Since it’s something a child will likely carry with them for life, a lot of thought tends to go into a baby’s name.
That doesn’t mean that some parents won’t name their children after characters from pop culture in the hopes that they’ll grow to like the fandom too. However, it’s still more common to see names that have some significance to the family or that parents just like the sound of.
But sometimes, a child’s name can be a powerful tribute to the people who made sure they ever got to see the world in the first place.
So after one couple were able to make it through a perilous situation thanks to a dedicated and skilled medical team, only one name seemed appropriate to them.
While Chris and Diana Crouch of Kingwood, Texas were on a trip to Las Vegas, Diana found herself developing a persistent headache.
As the couple told Good Morning America, Diana was 18-weeks pregnant by the time they returned home and at that point, her headache was accompanied by a fever.
Although her obstetrician initially thought she was dehydrated, this person recommend she head for the emergency room once her symptoms continued.
It was here that she tested positive for COVID-19, which was a particular problem as neither of the Crouches had been vaccinated.
And after a week of tracking her oxygen levels with a pulse oximeter, Diana returned to the ER to discover she had developed pneumonia.
And since this meant that the entirety of her lungs were affected, she would need to go to the Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston, where she entered the care of a team led by Dr. Cameron Dezfulian.
As Dezfulian said, “She was in a unique situation where she was 18 weeks pregnant at that time, so she wasn’t at a point where the baby could be delivered nor did it seem like that would necessarily help.”
And since her condition didn’t improve after spending two weeks on a ventilator, Dezfulian’s team had to use an option that’s often considered a last resort.
This involved a technique called extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) in which doctors pump the blood out of a patient’s heart and filter it through an artificial lung.
Just like a healthy lung does, this device expels the carbon dioxide and pumps the oxygenated blood back through the heart and lungs.
Diana would undergo this treatment for eight weeks and during that time, Chris saw her experience a heart attack, a stroke, and multiple seizures.
In Chris’ words, “After her stroke, she was kind of laying there. She didn’t move or anything for like three days. And I told Dr. Cameron if she starts to wake up, I know we’re gonna walk out of this hospital. And she woke up the next day.”
By the time Diana was 31 weeks pregnant, her condition had improved enough that her baby could be delivered two months premature by caesarean section.
In the month before Diana could finally end her four-and-a-half-month stint in the hospital, she and Chris would name their new baby Cameron after Dezfulian.
Both they and Dezfulian consider the results of her case miraculous and Diana is reportedly adjusting well in the seven weeks since she’s been released.
As she put it, “It’s been crazy. I mean, I can’t complain. I just cherish every moment. Like crying, screaming, all of it. It doesn’t bother me. Nothing bothers me now.”
h/t: Good Morning America
