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Monroe girl’s life will not go unnoticed
Published October 12, 2008
MONROE — At its heart, it will be a ceremony to honor children who are barely spoken of and yet their life, no matter how short, has just as much value as the living children.
One of the greatest hardships of life — losing a child — became a reality for Keira and Richard Sorrells. As they searched for support and refused to let the life of their daughter Zoe go unnoticed, the Sorrells would not let their experiences simply fade into history. Born from tragedy was the Zoe Rose Memorial Foundation, which recently had its first board meeting, and on Oct. 18 the Sorrells and their organization are hosting a candle lighting and remembrance ceremony to recognize National Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness.
As of Friday, more than 190 candles will light up the lawn of the Historic Courthouse, each honoring the loss of a child from people nationwide.
“After Zoe died, we immediately began formulating ideas to help families of micro-preemies who face the same medical issues that Zoe so bravely fought,” Keira said. “I searched for the ‘perfect’ support group for women who understood what it felt like to lose a baby, who was part of a multiple birth and who had fought so hard, so courageously, only to lose the battle. What I found were a few very specific groups dedicated to supporting women who had experienced a loss during pregnancy or shortly after birth or during infancy.
“The idea started with the thought we would light a candle for each baby that we knew of and we would say their name as we lit their candle. My list grew and grew.”
The ceremony will take place a little more than a year after the day the Sorrells were able to bring Zoe home.
It was Dec. 20, 2006, when Keira and Richard became parents to triplet girls born at 25 weeks, five days gestation. The combined birth weight of Zoe, Avery and Lily was 4 pounds, 4 ounces and they measured between 10 inches and 12 inches in length. The new parents knew that if their children lived, they would have several months in the neo-natal intensive care unit at Northside Hospital.
“We knew we would not know the extent of their potential medical conditions until much later,” Keira said.
Avery and Lily had uneventful NICU courses compared to Zoe, though because of their fragile medical condition and because they were on ventilators, it would be one month before the proud parents could hold their children. Even then Richard and Keira could only hold Avery and Lily once a day for 15 minutes. The two children were able to come home after four months but still required feeding tubes, apnea monitors and additional medical attention.
Zoe seemed to bear the full brunt of the extreme premature birth of all of the girls and had to stay in the hospital for nine and a half months, an experience hard on the whole Sorrells family. The first four weeks Zoe had four chest tubes and a heart surgery. But on Oct. 7, 2007, Zoe finally came home, though she was on oxygen, had to be fed through a tube, had hearing loss, a paralyzed vocal chord and was on multiple medications.
“But this ‘medical’ description of Zoe does not come close to painting the picture of the baby who smiled at everyone, rarely cried and would laugh so hard — albeit silently — her entire body would shake,” Keira said. “She was, by all accounts, a very happy baby.”
The proud mother said although Zoe was developmentally delayed, she was making great strides at home and there was a lot of hope for the youngster’s future.
The bright light that was the hope of Zoe’s future grew dim earlier this year. Zoe developed the flu and pneumonia in February, landing the Sorrells back in the hospital. The stay lasted five days and they returned home. Two days later, the Sorrells rushed back to the emergency room because Richard just “felt something wasn’t right” and his daughter’s oxygen requirements were slowly climbing.
Zoe would die in her parents’ arms the next day. They found out later that Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) had infected Zoe’s bloodstream and caused her untimely death.
But through the foundation her parents have established, Zoe will live on. Just in the brainstorming phase, their outreach will cater to educating parents of micro preemies. Plans are in the works to build a comprehensive Web site that will cover most of the common conditions of these small bundles of joy. The foundation hopes to eventually provide one-on-one support and parent advocacy for parents and caregivers of micro preemies.
“One of the biggest hurdles we had once the girls were stable and there were talks of them coming home was the transition home,” Keira said. “In the hospital, all the specialists and therapists are at your fingertips and the neonatologist is your team leader. As soon as you walk out those doors, you the parent becomes the team leader. It is overwhelming to say the least.
“We want to help these parents at this crucial time to feel they have someone or some place to go to help them organize their daily schedules, support them emotionally and help them locate resources.”
Through events like the one beginning at 6:30 p.m. Saturday on the Historic Courthouse lawn, the memories of Zoe and others like her will live on through more than just lit luminaries.
For more information e-mail klsorrells@ yahoo.com.
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