Kathy Wendt - Jacob

My husband and I tried to have a baby for eight months. In July of 1999, we found out I was pregnant. For forty weeks I had a "Picture Perfect Pregnancy", as my doctor said. On March 27, 2000 I went to the doctor for my regular appointment. He checked Jacob's heartbeat, checked me and everything was fine. On March 29, 2000, I was at home by myself and my water broke. The first thing that went through my head was, "Oh my gosh, I'm not ready". I went to the bathroom and after a while, I looked in the toilet. I noticed it was full of blood. I called my doctor, my husband, and EMS. It took 10 minutes for the EMS to get to my house. Once they got there, they did not treat my situation as an emergency. At this time my contractions were four minutes apart and 45 seconds long. As they drove me to the hospital, they did not turn on their lights or sirens, and they stopped at all the red lights. Once I got to the hospital, they hooked me up to the machine to check Jacob's heartbeat. The nurse could not find one. So, she turned the machine off. My husband demanded the doctor come see me. When he got there, he could not find a heartbeat. He called a specialist. She found one at 40 beats a minute. They did an emergency C-Section. Jacob was born, but he was basically brain dead. We had two neonatologists. One said Jacob was improving and that he will probaby be handicapped for the rest of his life, and the other said to take him off of all the machines because he will never be able to crawl, walk, eat, and he will always wear diapers. My husband and I were so confused, angry, hurt, and most of all very sad. We did not want Jacob in pain, or to have a difficult life. But we also wanted him with us always. On the third day after Jacob was born, his organs were slowly stopping. We decided to take him off of the breathing machine. He passed away ten minutes later. My doctor told Jay and I that this was caused by Vasa Previa, and that it cannot be detected. And even if I was in the hospital when my water broke, he couldn't save Jacob. We believed him. He did give us an article he copied from one of his medical books. It was only one paragraph long. Obviously, he knows very little about this. I want to give him as much information as I can on this. Since Jacob's death, I have gone to two different support groups. They didn't help. I wanted to find someone who went through exactly what I did, so we could understand and help each other.

Finding this website was a blessing to me. My husband and I are currently trying to have another baby. I want to make people aware of Vasa Previa. I remember when my husband and I went to our Pregnancy classes at the hospital. Not once was Vasa Previa mentioned, or that it is not normal to bleed alot when your water breaks. I knew something was wrong when I started bleeding, but my husband didn't. He kept saying it was normal. That our teacher told us that it is normal for some bleeding to occur when your water breaks. My husband and I own a Managed Care Contracting Company. Not one of our clients, (they are all doctors) have heard of Vasa Previa.

I am scared to death to have another baby, and I don't want to replace my precious angel, Jacob. I haven't even been to the cemetary since he passed away. This is the hardest thing I have ever been through. Not a day goes by that I don't think about him and miss him. My husband and I have been positive through this horrible nightmare. It hurts so bad to know that you and your baby were perfectly healthy for forty weeks, and then your baby is taken away from you. For what reason???

I hope we can all help each other from our expierence.