Our Son Brandon

Our baby, Brandon Alexander was born on August 20, 2005, five days after his due date. He was born at 3:42PM, weighed 7lbs 4oz and was 20 inches long. He was delivered by C-section after a difficult labor. The OB tried to help deliver Brandon with the vacuum extractor, which slipped off twice. The decision was made to have a C-section. The nurses were unable to find Brandon's heart beat when I was being moved for the delivery room the C-section room. The C-section was done quickly and I was under general anesthesia. I woke up from the anesthesia and saw Brandon only for a few seconds before he was taken to Women and Babies NICU unit. I was transfered to Women and Babies later that evening. I was able to see Brandon in the NICU that night were they were performing tests on his heart. The good news at that point was that Brandon's heart and major blood vessels were developed and functioning correctly. The next days my husband and I visited Brandon several times, taking our parents and my sisters to see him. On Monday, August 22 the neurologist did a CAT scan and EEG of Brandon's brain. The CAT scan showed the brain was developed correctly and there was no bleeding in his brain. The results of the EEG were devastating, Brandon's brain showed no activity. He was on anti-seizure medications which can effect the outcome of the EEG results so that medication was discontinued and the test was repeated on Wednesday. On Wednesday the EEG showed the same results. My husband and and I removed Brandon from the respirator at 10:20AM on Wednesday, August 24. We spent the next hour and six minutes holding Brandon and taking a lot of photos. We were able to dress him and wrap him in the blanket that he should have been dressed and wrapped in to go home. He died at 11:26AM as a result of hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy/birth asphyxia. The weeks to follow were very difficult. We had to worry about arranging the funeral and buying a burial plot instead of running out of diapers. We will always love Brandon and never forget him in the years to come.