Our heartbreaking story begins

In September 2010 I found out I was pregnant. My husband, Ethan, and I could not have been happier. I did everything right during my pregnancy. I exercised everyday, I ate healthy (anyone who knows me know how much I loathe healthy food). I read everything I could get my hands on about caring for the fetus. We found out at 18 weeks that we were having a boy. Ethan and I could not have been more excited. At 23 weeks I started having hypertension problems and my urine showed I was leaking protein. Never a good sign especially for a woman who was only 23 weeks pregnant. I was admitted to the hospital for 3 days. Eventually my blood pressure came down on its own and I stopped leaking protein. No doctors could explain why this happened but no one thought much of it since my baby looked healthy and my health went back to normal.

Ethan and I had already planned on moving from Pittsburgh to Columbus. Now that my health was normal we made the move. My doctors in Pittsburgh did not think I would need to seek out a high risk doctor. So I picked the first practice I found that was close, and accepted my insurance. My first visit with the new doctor was a good one. My BP and urine were normal and I actually liked the doctors and nurses. All was going according to plan.

On May 31,2011 I was admitted to the hospital to have my water broke. I was 40 weeks and 2 days. We were so excited that this moment was finally here. We were going to get to meet our little baby boy. Labor was fine for me. I got my epidural, I was able to nap. All was good. Until I started to push. I pushed for 2.5 hours without any success. I heard my doctor tell the nurse 'call down and tell them to prep the OR'. Great I was going to need a csection. I was disappointed but didn't really care because I was just so exhausted from pushing. Then my doctor said that it looked like my son had enough room to come out but he was just wedged. He decided instead of a csection he was going to use the forceps. Even though I told him 'no' he used them anyway. My son was pulled from my body by his eye. He was born with his eye totally red and swollen. I didn't focus on it too much since I was so excited to meet my son. It was love at first sight. It wasn't until the next day where I realized his eye was a problem.

When the pediatrician examined Finnegan he thought he had a cataract in his right eye. They were able to get me into a pediatric ophthalmologist right away. I asked him if his eye damage could have been bc of the forceps and he told me no.

The ophthalmologist ruled out cataracts right away. He confirmed it was bc of the birth trauma that his eye was so swollen.

After a few weeks of steroid drops we went back to the ophthalmologist. He determined that the birth injury took 50% of Finn's vision in his right eye. I was crushed. I felt so guilty...then the doctor told me that he wanted to put Finn under anathesia bc he thought he saw something on Finn's eye that concerned him.

Finn was 4 months old when he was put under. I'll never forget that day. September 28,2011 we went in just to have Finns eyes dilated. The doctor came back to say that he thought he saw a tumor in Finns right eye that was touching his optic nerve. A possible retnalblastoma. This news would scare any parent. I was a wreck. The doctor said he wanted to get a MRI and a ct scan to really get a good look at this tumor. So there we sat, waiting to hear what the doctors found. In that time I tried to talk myself down from the ledge. Tell myself that it couldn't be cancer and that if Finn had to have his eye removed then at least he would still have his left eye. The doctor came to get me and Ethan to take us into the back room. Not good. Then he sat a box of tissues on the table and had a nurse come in him with him. Really not good. He told us that during the CT scan they found out that Finn only had half a brain. His entire left side was completely gone. No words can describe how I felt when I heard that. I felt like I was just punched in the stomach. Ethan and I cried together. We cried for our innocent baby. We cried for the loss of the picture perfect family we thought we would have. It was devastating. No parent should have to hear that.

We saw a neurologist a few weeks later. he told us that Finn suffered a catastrophic stroke in utero which left him without the left side of his brain. He told us that it must have happened during the 2nd trimester because of how developed the right side was. He is able to move both sides of his body and was right on track developmentally for a baby his age. Thats what was so puzzling to me and Ethan. We would have never known this about our son if it wasn't for the eye injury. The good news was that his head didn't seem to be swelling so they ruled they would not have to put a shunt in his head. Bad news is he will be very susceptible to seizures.

We were lucky that we were able to discover his stroke so early. We still don't know what caused his stroke. They have ruled out infection and blood disorders. We may never know what happened. So we are concentrating on the present. Finn has been working closely with an early intervention specialist, an occupational therapist, and a vision therapist. Every day I can see improvements. Early intervention has definitely been our saving grace.