Loss of a child

Loss of a child 

CHENOA 

AMES-ACKERMAN STORY 

In 2011 I got pregnant with my first child. we named her chenoa In Native American the meaning of the name Chenoa is: Dove. My daughters father is native American so we decided to go with a native American name. 

Even though she can't be the one to share her journey , i can be her voice, I can only hope that By sharing her story , I can help keep her memory alive but helps people understand that a child life is a very precious thing, no matter how long they are here for

She was an inspiration to everyone around her,  

Chenoa Ames-Ackerman was born on August 15th 2011 

She spent the first three months of her life in the hospital, due to her having open heart surgery. Then after her recovery time was completed, she passed all her tests and she was doing very well so they told me and her father that we could take our babygirl home finally. 

Then We got 12 incredible months with her but unfortunately due to complications from her open her surgery she ended up passing away December 4th of 2012 

Age : 15 months old / one year and three months old.

This is my daughter story:

  it didn't matter if you knew her or if it was the first time you were meeting with her, she always seemed to know exactly what people needed. she was born with an gift, that allows her to feel everything at a deeper level or give her the ability to have a deeper awareness and understanding to those around her, but because she was so young, i don't think she fully understood what she could do, i believe she just realized that she could feel things , she knew she wanted to help others. So she decided she was going to help by giving people her love. 

She gave the love she had to anyone who needed it. She knew if you were having a bad day, she knew if something was wrong, even if you were good at hiding your emotions, you could not fool her , She knew what people were feeling, she had a way of hearing  

Things that people weren't saying even though she wasn't alive for long. she made such a difference in people's life, 

Chenoa did not let the struggles she was faced with on daily basis, stop her from helping people. She did not let anything get in her way of her goal, you could tell even though she was so young this is something she wanted to do, you could see iin her eyes and her face , Every morning she woke up she wanted to help as many people she could with the limited time she was given.

I know it doesn't seem like this could be possible because of how young my daughter was. 

She was a very special child with a unique ability to see and feel things that other people or children can not see or feel, I do know there is other adults and child in the world that share similar abilities that me and my daughter could of shared. She just made certain things that would seem impossible for a one year to be able to successfully do and she would do them.

she did not let her life pass by, she made every day count, she lived everyday to the fullest, she would not let the pain and sadness interfere with the love she had in

her heart, along who she was as a person .

You could feel the love she carried around with her before she walked into the room and you continue to feel that love even after she walked out of the room, 

 It was the best kind of love you can receive, it was genuine with no expectations, the kind of love That is so powerful yet rare, 

because it can helps heal you in ways that you did not know was possible, 

 She did not waste a chance to show everyone that even when your faced with difficult times that is filled with pain , it doesn't have to define who you are or how you treat others.  

It wasn't until 8 hours after she was born she turned blue, she was with the Dr's at the time for a weight check. they came in and told me she was having issues breathing and turning blue and they had no idea why. Wasn't until the specialist came in and we Learned she had Transposition Of the greater arteries

Everyone is born with one to two holes in there heart. her hole had closed. they went in with a tiny medical stuff to reopen the hole in the heart to allow the blood to flow better , that was the purpose of the cardiac catheterization. 

Then at a week old, she had to have open heart surgery. to fix her arteries to put her arteries back where they belonged. they used medical clamps to hold the arteries in place.

She passed both surgeries with flying colors. the doctors were so impressed with her, with how well she was recovering. until her Incision on her chest closed before it could properly drain. she had to have another surgery, just to drain her incision then after 3 months of being in the hospital she was finally able to come home. 

We got 15 amazing months with her before she got sick again. we went back to the hospital, it took 3 days to realize what was going on with her. she had double in size. at first the doctors were stumped. she was passing all her tests but we couldn't figure out what was going on then her. Cardiologist decided to do another Cardiac catheterization this time with a Ballon to measure everything inside her heart. Then we found out the clamp that kept her artery in place had come undone. ( which we were already warned could happen at any point ) They realized it had come undone. While she was trying to come out of the Anesthesia, her heart stopped. they performed cpr on her to attempt to Recessitate her but could only get half of her heart to start again. that's when they came and got me and her father, and said they had been a problem with the surgery. That we needed to come now so we went upstairs to where she was. they were still performing cpr on her after an hour I told them to stop. I scooped her up in my arms , and held her until her heart stopped. she died in my arms. that's an image I will always have in my head. Loosing a child is the hardest thing I have ever had to go through. I don't wish it on my worse Enemy. Both me and ryan grieved in our own ways. we ended up splitting up for a time before getting back together and having our two boys . 

Below you will find more in depth information about open heart surgery, other surgery she had and the heart defect she had.

Open heart surgery definition

Heart surgery is any surgery done on the heart muscle, valves, arteries, or the aorta and other large arteries connected to the heart. The term "open heart surgery" means that you are connected to a heart-lung bypass machine, or bypass pump during surgery. Your heart is stopped while you are connected to this machine.

Definition of transposition of the greater arteries  

Dextro-Transposition (pronounced DECKS-tro trans-poh-ZI-shun) of the Great Arteries or d-TGA is a birth defect of the heart in which the two main arteries carrying blood out of the heart – the main pulmonary artery and the aorta – are switched in position, or “transposed.”

So that means her blood wasn't flowing like it was supposed to she had to have two diffrent types of surgeries one a 3 days old called cardiac catheterization 

 Cardiac catheterization (kath-uh-tur-ih-ZAY-shun) is a procedure in which a thin, flexible tube (catheter) is guided through a blood vessel to the heart to diagnose or treat certain heart conditions, such as clogged arteries or irregular heartbeats

Rest in peace our beautiful Dove gone to soon but never forgotten 2011-2012

Born August 15th 2013 

Passed away December 4th 2012 age: 15 months.