Stories of Lost Children
CJ's Story
by Shanna Rodger, North Haverhill, NH, U.S.A.
My son Christopher John "CJ" Rodger was expected to make his grand entrance on October 15, 2005. My husband and I were prepared for him. Everything in his room was ready. He would be our first child. On September 26, 2005, early in the morning, I woke to go to the bathroom and noticed that I was bleeding profusely, and my water broke on the way to the bathroom. I screamed for my husband to come, and he called 911. The ambulance arrived 15 minutes later, and took me to a nearby hospital about 10 minutes away. When I arrived, CJ's heartrate was 140. I thought everything was fine until an hour later, they rushed me to the OR calling a code blue for my baby. They put me under anesthesia, so I had no idea what was going on. At 6:54 in the morning, CJ was born. Almost no heartrate, he couldn't breathe on his own, and he lost most of his blood volume requiring him to get massive transfusions.
He was transferred to a children's hospital an hour later, as was I. I wanted to be near my son. We spent 17 days in the Intensive Care Nursery with CJ, on the biggest roller coaster ride I have ever been on. On October 12, 2005, we decided to discontinue life support for our son. We didn't want him to suffer. He would never be able to walk, talk, eat, or breathe on his own without intervention. Sadly, CJ passed away on October 13,2005 in the loving arms of his parents, but we were able to hold him and cuddle him, and tell him how much we loved him before he became an angel 29 hours and 5 minutes later. CJ was here for such a short while, but in the time we had with him, we both learned what love was all about. Thank you CJ for teaching us love and compassion, and not a day goes by that we don't love and miss you.
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