Barbara's Story 
*Picture to be added soon*

 

    Our second daughter, Barbara, was born on October 13, 1998. She was born just 12 months and 2 days after her sister Sabrina. When Barbara was around five months old my husband and I noticed that she would reach for things with her left hand and she would keep her right hand close to her body. During her next doctors visit, which was just 2 weeks away, I mentioned it to her Pediatrician. We immediately were referred to a Neurologist. The Neurologist examined her and said we must have an M.R.I. done to rule out brain tumors and things of that nature. 

    After the M.R.I. was completed we took the films back to the doctor, he looked at the films and said “Your daughter has suffered a stroke".  Since she was born by planned Cesarean Section, there were no complications at birth. It took us 4 weeks after that to find out from the hospital what her Apgar score was (I think they just made it up so I would stop calling) we had changed Pediatricians after Barbara was born and neither doctor new what the Apgar score was. I am not trying to blame anyone for anything that may have happened to Barbara, but my husband and I are RH Incompatible. After our first daughter Sabrina was born I was given a Rhogam injection before I left the hospital. When we went home I was called by the hospital (about 2 weeks later) and was told to come back, because the Rhogam Injection was “defective”. I had not been pregnant yet with Barbara, but I’m wondering if the late Injection could have caused her to have a stroke.

    Barbara just recently turned two years old, she is the light of my life.  I can’t imagine my life without her. Her diagnosis is Right Hemipeligia.  She started walking in September 2000 and her she doesn’t use her right hand
as much as she should. Barbara doesn’t keep her hand closed (tight fisted) like she use too, and her speech is becoming much better. She receives Physical Therapy 2 x a week and Occupational Therapy 1 x a week. In January she will begin Speech Therapy.

    I feel kind of selfish for feeling “bad” about what happened to my daughter after reading all these stories. If you look at Barbara she appears to be a normal child, she just doesn't speak well right now. I am often told by
people who don’t know anything about a stroke is that she could be worse, and that’s true, but even though she is considered by the Neurologist as having a slight stroke, I worry about her all the time, especially the future.

    I also wonder if any other parents of children with stroke have a hard time finding shoes. Barbara’s right foot is significantly wider than her left.  Wide shoes are out of the question because her left foot is petite.

    Thank you for listening and thank you for creating this website, it’s nice to know that other people understand what my husband and I are going through.

Michelle (24) Dave (26) - Daughters Sabrina (3) and Barbara (2).

 

None of the stories or pictures on these pages may be used without the express written permission of the Pediatric Stroke Network and/or the parents of these children. These stories are copyrighted by the intellectual property law. All stories are original submissions written by parents.
 
 

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