I'm a small town southern girl born and bred and raised in the Appalachian Mountains, my life began three months before my expected due date on a chilly 20th of August in 1996 when my mother then a teenage girl nineteen years of age awoke in what she described as excruciating pain not knowing what is was. She had plans to get up, get dressed and get ready for her doctors appointment to check on her little baby girl who was growing inside of her but by the time she had reached the bathroom and undressed and sat on the toilet to catch a breather she was doubled over in pain. She then awokened my father who was sleeping in the next room and proceeded to tell him she was in the worst pain she'd ever experienced in her whole life, I mean she had pain prior to this but nothing could compare to this pain she felt this time. Nothing. He then helps her try to stand up from sitting on the toilet and she tells him that she is in too much pain to even walk, he then proceeds to pick her up and pack his pregnant wife and places her on the bed covers her and told her to try and stay calm he was going to get help. He walks from the bedroom to the living room grabs his hat, jacket and keys rushes to the door walks out and shuts the door behind him, my frantic, terrified, nervous, father walks to the car starts it and slams the driver side door and pulls out of the driveway with squealing tires and drives a few minutes up the road to his parents house on the hill. He reaches the top of the hill and parks in front of the house, he then walks up the steps and knocks on the door as his mother greets him at the door she sees a nervous look on her 21 year old sons face, she looks at him and says. "Michael, what's wrong?" and all he can look at her and say is "Mom, it's Frankie, she's in pain and I don't know what to do come down to the house with me where she is." She then looks at him and says "What's wrong with her?" He then says "She says she's in the worst pain she's ever felt in her life." Without missing a beat my grandmother looks at him and says, "Come on, let's go." She gathers the things she needs and goes to the house with him, when the reach the house the walk inside and back to the bedroom where my mother is still lying in bed where my father packed her laid her down and covered her. My grandmother proceeds to ask my mother what is wrong, my mother explains to her the type of pain she's having and without missing a beat my grandmother says "Honey, you're in labor." So they get her up help her get dressed get her in the car and drive like maniacs to the hospital. They get to the hospital and yell for a wheelchair and they tried to make my mother wait in the waiting room and tell my father that he needs to fill out routine check-in paper work his response. "My wife is about to have my little girl and I ain't got time to fill out no damn paperwork right now, bring them to me later." So they put her in a room finally and get her IV's going and hook her to the baby monitor yep she's definitely in labor, this is it this is the happiest day of their life but, little did they know it'd also be the scariest day they've ever experienced in their lifetime. after hours of labor and in pain she asks for an spinal tap and everyone tried to get her not to because of risks but when you're in the much pain I guess you need some kind of medication the doctors come in and realize that I'm halfway out and proceed to give her an spinal tap and that's when it the nightmare began. After having the spinal tap and the doctor who wasn't my mothers normal Doctor his partner because my mothers doctor was on Vacation knew that my head was out and I went back inside my heart rate dropped rapidly they were losing their baby girl and everyone was crying, the doctors quickly prepped my mother for an Emergency Cecerian-Section as they were pressing for time to get me out. My dad horribly frantic gets all scrubbed in in scrub gear and goes with my mother in the Oporating Room. They proceed to get me out, I'm out my mother starts screaming not because she can feel pain, because she's numb from up under her breasts to the tip of her toes but because she heard the doctors talking and didn't hear a screaming baby girl. She kept saying "What's, wrong with my baby why isn't she crying." Over and over each scream getting louder she then whispers a few words to my father above her head. my father then says "that's it I'm gonna find out for myself I've had it with these doctors not telling us anything." He walks past the OR Table where my mother is lying where the nurses have laid me on the scales and he walks over and sees his baby all black and blue and cold and the nurses are grabbing the paddles to shock my heart back into rythm he then screams "oh god he's in tears my baby, my baby girl, my baby girl is dead and starts balling one, two, three shock my heart is back in rythm for a few seconds and then I flatline one, two, three, my heart's in rythm again but my oxygen dropped and I flatlined again, over and over the nurses and doctors try to keep shocking me but it's not working this time. My frantic father screaming beating his head against the wall hits his knees and says "God please, please if you exist and you can hear me please let my baby live I'll do anything you want just let my baby live." by this time a total of fourteen minutes have passed and the staff put the paddles on my chest again to try to revive me one last time if this doesn't work my parents will receive the devastating news that their precious baby girl didn't make it. They place the paddles on my small chest one, two, three shock. Surprise they hear a screaming to the top of her lungs baby girl my oxygen level is now stabalized the doctor then lifts me up and spanks my bare bottom to check my lungs "smack" I start screaming and with a sigh of relief the doctor smiles and chuckles and says "Whew, that little girls got some lungs on her, doesn't she?" And my dad still crying but this time with joy that I'm alive says "Our little Miracle Baby, sure does."
Thanks for all of your support and love,
Hayley N. George
Thanks for all of your support and love,
Hayley N. George