Awareness

We have put off posting this for a long time, trying to decide whether or not it was anyones business exactly. We have decided to make people aware and to clear peoples thoughts on what happened to Evie.

Several people have asked on this blog how Evie passed away. The day after she died the medical examiner performing Evies autopsy noticed a blue rash on her body, which is a sign of Meningitis. We did notice it the morning we found her but she did not have it when i gave her a bath the night before so we had no idea what it was.

We were told that morning to take Ramsey to the ER to be given an antibiotic, which could only help Ramsey if she already had meningitis, not to prevent it.

After several long months and questioning what happened to our baby, the autopsy results were finally complete the end of this summer.

The medical examiner sat us down and we went over the report. Reading the autopsy result of you own child was devastating for Jonathan and I. We read everything and the medical examiner was as informative as she could be, but in her words she couldn't explain exactly what happened, i think they were stumped as well.

Basically, the frustrating part was Evies body was very healthy. There was no signs of any infection anywhere in her body besides her spine and brain. Her heart and other organs were in perfect condition. The sent off several blood work tests and after not finding much of anything they determined Evie died of Meningioencephalitis. Pretty much a combination of meningitis and encephalitis. Meningitis affects your spine and encephalitis is an infection in your brain. They were both presenting but one was not stronger than the other, so they combined them.

We want to make people aware because this is considered a silent killer. There are vaccinations strictly for meningitis but only when you are school age. There are also several strands of meningitis such as viral and bacterial and the antibiotic can not cover all. There is still so much research that needs to be done.

Evie and Ramsey were up to date on all of their shots and had actually just gotten their 18 month shots the fall before Evie passed away. There are a couple shots that could help prevent meningitis ( HiB, PCV7) and the girls did have those.

In April, the FDA did finally approve giving a meningitis vaccine for children under 2.

Evie and Ramsey were at the doctor with pinky eye on Tuesday.We stayed home from school that day and on Wednesday stayed home so they could get better. Evie had no symptoms that we could see. She ate great all day and played with Ramsey. She wanted me to hold her more and was a little whinier than usual but i only think more about that now because she died, otherwise, she was 20 months, what 20 month old doesn't whine some or want to be held. I gave her a bath that night and noticed nothing. She went to sleep with no problems and we didn't hear a peep from her or Ramsey all night. I am not telling you this to scare you but to clear up some confusion people had and we had as well.

This whole time we questioned the whole day before she died and went back through the day in our heads and beat ourselves up over it. If Evie hadn't of died we wouldn't have thought twice about that day because in all actuality there wasn't much different about it than any other day with them.

But we are angry that there wasn't anything we could have done either. Why did i not have " mothers intuition" that something was just not right on Wednesday. so i would have taken her in and the doctors could have saved her? Why didn't they notice something was different on Tuesday while we were at the doctor and why in the world was it our child that was chosen to die from some stupid infection that is so rare to get and die from?

I just get so angry sometimes that Evie died and there was nothing i could have done to save her. It makes you feel like you failed as a parent. We all try to do the best we can but in the end we are only human and doctors are only human and the one perfect healer, God, is all powerful and there are some things we just cant explain. He has his reasons for taking her from us but boy i wish i knew why.

For more information or to clear up some confusion you might have you can check out these websites.

USAtoday

Mayo Clinic

Thank you for your continued prayers and support for our family. Every day is a struggle and as we approach this holiday season and the anniversary of Evies death we ask that you continue to pray for our family.

Thank you for reading our blog and for always being so supportive in your comments

But most importantly for remembering this sweet girl!