Sunday, December 17, 2006

Landans Story

Landan Michael Everett Harris
8/17/03 - 11/16/06



Landan's Story:


Landan was one of the sweetest little guy I've ever met. The passion in his eyes & the love in his heart was amazing. Watching him figure out how to do things on his own was also amazing to watch, he was so so smart for his age. I miss him so much, I can't even describe the pain. A part of me died with him on 11/16/06. Below his is story that you can also read on his memorial myspace page.
Everything started on Tuesday November 14th. Landan was acting crabby so my husband (Landan's stepfather) put him down for a nap. He only slept about an hour & was still crabby when he got up. He was touching his throat so I asked if his throat hurt and he said yes. He was still acting crabby and tired so I thought he had a cold, I went out to the store and got him some children's Tylenol and Motrin. Landan slept in the living room off and on for the rest of the day until I took him to bed in my room around 9:30-10pm. I gave him more Motrin at 2am and he woke up at 3am and asked for more juice, then at 6am I woke up, saw his juice was gone, asked if he wanted more and he said yes so I refilled his cup.

At 9am I woke up to find Landan laying on the floor next to my bed covered in, what looked to me, like bruises. I sat up straight in bed and frantically tried to focus my eyes because I couldn't believe what I was seeing. I thought he was dead, I was so afraid to touch him. I thought he was going to be cold. Once my eyes focused I saw he was breathing, touched him and felt that he was still warm. I ran to the kitchen where my cell phone was plugged in, I yelled Landan's name while I was running to the kitchen so he would stay conscious. I called my mom and then 911. When the paramedics arrived they checked his vitals but they knew he was sick so took him out to the ambulance. I remember sitting in the ambulance and asked the driver when we were going to leave, it felt like we sat their forever. We took him to the best hospital in the area, Toledo Children's Hospital. The last thing Landan said to me while we were in the ER before they took him up to the PICU was "Mama hold me" but I couldn't because they needed to get him up to the PICU as soon as they could. I think I said "It's ok bebe." We followed him up, and I remember my mom asking the doctor on the way up if he was going to be ok, and he said something like "... he's a very sick little boy ..." We waited in the waiting room down the hall from the PICU for about an hour. Before the doctor came down they sent a chaplain in to talk to us, my mom knew then that he was really sick. The PICU doctor came in shortly and told us Landan had bacterial meningitis and it was a 90% mortality rate.

We were finally allowed in to see Landan. We had to be in almost full scrubs. We had to wear masks, gloves, everything. His left foot was completely purple, his back, and nose as well. His other extremities were very splotchy purple. All this was cause by something called "DIC" which is where the body bleeds and clots at the same time, because he had septicemia. I remember the nurse told us she asked Landan if he wanted to watch cartoons, and Landan said yes so he watched cartoons, but was very out of it. She told us to tell him to go to sleep, my mom (his nana) said "Go to sleep baby", Landan shook his head and said "no." Those were the last words Landan spoke to us. The priest came from our church to preform the anointing of the sick. This was the first time I cried, Landan's dad, the nurse, priest & I were the only ones in the room at this point. If Landan would have survived he would have had several amputations and most likely plastic surgery for his nose. But selfishly we would have taken him any way we could just to have him here with us.

The PICU doctor told us we needed to consider hyperbaric chamber treatments if Landan had a possibility of surviving.Landan fought for 23hrs at the hospital enduring three hyperbaric chamber treatments. It was downstairs for 2hrs in the chamber, upstairs in the PICU for an hour, then back down to the chamber. The treatments were helping to bring back color to the purple areas, because it forces oxygen into the blood and tissues. The PICU doctor said it was a miracle he lasted as long as he did, that's why our hopes here high.

Landan's little heart of gold finally couldn't take anymore and he went into cardiac arrest. We watched them doing chest compression's and then the doctor told us he was gone.

It happened so fast. I stepped out of the PICU for a minute to take a phone call & update my friend because his blood pressure had just went back up. My dad & step mom came running out and told me I need to get back into the PICU right away. I asked my dad as we were walking back in what happened and he told me Landan's heart had stopped and they were doing chest compression's. Like I said we watched the whole thing, I'll never forget that for the rest of my life. We got to hold Landan for 5 hours after he was gone. They finally told us it was time to go, I think they know we would have never left. I don't think anyone is ever ready to say goodbye to their child. Landan died on Thursday November 16th.

My baby was laid to rest on Tues November 21st, which is exactly a month to the day that he was a ring bearer, and walked me down the aisle in my wedding. I still can't believe his gone I wish I would have taken him to the hospital the night before but I thought he just had a cold. I miss him so much and wish I could still receive his hugs and kisses.

Written in 2007

3 comments:

Eydie Fernandez said...

It's 12:15 am in Arizona and I'm reading Landans Story. I'm sitting here with tears in my eyes and a huge knot in my throat. I am so sorry for the loss of your beautiful son Landan. I'm writing a report on meningitis for my A&P class. I chose meningitis because I had bacterial meningitis in the fall of 05. Since then, I've always felt that something more needed to be done to educate people about the symptoms and prevention of this terrible illness. Thank you for sharing your son's story. Thank you for loving your son so much. What a wonderful Angel you have looking over you. All the best! From Az.

Veronica Lee said...

I'm so sorry for the loss of your beautiful son. Thanks for sharing your story. Hugs.

Losing Brownies said...

I'm sitting here in tears as I hold my son. I can't even imagine the heartbreak and pain. I am so sorry that you had to experience this.

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