A Precious Gift
One of our own Wesley Medical Center employees delivered a beautiful baby girl on June 10, 2008. The baby appeared to be healthy in every way. On the second day of her life she started having difficulty breathing. The health care providers monitored her breathing and at some point decided to do a heart echo. It was devastating news. The baby’s heart was on the wrong side of her chest and she only had 2 chambers. There were other heart issues as well. Immediately, she was flown to Children's Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, MO. At Children's Mercy they discovered that there were other defects. She only had one kidney and her vertebrae had grown incorrectly. Obviously, the most urgent of her problems were related to her heart defects. Three weeks after being admitted to Children's Mercy, she was stable enough to have heart surgery, one of many that were to follow. It was touch and go after the surgery for 3 weeks until her little body could no longer take it. She was taken off of life support and pronounced dead. The baby was survived by her Mother, Father, and 7 year old brother.
With utility bills piling up and no income for the past two months with both parents being off work, and now a funeral to pay for, the family had no where to turn. With a caring Manager and facility HR support, the HCA Hope Fund stepped in and offered to help. With the financial assistance of the HCA Hope Fund, our employee was able to piece her life back together and return to work about a month after the death of her baby. Although the family will never be able to replace what they lost, our Wesley employee can at least say with confidence, that HCA cares and she knows that she can rely on her family at work.
