“A few years ago, I realized a dream of mine when I
graduated from pharmacy school and became a Registered
Pharmacist. A year later my husband and I
realized another dream
with the birth of our daughter. Two weeks after her birth we
were told that she had several heart defects and would require
surgery at a later date. Being in the health care profession, I
follow a healthy lifestyle—I don’t drink alcohol, I don’t smoke
and I know the importance of women of child-bearing age taking
prenatal vitamins. I was shocked that I had a daughter with
health problems. Little did I know this was only the beginning.
Two weeks before Erin’s birthday, we had the surgery to fix her
heart defects. The day after surgery, she bled into her lungs
and it took 40 minutes to resuscitate her. During this time her
brain suffered severe injury due to the lack of oxygen carrying
blood to it. As a parent, I cannot put into words the
devastation we felt as doctors told us the bad news. She is
diagnosed with hypoxic ischemic encephalopathey, cortical vision
impairment, severe developmental delays, is fed through a tube
in her stomach, and takes several medications.
We were so grateful to find the Northland Early Education Center
that would accept our daughter with her special needs, as I
don’t think many would. It is imperative that my husband and I
work full time to receive the health insurance benefits offered
by our respective employers. Neither of us could afford to quit
our jobs and stay home to care for Erin. She receives all of her
therapy there, which saves us the time of taking her to several
therapy appointments and scheduling them around our work
schedules. Northland Early Education Center also strives to keep
their care affordable, which is important to families like mine
because we would to someday have more children as we don’t think
we should let this tragedy destroy our hopes and dreams for the
future.
Erin has made progress at Northland Early Education Center and
we are thrilled with the staff and therapists there. I don’t
know what we would do without it.”
