Anthony Patrick Crawford
7 Pounds 9 Ounces
21 inches Long
April 24, 2001- April 25, 2001
This is the story of Anthony Patrick Crawford a
very special little boy who is loved
and missed very much. Thank you for taking the
time to read about our angel boy.
In September of 2000 we found out we were
expecting another baby. It was quite a
surprise but a very welcome one!! We already had
a little boy, Kyler who was only a year
old at the time. My pregnancy was fairly easy. I
had an ultrasound around 20 weeks with nothing
found to be wrong with our precious little boy.
Around the 5 month of pregnancy I became
concerned, he was not a very active baby. We had
a non stress test done, and the little guy
decided to move lots and make everyone think his
mommy was crazy!!! Near the end of the pregnancy
I had some problems with high blood pressure so
the doctors decided to induce 2 weeks early.
April 24, 2001, I went to the hospital at 7:00am
to have labor induced. I was already dilated to a
4 and the water bag was bulging so they just
broke my water and labor started quickly. After 5
hours of fairly easy labor my beautiful son was
born at 1:52 pm. At birth he was not breathing
well and his heart rate was very low, 50-60 bpm.
He was resuscitated and then he started
breathing on his own. Though not as well as they
would like. It was decided that he needed to be
transferred to a larger hospital with a Nicu.
We were able to see him for a moment before they
intubated him to be transferred. He was so
beautiful. I am so thankful to have been able to
look into his eyes, if only I had known it would
be the only time.
Anthony and I were flown to Deaconess Medical
Center in Spokane, Wa, about 3 hours away by
car. My husband, son and all the grandparents
were to follow. Once we arrived at the
hospital, they did an echocardiogram and found he
was born with numerous congenital heart
defects. Atrioseptal defect, common AV valve,
double outlet right ventricle, Severe hypoplasia
of transverse and ascending aortic arch. The
Doctors did not give us much hope. They said they
could perform the Norwood procedure if they
could get him stable. But did not give us a lot
of hope. He was ok throughout the night.
Around 12:50pm the next day things took a turn
for the worse, he stopped breathing and they
were unable to get him breathing again. We
were. faced with the decision to have the
doctors stop resuscitation. We decided that our
new son had endured enough in his short life,
so with agonizing hearts we let him go. The
Doctors stopped CPR, and handed my son to me. I
carried him to a little room with a rocking
chair and began rocking him. Amazingly, a short
while later he started breathing again on
his own and stayed with us for two and half
hours. We held him for hours and finally
around 7:30 pm we handed our son over to the
nurses and walked out of the hospital empty
handed and broken hearted.
A week later on May 1, 2001 we had a funeral for
him in our home town. We had him cremated and he
watches over our home. Anthony will forever live
in our hearts.
Song playing: "Cry" by Mandy Moore
