Kim Speer

in

United Methodist Church of the Palm Beaches

3 years ago

When my son Bryant was born, he was born with Reflux. This is when the valve at the top of a baby’s stomach is not tight enough to keep milk in there. At first, I did not know what was wrong with him. He was continuously throwing up. I kept taking him to the doctors and they said I was burping him incorrectly and they would show me different ways to burp him. During this time, he was losing weight. One day I had him on the couch next to me and I turned sideways to grab a diaper and he rolled off the couch. Now he did not fall that far, and I had carpeting in the living room. I picked him up and calmed him down. Once he seemed fine, I put him in his swing and began to clean the house. As I was walking past him, he shot throw up 6 feet across the room. I picked him up and started crying. I thought the fall from the couch broke something inside of him and it was all my fault. I called my husband to come home, and we took him to the emergency room. While we were there, I explained to the doctor what happened. As soon as he heard me say that when he threw up it went 6 feet across the room, he knew exactly what was wrong with him. They gave him a dye test and we watched the liquid go down into his stomach and come right back up. Thankfully it was not my fault and all we had to do was give him some medication to shrink the valve so the food would stay in his stomach. That night when we got home with the medication we were confused. The bottle said to give him .5 ml and the syringe they gave us did not have .5 ml, but it did have 5 ml. Both my mom, myself and my late husband all looked at it and decided it was supposed to be 5 ml that we give him. We were wrong. My son started to breathe rapid, and his eyes were rolling back. We rushed him to the hospital, and they pumped his stomach. He was going to be fine, but it we were very close to losing him. One of the staff said to me, “How could you be so careless, you almost lost your child?” I of course broke down in tears. One of the doctors overheard what he said and reprimanded him, and then apologized to us. Sometimes people say things without thinking. The ER staff member who was so upset with me was upset for a valid reason. A baby almost didn’t make it because of a mistake his mother made. What the staff member did not think about was the fact that this mother was already completely distraught over the mistake she had made. I in no way would have ever put my child in danger on purpose. His words have stayed with me all these years. Words can have a strong effect on people. Sometimes we say things out of anger or without knowing all the facts. Just remember your words can leave a lasting imprint on a person’s life.