Around 4 pm on June 11th our baby Olive (20 months old), broke past the pool gate for an unsupervised swim, unnoticed. She was always so brave and a water baby at heart.
Everything is so fresh in my mind. I can't forget, even if I try. It haunts me every quiet moment. It wakes me up throughout the night.
It was a normal late afternoon. This Texas heat is so hot and it gets a little cooler about 4. I had just sent her and her older sister outside to water the plants. It was their usual chore that they enjoyed doing together. I was preparing for dinner in the kitchen, peeling some beets and sweet potatoes to roast in the oven. They were Olive's favorite. She likes them crunchy with just some salt, pepper, and garlic powder. I kept looking over at my sweethearts through the window. They were fine. Maybe wasting some water but they were smiling so it was worth it. Scarlett was giving Olive's stuffy raccoon a shower with the hose.
It just took a moment. Maybe it happened when I turned away to wash my hands and put the peels in the compost container. I didn't notice she went to the pool gate. I still heard the water running and didn't look outside. I thought everything was fine.
I didn't know the pool gate latch was faulty. It looked closed from the visual inspection I did from the living room before I sent them out. I know how dangerous pools are and have always checked it. I just got used to it always being secure when I went out there. I felt like I was being maybe a little paranoid always doing that. What were the chances that this time when I didn't check it, it was not 100% secure?
As I was putting the compost peels in the container, my husband came out of the office. He has been working from home with the Covid outbreak. He came to see how dinner was coming along in the kitchen. We talked for a moment, maybe it was a few minutes, I don't know. I told him to make a chimichurri sauce for the veggies. I am so thankful he didn't. Instead, he went to inspect the water wasting outside, aka plant watering. I went back to peeling the last of the beets and then I heard a scream from the pool area. My heart stopped.
He found her fully submerged in the deep end. I am so thankful that he went looking for her. He ran with her body into the kitchen. All the veggies for dinner got tossed aside. He knew infant CPR. He started chest compressions and breathing. Foam was coming out of her nose and mouth. Her eyes were rolled up. I called 911 and got the EpiPen. The injections were not enough to start her heart. The paramedics arrived. They gave her more. They rushed her out the door into the ambulance. Her heart started beating faintly halfway to the hospital, but she still was not breathing.
These days have been very sleepless for our family. My husband did not leave Olive's side at the hospital. She barely made it through the first night. The room was so cold to induce hypothermia for helping her brain inflammation. Dozens of IVs were in every available vein in her body, pumping her full of pharmaceuticals to stabilize her.
The MRI shows that she has significant brain damage to her Basal Gangila, the coordinator of the brain which relays signals from the other areas. Her hippocampus and higher level thinking were undamaged. That means she is trapped in there! She is without the ability to focus her eyes, move her body purposely, or express herself. I see her suffering in small silent tears dripping from her eyes as they roll back into her head. I can't let my baby live like that! I am determined to bring her back.
She spent 86 days at Texas Children's hospital.
As soon as she was released we went to see Dr. Harch in New Orleans and spent 2 months getting 37 hyperbaric treatments.
She received 575 billion exosomes by IV from Matrix & Vitilabs treatment by Dr. Alan Arlington at New Orleans Age Management in New Orleans.
Olive went on the Keto diet and it was able to control her seizures and she is almost off of all seizure medications now.
Olive has been getting a stem cell treatments from her own fat by Dr. Proefrock in Surprise, AZ every 6 months.
Olive got a hyperbaric chamber!
Olive is increasing in awareness and her spasticity is improving
Olive is getting stem cell treatments in Mexico using CBCells
Please follow her journey of recovery and help me break her free by healing her brain.
How you can help:
1. Please share sweet Olive's story on next-door, facebook, your neighbors, etc. Join her support group. Spread awareness of how devastating a few minutes underwater can be. Everyone hears about these incidences and that "the baby survived and is recovering". Her story is the hard facts of what "recovery" is like that most people don't hear. You never know whose baby might get saved by sharing. If it convinces just one parent to start swim lessons or make an upgrade to their pool security, then you probably just saved a life and a family, and only God will know. Facebook Link Here for Sharing (
https://www.facebook.com/groups/fightolivefight)
2. Pray, please I beg you to pray for her. Please ask your pastors and prayer groups to pray. She needs a miracle. Please don't let her live like this locked in her damaged physical body. She is so young, sweet, and innocent. She needs healing energy so badly.
3. If you know of any therapies that could help her, any doctors that know how to heal from a brain injury, please write me. Has anyone been through this? What they did do to help their precious loved ones? What was their recovery like? I am so new to this and so traumatized. I am trying to learn what to do but there is so little I know.
4. We have a meal train. Somedays I can't even get out of bed with this grief. Olive's baby brother was born on July 21st. I am up all night with him and holding him all day. I am an emotional wreck and food is the last thing on my mind. But, I know I need to stay strong for Olive and my newborn. Please help by joining the meal train if you can. Meal Train Link Here (
https://mealtrain.com/kl6y4r)
5. Some of the treatments Olive needs are not covered by insurance. If you can spare $20 it will help her towards her recovery.
Please support Olive to continue her healing!
www.paypal.me/fightolivefight (
https://www.paypal.me/fightolivefight?fbclid=IwAR1lfRAn2VGtd8bQn2limsRnamnHvtMGalSDjgOtX_6JiX7JpYBg2MFE0QU)
www.venmo.com/u/fightolivefight (
http://www.venmo.com/u/fightolivefight?fbclid=IwAR0jDOU7Xl8J144oNhkW2WUHqGJTk4w1kSB_y-MZZCVGvt6VdnRRLkBt8pQ)
