Bregan Michael Webb was born at home on November 23, 2008 at 2:14 pm - 6 lbs 12 oz, 19.6 inches long. He was born floppy and not breathing. My midwife started CPR while my husband, Matthew called 911. I sat there on the birthing stool looking helplessly at my beautiful baby boy while the ambulance was in route. My labor with him was less than 40 minutes and it was very hard and very, very fast. My midwife made it 5 minutes before he came. My labor is what Bregan’s specialist later categorized as a precipitous labor. I was told this could have and has happened in hospitals, where the baby’s oxygen is cut off and the fluid is not squeezed from their lungs.
Bregan went to BACH in one ambulance and I in another with my husband following. Dakota, my oldest son stayed home with our daughter, Aidan while we were at the hospital. They intubated Bregan and he later pinked up and could breathe on his own. However, they decided to send him to Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital because his chest X-ray was not looking good. I was fine, so we drove down to Vanderbilt to be with our new son.
The next two days we had so much hope that he would be home by Christmas. He may have a learning disability or suffer from seizures, but we would all be okay. By Tuesday night, his seizures were so bad that they had to put him back on the ventilator and needed us to come back to the NICU. Wednesday morning we were given the worst possible news. Bregan had sustained severe brain damage due to a lack of oxygen during the birth and the seizures basically shorted out the rest of his brain function. He was living on his brain stem with no hope for life off of life support. We had to make the decision to remove him from life support and allow him to go in peace.
Wednesday, November 26th at 10 pm, we held Bregan while the ventilator was removed. Our brave little boy lived for 10 more hours. My husband and I held him all night while he labored and his little heart finally started to slow at sunrise. Our precious little Bregan wanted us to have one more sunrise with him. He passed away peacefully in our arms while we sat outside with him on Thanksgiving morning.
Because Bregan’s organs were so compromised by the lack of oxygen we were only able to donate his heart valves. I can only hope that our Angel can help another baby and his memory will live on forever with another family.In lieu of monetary gifts, we are requesting that donations be sent to the following fund in Memory of Bregan Michael:
Make Checks Payable to:
NICU Social Worker Fund
Mail to:
Shirley Carpenter
Monroe Carell Jr.
Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt
Suite 4523
2200 Children's Way
Nashville, TN 37232-9950 (this zip code and the last 4 are really important)
615-322-0545
