2008, shortly after what would have been Shannon's first birthday. At the first ultrasound, the couple received the shock of their life - twins. In August of 2008, Kate delivered the twins girl 6 weeks premature. Grace Kathleen and Lily Anne spent two weeks in the NICU at Magee-Women's Hospital. Grace needed no extra support, she was monitored until her weight of 5lbs was met and she was released. Lily needed CPAP. She remained on a heart monitor after her arrival home for one month. Kate and Steve decided to add one more in May of 2009. At 7 weeks of pregnancy, Kate was put on bedrest for bleeding. She later found out she had two conditions, Placenta Previa and Placenta Increta. Kate gave birth to her son in  early December of 2009, 7 weeks early. Stephen was intubated, suffered from jaundice, reflex and dropping heart rate. Stephen spent 19 days in the NICU and was realased right before Christmas. He joins his twins sisters at home, where they are all growing happy and healthy.

Kate knows what it is like to sit in a NICU and have nothing to do but stare. She was been through the best outcome and the worst. For her, the small things she was able to hold on to in the NICU continues to bring her much comfort. She always wished she had more to remember Shannon by and loves to be able to provide these items to parents. Project Sweet Pea holds a special place in her heart.

 

Shannon

 

Grace

Lily

 

Stephen

 Jessica's Story

We had been trying to have a second child and on October 25, 2008 we discovered we were pregnant.  We were so happy.  My doctor decided to send me for an ultrasound so we could hear the heart beat we were only 10 weeks pregnant.  During the ultrasound they felt they saw a cyst on my right ovary.  They wanted us to follow up at Magee’s Women’s Hospital for the 18 week ultrasound to see if the cyst grew.  We went on January 28, 2009 to have our ultrasound we were hoping we would find out the sex of the baby so we could prepare their room for them.  We took our 9 year old daughter with us who was very excited to have a sibling.    The tech started doing the ultrasound it was taking a very long time when she stopped and said she saw something and she needed to get a doctor.  We stared at the screen wondering what could be wrong so many things race through our minds but nothing had us prepared for what they told us.  The doctor came back with the tech she started saying we had options there was a problem with the baby, but we had options. We were in a state of shock we had no idea what was wrong.  They said the baby had a mass near their bottom.  They said it was called Sacrococcygeal Teratoma better known as SCT.  They kept mentioning we had options we were early enough in the pregnancy.  We told them that was not an option.  We had to start going to Magee’s twice a week for fetal echo’s and ultrasounds.  They had to monitor the growth of the tumor.   We discovered in February we were having a little girl we decided to name her Gabriella which means God  is my might.  The difficult part of SCT is you have to wait and see how the tumor is growing during pregnancy.  We were blessed we seemed to have the best case scenario the tumor was mostly cystic and was mostly external.  They decided we needed to have Gabriella via c-section they didn’t want me to go into labor as this could put stress on her teratoma.  They scheduled the c-section for June 11, 2010.  She was born at 1:15 pm when I heard her cry it was music to my ears.  I started to cry tears of joy.  The neonatal team took over in the delivery room with her they let us see her for about 15 seconds before they took her down to the NICU to get ready to be transported to Children’s.  After I was in the recovery room the transport team brought her up to see us for about 2 minutes.  We couldn’t hold her but she did grab her dad’s fingers and squeeze them.  I was released from the hospital on June 14, 2010.  I was so excited to go be with her.  They had the surgery on the 15^th to remove the tumor.  The surgery went well it lasted about 6 hours to remove her teratoma and tailbone.  The first time I held her was June 18^th it was wonderful.   We were able to take her home on June 24^th.  We thought we were done with the hospital until July 4, 2010.  Gabriella had to sleep with an Apria monitor because she could only be on her stomach.  We put her to bed and her alarm went off for rapid heart rate we tried a new set of sensors and it still went off.  We called the monitor company they felt maybe it was the alarm but told us to check her heart rate.  Her pulse seemed normal.  They told us they would send a new monitor in the morning.  By noon the new monitor came we hooked her up still rapid heart rate we rushed her to our local emergency room.  Her heart rate was almost 300 beats per minute she was transported to Children’s.  She was diagnosed with (SVT) Supraventricular Tachycardia (WPW) Wolff Parkinson White type.  She had to take medication until she was approximately 9 months old.  The doctors feel she has outgrown this condition but we won’t know for sure unless she doesn’t have any more episodes.   We know how blessed we are to have Gabriella with us. When we found Project Sweet Pea’s we knew we wanted to get involved and help provide support to other parents.