Stories of Lost Children
My Son Zachary
by Cyndi D, Glendale, AZ, U.S.A.
Our son Zachary David Decker, went home to be with Jesus suddenly and unexpectedly on December 22, 2003. I had put Zachary to bed On Sunday after a busy day At Church with him singing and playing bells in a Christmas musical. And later going to the mall to do the Christmas angel program, for needy children. When we arrived home, I noticed Zachary felt very warm and was coughing and starting to sneeze and had a runny nose. I gave him some Tylenol Cold, and he seemed to feel better. We played, and watched cartoons, but he did not want his dinner, which was one of his favorites, fried Chicken. I noticed his body felt hot, so I took his temperature. He had a temperature so I gave him a bath, to cool him down, and then proceeded to give him his medicine that the Dr. had prescribed for his cough with Advil for his fever. He said his tummy hurt, and he went in to go to bed, which I thought was sort of unusual as Zachary did not ever want to go right to bed. I went in and tucked him and told him I love you, and I hope you feel better in the morning, if you don't we will go right in to see your pediatrician. I went in our room to re wrap some presents Zach had unwrapped (he had unwrapped all of them over the 2 weeks prior) I told my oldest daughter after we wrapped 2 of them it has been a half hour I am going to check on Zach and see how he is feeling and if his fever went down any. I went into his room, and found him laying on his stomach, which he never had done, and he was not breathing. I picked him up and noticed he was limp and his lips were blue. I yelled for my husband to call 911, which he did but the cell dropped. I ran downstairs with Zachary in my arms, and dialed 911 as I started CPR, I did CPR until the paramedics arrived. As they took over and continued CPR, and stuck a tube down his throat and started bagging him, my whole life had just turned upside down, my other children were screaming for Zach to wake up and praying to God to not let their brother die. My husband had called his parents and mine as I was working on Zach. About this time, the ambulance left to rush him to the nearest hospital, and my sister and mom and his parents arrived at our house. About this time, the police and another team from the Fire dept crisis team came in to ask us questions, I do not remember answering them as I became violently ill from the shock that overcame me. The fire department would not let me stand up or leave to get to the hospital to see him for about 20 minutes which seemed like an eternity as my blood pressure had gone dangerously high, and I have a heart condition, so they had me just sit there. I said I need to go see my baby. My mom then drove us to the hospital Zach was taken to, and we were told by the Emergency Room doctor that he was basically 'brain dead' upon the Paramedics arrival to our house but that my doing CPR had restarted his heart and saved him, for the time being, they asked us to go in and talk to Zach and touch him, so we did. Then after 10 minutes, they had him Air evacuated to Phx Childrens hospital ICU. My mom drove us there to wait for the Air Evac to arrive. The ICU Dr. came in and talked to us about Zachs health, how the day had went, and how I found him. She said she had to be blunt and honest with us, and that she felt our son was "gravely ill and might not survive through the night" My heart sank and I sobbed all night long while being very ill myself. We called our Pastor to come pray with us, and ask for a miracle. He stayed about 3 hours then left. About 7 am the Drs told us that his heart beat and blood pressure was becoming erratic and that he would not survive, he was still unconscious, as he was the entire night, and they did not expect him to survive through the day, and to call all our family in to say goodbye to him. We called our pastor to come back and pray with us, which we all did, with the two pediatric Drs and our family members and pastor around his bedside. They had me lay in the bed with him and stroke his forehead and arms and talk softly to him, I talked about Heaven and that Jesus!
wanted
to take him Home. I told him his brother and sisters were coming to say goodbye soon, as were other family members. His siblings arrived shortly therafter, and hugged him, and kissed his hand and told him they loved him and as soon as they all had said goodbye and that it is ok to go to be with Jesus, within one minute of that, the Dr. walked in and softly said in my ear He's gone, your baby has gone Home to Heaven to be with Jesus now, I am so sorry we did everything we could for Zach. Zachary passed away December 22, 2003 at 10:55 am. Here it is 7 weeks later, and the only thing we know for sure is that Zachary tested positive for the influenza virus. Zachary, we all love you and miss you so much baby son, you are in mommys every thought and your entire family will always love you and we will see you again one day when we get to Heaven. You are our Angel and we love you and miss you so very much my youngest son.
If anyone else would like to contact us, who has been through this horrible grief and sorrow please email us at momslilzoo@qwest.net. Thank you baby steps for allowing us to share our story with other families.
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