My name is Amanda and I am twenty one years old. My whole 
pregnancy went beautifully until something really bad happened. 
The day before my due date at home, I had seven seizures in a row. 
Luckily my mom heard the crash and called the ambulance. 
When I arrived at the hospital, I was still seizing, my doctor 
realized my son was in distress & they had to get him out quickly. 
My doctor performed a ten minute c-section but unfortunately 
when they got him out he wasn't breathing. They had to revive 
him and that's when they realized there was a major problem. 
He wouldn't cry and he was barely moving. That's when they 
realized he has brain damage from the loss of oxygen to his brain. 
The doctors suggested an option to my mom because I was on a vent
an in critical condition, to transfer him. My mom made the choice 
and had him transferred to Schneider's Children Hospital to try this 
experimental brain cooling cap which is suppose to help the amount 
of damage that was done. It had to stay on for two whole days and 
made his whole body swollen and puffy. In the meantime I came 
around but still had never seen my son. It had been four days and 
I knew I had to see him. So against medical wishes I left the one 
hospital and had my family drive me to Schneider's. I was so 
devastated in pain when I looked at him but also felt joy. 
I was just so upset and mad because I never imagined anything 
like this would happen to my little boy. 

His name is Drew and he was born April 9th, 2007. 
After the cooling cap came off they said you have to wait 
and see what he does. In time he came off the vent and 
went to c-pap but was still not crying, moving or opening his eyes. 
Every single night I had to leave him there at midnight, go home, 
and return the next morning at nine am. Eventually after waiting 
days he opened his eyes and was moving a little bit. Now the 
doctors told me about the real problems we have to deal with. 
As I awaited the MRI results, I try to stay as positive and hopeful 
as I could, until the doctor told me. The MRI scan came back really 
bad and he was diagnosed with cerebral palsy. Then they told me 
that the part of brain that had damage was his central nervous 
system which controls all major senses of your body. They told me 
he might not be able to see or hear.  He can't suck or swallow. 
Not even his own saliva so he needed to be suctioned quite frequently. 
Being he couldn't swallow he couldn't eat, so they placed a tube down 
his nose/ throat that went directly to his stomach. The food went 
through the tube and straight to his belly. About a week later they 
recommend he have a gtube placed  so we wouldn't have to deal 
with the tube going down his nose. It is a tube that is on his 
stomach and everything goes thru there. After being there for 
three whole weeks, they told me my options and I had to make a 
choice. I decided it would be the best choice for us to go to 
Blythedale Children's Hospital in Westchester. As much as I 
didn't want to be away from my home and my family it was the 
best choice for Drew. Blythedale is a rehabilitation hospital 
where they will teach you how to take care of him, he will 
have nurses watching, and he will receive therapies to try to
help him do what he couldn't. I never expected my very first 
mother's day would be spent in a hospital. I stayed at his bedside 
every night on a chair bed day in and day out for three weeks. 
After that I realized we could go home because I was an expert 
at taking care of him and he could receive all his therapies at home. 
Before leaving the hospital we had to arrange all the equipment 
needed for him to be at home. He has an oxygen tank, two 
suctioning machines, a feeding pump, a pulsimator machine, 
and monthly supplies. 

May 17th, 2007 Drew finally comes home for the first time in 
his six week old life. At first I was scared because I was home 
alone with him and I was afraid of more bad things happening. 
I would cry every night and be mad all the time asking why. 
My doctor said unfortunately we do not have crystal balls to 
see the future, it is not your fault, and the miracle is that he s
urvived and is with you. I am so grateful that my doctor saved 
his life that day. Around the end of June, beginning of July, 
he started receiving physical therapy, speech therapy, 
vision therapy, and special educational therapy. These 
wonderful therapists work with him everyday to help him 
with his: muscle tone, movement, suck, swallow, vision, tracking 
and all his other problems. The summer went so fast, and now 
it was fall. He has made little improvements along the way but 
still has those major issues. He was hospitalized three times 
from fall to winter for seizures. On top of his brain damage, 
he has a seizure disorder too. He is currently nine months old 
today and still has all those major problems. On a good day he 
can go around an hour without needing suctioning. On his bad 
days it could be every five minutes. Because of his health 
I wake up everyday praying that he will have a good day. He is 
too young for us to know what medically lies ahead, 
because he is an infant. 

Being a single parent I am his only caregiver. 
Because of his swallowing problems and needing to 
be suctioned at any time, he can not go to a daycare or school. 
I can't even drive with him in the car by myself, because if he 
should choke or require suctioning I can't while I'm driving. 
I can't work because I stay home taking care of him all day 
everyday. It is a 24/7 full time job that requires all my attention 
and responsibility. Life is stressful because of my financial 
situation. My son has a lot of medical needs and expenses that I 
can not afford. I need everyone's help.

"Miracles For Drew" was started by family and friends
as a way to raise money toward Drews medical needs and 
expenses to try and help him get better. I am not a doctor to 
know what his future will bring. All I know is I have my faith. 
I always pray that God sends me a miracle in helping Drew 
get better.  I believe miracles can happen.

My dream is to someday be able to help other 
children like Drew

Sadly we lost our precious Drew on March 29, 2008