Taylor Whitehead

Original Post: February 10, 2009

Some of you have heard Taylor's story, and some of you have not. Even though Ja and I are in a really, really exciting time in our life (18 days from today!!!!) it's still really important to remember those that are going through a rough time right now.

Taylor is Ja's best friend, Jeff's, baby girl. She was born on September 11, 2008 a happy and healthy baby. Over the course of the next few months, she would contract a heart virus that would cause her heart to enlarge and crush her lung. There was a time when she was having a hard time breathing and Jeff rushed her to the hospital with her not breathing in the back. She was admitted to the hospital and monitored, and then sent home. They were able to go to Ohio for Christmas and see Jeff's family. When they came back, they noticed that Taylor was really struggling to breath. The took her to the hospital on January 2nd and they sent her to Pitt Memorial in Greenville, NC. While Jeff was there with Taylor, he was talking to the doctor and noticed she stopped moving. The doctor finally saw it too and they realized she was coding. Jeff was ushered out of the room and a ton of nurses and doctors filed in. They worked on her for 13 minutes before they were able to get her back.With oxygen deprivation for that length of time, Taylor has suffered global brain damage. They are unsure, at this point, of the degree of this damage, but there is evidence that there is some. Taylor was at Pitt in the Pediatric ICU (PICU) for weeks before they moved her to Duke. She cannot swallow and they needed to surgically implant a g-tube so that she can be fed directly to her stomach. She also had a broviac tube surgically implanted so that they could administer her heart medicine directly to her heart. As of right now, her heart is working at 35% capacity. Taylor has a long road ahead of her, but she is a fighter. Jeff and Tammy are both teachers in Onslow county and also have two little boys, Tanner (our ring bearer!) and Tate. All three of their kids are under 4. For as long as they could, Jeff and Tammy both stayed with Taylor daily. Jeff's parents have flown in to help and they have a lot of local family that are doing what they can. Jeff is back to school every day during the week, except for Wednesdays, when he gets to go see Taylor in Durham. A lot of people around the county have contributed leave days to Tammy, which are going to allow her to stay with Taylor for a while. They do their best to make it home so that they can spend time with Tate and Tanner, also.

This is a really tough time for their family, but all anyone can really do right now is just pray. Pray that doctors are seeing everything they need to and they are doing all they can to help Taylor recover from this.

Jeff's family in Ohio are keeping up a blog to help everyone stay up to date with Taylor and not have to go through Jeff and Tammy. This has been an awesome resource and a really great way to stay current with their situation. If you get a sec, take a look at it and please, please, please send some prayers their way. They can use all they can get!!

With Jeff being one of Ja's groomsmen and Tanner being our ring bearer, we were thinking that they weren't going to be a part of the wedding. With all they have going on, our wedding is the last thing they need to be worried about. We got some good news a couple of days ago that Jeff's mom is coming back and she is going to to stay with Taylor so that Jeff, Tammy, and Tanner can come to the wedding. We are so glad they are going to be a part of our celebration and I can only pray that they are able to enjoy their time together. They haven't had much but hospitals in these past couple of months and I really hope they are able to enjoy a little break, that I'm sure both of them need.