So on Thursday Nick called the coroner. It looks like it is going to be another month or two before we get all the results back but he was able to tell us that Olivia had a double ear infection. No surprise there. What was surprising to find out is that she was born without a gallbladder.
I researched that online and it looks like an agenesis gallbladder is fairly common. About 1 in 1000. The more uncommon part is that is 70% of those cases present with no other symptoms or problems. In the other 30% a child with an agenseis gallbladder can have other problems... one being a ventricular septal defect. VSD is a type of congenital heart defect. It is a hole between the ventricles of the heart.
So... that is what we know so far. I know that a lot of that is just what I found online and we need to wait for all the results to come back but it is so hard to not think about the what ifs and why not. Why didn't they see this on my ultrasounds? How come they didn't hear a heart murmur? Why didn't they check her heart when she couldn't keep her pulse ox up?
Would it have made a difference? Would things be different now? Or would we have just spent months in the hospital just to have the same outcome?
I will never know the answers to those questions. What I do know is that no matter what... I still miss my baby just as bad. Learning what happened doesn't make loosing her any easier.
Heart issues are often really hard to detect on an ultrasound. I have to be monitored for that type of thing due to some family issues, and they told me that they could really only see half the story before the baby is born. The blood flow changes so much after birth that some issues you just can't see on an ultrasound end up being problems once out in the world.
ReplyDeleteYou guys are so strong. What ever the reason was for Olivia having to leave you so soon, she was a blessed and happy baby to have you in her life.