Baby Sam

from Sam's journal:

1/28/10, 12:41 pm


"His surgeon just came and spoke with me. It was not good. He said that there was nothing more they could do for Sam, and we have two options right now. We can wait and see what he does in the next couple of days, or we can take him off of the ventilator, and he will pass away."




1/29/10, 11:04 am

"Aunt Julie here....

Just a short time ago a decision was made to stop Sam's dialysis. Tonight he will be rocked to sleep with a new body in the arms of our loving Father.

Kurt and Joy are holding him now. They are surrounded by their family and friends. It won't be much longer now.

Joy showed me a book last night that one of Sam's nurses bought for him. It is called "Kiss Good Night" and I find it fitting

"And she bent way down, kissing Sam once and twice and then twice more.

Outside, the wind blew and the rain came down.

In the little white house, Mrs. Bear was taking out the light whispering, "Kiss good night, Sam... kiss good night..."

And Sam went to sleep..."

Sam will go to sleep today and wake up in heaven. How many people can say that they got to take their first steps in heaven?"

1/29/10, 1:40 pm

"Just a short time ago little Sam left the arms of his earthly father into the arms of his Heavenly father. "



1/29/10, 9:27 pm

"This morning Samuel's x-ray and lab work came back. His x-ray showed severe distention in his belly, and his lab work showed complete kidney failure. His digestive system was starting to shut down. There was nothing more that could be done. His body was weary, and God was clearly telling us that it was time to give our sweet baby boy back to Him. We wept, but we did not weep for Sam. We knew that today he would leave our arms and be in the arms of his Savior. And he did.

Kurt and I laid in bed with him, our faces against his cheeks, with both of our arms around him. We told him we were proud of him, that we loved him so so much, and that we were so thankful to have him as our son. We told him that Jesus was waiting for him, and that He would hold him until we could again. We prayed for and with him. Sam was ready to go. What we were told could take hours took only seconds....

We are rejoicing for our sweet baby. His heart and his body are healed, and he looked upon his Heavenly Father's face today. So, while we sorrow-we sorrow not for Samuel, but for us."



Thank you for caring for my friends, and their sweet boy, for his short time on earth. You will never know what it meant to them. If you have been following Sam's life, please visit his journal and read Joy's complete entry - www.caringbridge.org/BabySam


"Good night, sweet prince, and flights of angels sing thee to thy rest..."

Baby Sam Christmas update

Sam had a very precarious Christmas. When a baby is doing well, it's easy to forget that a split second can change everything, and that certainly happened for this family on Christmas day. Joy sent some new pictures reluctantly - she said she finds it hard to share pictures when Sam looks so puffy and sick, but she wanted to let people know exactly what he was facing. The first picture is Sam with his parents, Joy and Kurt. The second picture is Sam with his Aunt Stephie (Joy's sister), and siblings Matthew, Emma, and Parker. The third is just Sam. Here's the latest update from Joy:


"I never want to relive last night.
I do not want to remember the complete brokenness, we as parents had looking at our sweet baby fighting for his life...and knowing he was losing the battle.
Sam went downhill very quickly yesterday afternoon. Our prayer requests have focused on fluid retention and severe edema, and yesterday his body was at maximum capacity of fluid overload and it had had enough. Even his little ears were so swollen-they

were swelled shut. His kidneys started to shut down. He was not urinating despite massive doses of strong diuretics.

The doctors laid everything out extremely clear for us. We could do nothing and watch Sam die. We could shut off the ventilator and watch Sam die. We could give our consent to a procedure that had the potential to help him...but also had the very high possibility of killing him. The Doctor's words still ring in my mind, she said them over and over..."we could kill him with this procedure".

It is a situation no parent EVER should have to be in. Those are not words ANY parent should have to hear. It is not a decision that parents should have to make for their babies. Yet we know that many do every day...last night we were one of them, and it shattered us. We just kept asking for one more minute.

... One more minute to feel his warm, soft skin. One more minute to feel him gripping our fingers with his sweet tiny hands. One more minute to tell him how much he was loved, and how proud we were of him. One more minute to reassure him that he was in God's hands. One more minute to smell his precious little head. One more minute to pray over him. One more minute to cry out on his behalf. One more minute to spend holding on to each other trying to breathe through choking sobs and hot tears. One more minute asking God to spare his life.

Finally there were no more minutes left, and we had to walk away from our baby Samuel...we had to walk away and leave him to have this procedure, knowing we could lose him in the next half hour. We said one more I love you and gave one more kiss knowing it could be our last. Kurt and I cried like we have never cried before. It was more than our hearts could take.

We put aside our wills, and what we wanted for Sam, and we started praying for God's.

We could feel people praying. We could feel you lifting us up, and bringing Sam before The Lord. There were more tears as we realized we will NEVER be able to thank you all enough for praying for our little boy. NEVER.

When the doctor came and told us that Sam made it through and there were no complications

the tears and sobs came again. We give all of the glory and honor to The Lord, because He is the only one who could have done what was accomplished last night. We are praising and thanking Him for all He has done in and through our little Sam's life...and we are praying that He continues to use him.

Samuel is still in VERY critical condition, and is extremely fragile right now. They were able to pull a lot of fluid off today with the dialysis, but there is still so much extra on his little body. I have not wanted to post a picture of him so swelled up because it is so hard to look at, but I have tonight so you have a clear picture and a better understanding of just how dangerous of a situation we are facing.

