Success Stories

Tina's Story

In 1991 I was stationed in Germany and found out I was pregnant. I was shocked, overjoyed and somewhat dumbfounded. Everything went fine, then at my 22 1/2 week mark, I was lying in bed and felt something wet come gushing out of me. I thought I had wet the bed so I got up and immediately saw a gush of blood. I started to cry then knowing that something was terribly wrong. I wrapped a towel around me and walked to the bathroom down the hall as I lived in the barracks. I left a trail of blood and blood clots on the floor in the hall. I then had the CQ on duty drive me to the hospital. They transferred me to labor and delivery.

The doctor examined me and the unkindly told me that my baby was going to die and there was nothing they could do. I cried endlessly. I told my significant other, who was with me, that I felt something between my legs. So he looked and sure enough there were two of the tiniest feet. So he ran to go get someone to help me.

I then delivered a 14 oz and 11 3/4 inch baby. He never breathed. They told me that there was no reason for this to happen and it probably would never happen again. I was devastated.

I then transferred to Ft Knox, KY. The next summer I was overjoyed to discover that once again I was pregnant. I was so hopeful and feeling so blessed. In December I was scheduled to go on leave for the holidays. I packed my car and got ready for a long drive to Kansas. I was again 22 1/2 weeks along. I stopped at a rest stop to use the bathroom. I felt the same gush and I thought I just had to pee, but it kept coming and coming. I then started to hemorrhage again. God was with me and someone who worked at the rest stop was there. I don't remember too much of the ride to the hospital. I remember lying there and the nurses asking who was with me and I told them "no one." They didn't give me much hope of my baby living, but they were not as cruel at the doctors in Germany. I then had to have an emergency C-section. I gave birth to a 14 oz, 11 3/4 inch baby girl whom I named Shalla Nickel Lewis.

My mom sent me a plane ticket home. I remember sitting on the plane in pain watching to see my daughter's coffin being loaded onto the plane. It was a really horrible feeling to have to go through this not once but two times.

Then in January 1993 I made the horrible mistake of getting pregnant again. I was on bed rest from 12 weeks to 25 weeks when again my water broke in July. I drove myself to the hospital at Ft. Knox and was transferred to a hospital in Louisville, Ky. I was put almost on my head and given a bunch of medicine to stop my labor. Then the army said that they weren't going to pay for me to spend the next months in
a civilian hospital. So they flew me to Wright Patterson AFB, away from my family. I started to get a fever in my 26th week so they had to induce my labor. I was so scared and so alone.

I spent 36 hours in labor to deliver a 1lb 14 oz baby boy. I asked if he was breathing. My doctor said "Can't you hear him?" then I heard the softest little cry. I knew right then that God would not take my baby from me. He was sent to Dayton Children's Medical Center and spent 2 1/2 months in that hospital fighting for his life. I finally got to hold him after 19 days. It was the greatest feeling I had ever felt. He came home a whopping 4lbs 2oz. He is now 7 and all boy. I tell you I love my Dashawn more than anything.

Since then God has also gifted me with a girl whom I call Sarina. She is almost 4 and when she was born she weighed 5lbs 2oz.

I will not be having any more babies, and that makes me sad sometimes. But I never forget how God gave me two wonderful and spirited children whom I love with my whole heart. I know He does everything for a reason. Maybe I wasn't meant to or wasn't ready for my other two babies. But I am now.

Several of the other stories written here ended in a success, see Heather's Story and Celeste Josephine's Story.