Kevin's Healing Journey: 2004

Sunday, January 17, 2010

2004

Kevin was born on October 6, 2004 at 1:47 p.m. It was my 38th week of pregnancy. Labor was 17 hours and 47 minutes. He weighed 7 pounds and 14 ounces, and was 21 inches long.

Six hours after birth, a friend of mine who was an off-duty nurse, noticed that Kevin was having repeated apnea episodes. That night Kevin was transferred to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at Akron Children’s Hospital. A CAT scan of his head showed a right middle cerebral artery infarct. We were told the stroke occurred about two weeks before birth. Two days later, while still in the NICU, right-sided tonic clonic seizures began, with some left lower extremity movement. Kevin was started on Phenobarbital medication. Kevin went four days with no seizures and was discharged from the hospital on October 12, 2004.

After we brought Kevin home from the hospital, the Neurologist told us to “wait and see” in regards to his development. We were discouraged to do any research and when we questioned specifically about stimulating the brain we were told to just love him.

An Electroneurodiagnostic (EEG) Report was performed in December of 2004 and was interpreted as normal. His Phenobarbital medication was reduced. No seizures had been observed since his stay in the NICU.

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My Blog

This blog was created to keep our family and friends updated on Kevin's healing journey. It is also our hope that others may find this blog to give help and hope to other delayed kids.

About Kevin

They told us Kevin would never walk or talk. But with lots of prayers, hard work, and extra hands, he began walking when he was four years old and we continue to have faith and hope as we wait patiently for his speech to develop. Kevin is now eight years old. He is diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy due to a brain-injury he had before birth that was caused by a stroke. In 2006, before Kevin was 2 years old, we found Glenn Doman’s book "What To Do About Your Brain-Injured Child" that had answers to help children with special needs and developmental delays. We began an individualized home treatment program for Kevin immediately and have been dedicated to our program ever since. We spent three years with the Doman family at The Institutes for the Achievement of Human Potential (IAHP) and now we are with Matthew and Carol Newell at The Family Hope Center (FHC). Twice a year we return to Philadelphia where Kevin receives a neurological evaluation to determine the progress he has made in the last six months. Then they provide us with an individualized, program that puts me in charge to help Kevin develop and reach his fullest potential.

Do You Know a Delayed Child?

The best recommendation we can give to another parent with a special needs or developmentally delayed child (brain-injured, brain-damaged, mentally retarded, mentally deficient, cerebral-palsied, epileptic, autistic, athetoid, hyperactive, attention deficit disordered, developmentally delayed, or down's) is to read Glenn Doman's book What To Do About Your Brain-Injured Child and/or Dr. Coralee Thompson and Dr. Philip Maffetone's book Healthy Brains, Healthy Children. By simply reading these books, you will gain valuable information to help your child which will begin to unlock the potential your child has. And best of all you will learn that there are other options to helping your child that you can do yourself. We would also highly recommend attending the parent course at FHC or IAHP. To read how our journey began and the successful progress Kevin has had refer to the January 2010 blog archive.