He is urinating, but his output in that area needs to be more than what it is. He is on very strong medication that has the potential for very serious side effects like bleeding on the brain, internal bleeding, and stroke. He is at high risk for infection, which would be disasterous for him at this point. His body cannot handle an infection-it would be deadly. He has a really long way to go. "

I know that was a long one, but I really wanted you to feel Joy's heart. She said it, but I need to say it too - THANK YOU for your continued prayers and warm thoughts for this little boy. They really are helping this family!

Baby Sam surgery update

From his website, written by his mom at 3:30 this afternoon:


"We have just come from seeing our son! He is puffy, swollen, bruised,and covered with Betadine stains... but I must say when we saw him open his little eyes we did not care about anything else. Our baby boy is alive. He made it through his first surgery!! Thank you Lord!

He has pacing wires, a femoral artery catheter, chest tubes, and an arterial line in his neck added to the growing collection of hardware on his little body. His heart rate has been good and steady, his oxygen sats look right where they should be, and his blood pressure is excellent. Everything looks great so far.

The day before Thanksgiving and we have SO MUCH to be thankful for this year. So very much. I'll probably be eating a turkey sandwich from the hospital cafeteria tomorrow, but I don't care. Not even a little bit. We have our sweet sweet Sam. He is lying in a tiny hospital warming bed hooked up to medications and machines...but we have him, his heart beating his lungs breathing. That is all we need."


Certainly something to be thankful for on Thanksgiving!

Baby Sam update

****Caution - photo alert. For those who don't wish to see, please consider yourself warned.****


From Sam's latest update:

"Sam had a PIC line put in his little neck today. They had to put him under for that and it took over an hour. It was so hard waiting for him to come back from that. When it was done, and I saw him with the new addition to his lineup of wires I just broke......

The original plan for Samuel's heart condition was to do the first surgery called a Norwood operation. That plan has had to be altered because of Sam's rough and traumatic first few days of life. His lungs have sustained damage from the fluid and blood that filled them and the resucit

ation efforts. The damage will heal, but it will take time. Because of this they all feel that Sam is not strong enough to survive the Norwood operation, so they are changing the plan. He will have an operation called a Hybrid Norwood which will enable the doctors to do what is essential for his heart right now, and not risk him going on the heart and lung bypass machine. It will make Sam's second operation more involved, but we are praying he will be strong enough then to endure it.
It is still a very involved heart operation, and carries with it a lot of risk. The risk of losing Sam is still staggering. All of which we heard today. It took our breath away. They have scheduled his surgery for this Wednesday. We will find out what time tomorrow. PLEASE start praying for our sweet Sam right now!!"

Baby Sam update

Thanks to everyone who sent thoughts/prayers/bright thoughts/good vibes to this little guy -he's here! He has quite a struggle ahead, though - here's an update:

"They broke Joy's water after more than 24 hours of labor. After that she had an epidural...

and about 30 minutes later felt severe pressure. Sam was coming--but he was sticking out a FOOT. In between her water breaking and that moment he had managed to flip himself around and was breech. This presented a very scary situation in the operating room. Joy worked very hard to get him out quickly.

Samuel David Owens was born at 7:20 PM on November 18th. He weighed in at 6 pounds on the nose, and was 19 inches long. They immediately whisked him to ICU where they found several complications. His lungs were filling up with blood, and he took his very first ambulance ride at minutes old to St. Mary's hospital. Several tests were performed and we were told that Sam needed a procedure done immediately to open his atrial septum which was completely sealed shut. Kurt went with Sam, and was told that Samuel had several things going against him, and to be prepared for the worst. They did not think he would survive the procedure....

Shortly after 1 o'clock this morning weary looking doctors came in to talk with us. They told us Sam was doing WELL...but he is also a VERY sick little baby, and he has a VERY long and rocky road ahead of him. They were amazed at how remarkably strong Samuel was, and how resilient his body was.
Kurt and I were not surprised at all. We knew The Lord had done a miracle and saved our son.

We were both able to see him and touch him. He is absolutely beautiful, and we are so much in love with our new little boy already. It hurts our hearts knowing what he is up against, and what lies ahead.

Please pray for no seizures for Samuel--a very real complication right now.

Pray for his lungs and heart to heal from the procedures they did last night.

Pray for him to stabilize in general--the next few days are very fragile!!"

Thanks so much for your continued well-wishes for this family. They appreciate it more than you know!

Baby Sam

Look at that sweet little face. I'd like to introduce you to Samuel David Owens, who will be making his entrance into the world next Tuesday. Normally, this would be a joyful announcement, but for Sam's parents, this will be a very scary day.

You see, Sam has a big brother, Matthew, who was born with a very severe heart defect. Matthew is 9 years old, and has already had 8 open heart surgeries. If you are a parent, you can understand just how difficult this has been for Matt's mom and dad.




Here is Matthew (on the right) with his brother, Parker, and sister, Emma Grace. Matt is doing well now, but will always have health issues because of his fragile heart.


When Matt's parents found out they were going to have another baby, they were happy, but that happiness quickly turned into devastation - their precious, unborn baby has an even more severe heart defect that Matthew. You can read the details on his website. On Friday, Baby Sam's parents found out that he would need to be born on Tuesday - more than 1 month before his due date.

I went to high school with Sam's mom and dad, and cannot express how much I hurt for them. Joy and Kurt are, truly, shaken to their very core - please, if you have a moment, send up a prayer, a bright thought, a silent wish - if you can, pray for Baby Sam.



"Broken hearts become brand new - that's what faith can do."