Javan Harker Javan Douglas Harker

This is Javan's website. It's been created to keep everyone updated on how he is doing. Be sure to read the latest in the journal, view the photo gallery, and drop us a line in the guestbook. Most importantly...... please, please pray for us! If you need or want to reach us, our email is t.harker@alaskavillagemissions.org This is Javan's story.......



We went to the hospital to be induced into labor for our baby on Monday, August 18th, at 8 a.m. The doctor broke Sal's water at 9 a.m. but this did not produce enough contractions. At 12:40 p.m., Sal was put on Pitocin (a labor inducing drug) which led to a safe delivery at 4:42 p.m. of a baby boy. Javan Douglas Harker weighed 9 pounds 1 ounce and was 22 inches long. He had lots lots of brown hair and had long fingers and toes.

Everything seemed just fine and Javan seemed completely healthy at first. It wasn't until until Tuesday night at around 7:30 that we thought anything was wrong. He had learned how to breastfeed real quick and was eating well, but hadn't urinated yet and was spitting up brown liquid quite often. We were not alarmed, but concerned.

Through the evening and into the night, Javan was becoming more and more fussy and by 3:15 a.m., we noticed he wouldn't eat. At 6 a.m. Sal went to find the nurse bacause Javan was still not eating and it had been 6 hours since his last feeding. By the time she got back to the room with the nurse, his respirations had risen from the normal 40-60 per minute to 140 per minute. At this point we began to notice that his condition was worsening.

They began drawing labs and found that his red and white blood cells were not normal. One was up and one was down. They also tested his spitup and found that it had old blood in it. He was given Zantac to try to control his spitup.

Our doctor decided that Sal's health was well enough for her to be discharged but Javan should continue to stay at the hospital (By this time most babies would be going home). The doctor arrived at 6:30 p.m. and assessed Javin's condition believing he had a possible infection and wanted to begin antibiotics. He also needed fluids because he had not eaten in many hours. We began feeding him by a dropper but he was only taking 5-9 cc's every 2 hours or so. About 20 cc's is normal.

The anisthesiologist was called in to put an IV in Javan's foot. The antibiotics were started at 7:30 p.m. (on Wednesday) as well as fluids to keep him hydrated and we were left alone to let them run.

He began grunting with each breath and was becoming lathargic. Our concern for Javan was quickly increasing and there were so many things going on with him that no one had answers for. We were very tired and though we had two hours at a time between feedings to rest, it just didn't happen. The nurse came in quite often to fix occlusions in the IV line or to change out the bag. It just was not restful and we were so tired that all we could do was cry.

At 5 a.m. I got up to check on Javan and thought he felt cold. The nurse came to check his temperature and after 4 readings, his average was 93.2 degrees. The nurse ran off immediately to tell the doctor and this was when we thought our son was going to die. I ran and got a warm towel while Sal got arranged with his skin to her skin. We got him covered up and after a half hour it had raised 1.6 degrees and then with another half hour it had raised 2 degrees to get it to 96.8. By then the nurse had come back and Javen went to the OB department to be further checked out.

Sal and I laid down to rest and after a few hours of actual sleep, we woke to news that we needed to go to Anchorage. The IV had clotted and the nurses could not get it re-started. After 18 tries they succeeded, and by then the plane arrived so Sal and Javen took off for Anchorage. By the time I would get on a flight and there myself, it was about the same time to just drive, so I did.

When I got to Anchorage, after picking up my Mom and brother from the airport, we headed to the hospital. Javen was in an incubater with wires and tubes running everywhere. His chest looked swelled and he was arching his back and throwing his arms and legs about. We would find out later that right then, he was having a seizure.

After spending some time with him, we went and got a room as we had still not gotten more than a handful of hours of sleep since he was born. We got to bed around midnight and were woke up by 2:30 to the ringing of the phone. We went to the unit and the doctor proceeded to tell us that Javen was having issues with processing his protein and that his body was building up amonia. He said that we would neet to go to Portland, Oregon for the proper treatment.

By 5 a.m. Sal was on a plane with Javen and headed to Portland. I needed to turn right around and drive home so I could talk to the girls, drop of my family, pack clothes for both Sal, Javan and I, and have a prayer meeting before I would then fly back to Anchorage and catch a flight myself. Within 24 hours of seeing Sal off to Portland, I met up with her there.

Click on the journal link (at the top of the page) to read the rest of the story.....