We lost Justin April 27, 2004. He was born that day at 7:31 pm after an all day labor. He was absolutely perfect! His only (minor) problem upon first glance was a clubfoot (easily fixed). He had soft brown hair and looked just like his daddy! I had been in the hospital a week and a half on bed rest with low amniotic fluid levels (dangerously low). Justin however was healthy while in utero...kicking up a storm! He was born at 24.2 weeks gestation, 1 pound 7.8 ounces, 12 1/2 inches long. The wonderful doctors and nurses at Wesley Medical Center in Wichita, KS were wonderful in trying to save him. The surfactant for his lungs was not working and the ventilator would not work. Confused (because Justin was so big, they couldn't find anything wrong), Justin's doctor took an X-ray. Our baby's lungs were the size of an 18-week-old gestational baby, not 24.2. Just too small to sustain him (it's called pulmonary hypoplasia). We had to make the decision to let him go. They brought him to us. We cried and held him. Pictures were taken. It was heartbreaking watching him struggle to breathe. He turned to the sound of my voice once. He made a little sighing noise when they placed him in my arms. Justin died that same evening, immediately after his baptism, in my arms at 9:22 pm.

Wesley doctors nurses and staff were amazing. They took many photos of Justin, allowed us to keep him in our room overnight, and dressed him in the tiniest clothes I'd ever seen. They gave us locks of his hair and did the normal footprints. They gave us our most treasured gift of all: a mold of his hands, feet and head. I don't know how they did it, but it is beautiful! It shows perfectly how little he was! We got many books on grieving, they aided in helping us learn how to tell our 5 year old son that his brother had died, we had help contacting our funeral home (2 hours away), and the pictures they took: they gave us the film from the regular camera, gave us the Polaroid’s they'd taken, also gave us the disks from the digital camera. I have nothing but praises to sing about that hospital. They were amazing during my long stay, but were even more terrific as we grieved the loss of our son. We were very blessed.

Christina
Matthew Joseph (born 1-14-99), our big farmer boy
Allison Rose (born 11-17-02), our shoe-lovin' pretty girl
Justin Wyatt (born at 24.2 weeks at 7:31 pm and died 9:22 pm on 4-27-04), our precious angel in heaven

"Even the brokenhearted have a song to sing when hope is present." C. Hinton

Please visit Justin