Trent's Story

Trent's story begins in 2004 when we found out we were pregnant with our second child. My husband D.J., who had just graduated from the Texas D.P.S. Highway Patrol Academy, was fortunate enough to be stationed in our home town of Fort Davis. We were buying our first home and very excited about the new baby coming. Then, in just one doctor's visit, everything changed.

The very first ultrasound showed a spot on the baby's kidney. Our family doctor suggested we see a specialist in Odessa. According to the specialist, the ultrasound showed that the "spot" on the kidney was actually fluid being retained inside the kidney - a condition called hydronephrosis.

The specialist told us that when that much fluid is retained inside the baby, there is usually not enough fluid on the outside of the baby for it to survive. The ultrasound also showed that the baby had clubbed feet.

The doctors in Odessa said they were not equipped to deliver a baby like Trent so they recommended that we see someone in Lubbock. The doctors in Lubbock told us we needed to have him immediately. We had almost two months until we thought he was due, though. The doctors scheduled a C-section. The next day, April 1, 2005, Trenton Clay Pearson was born at the University Medical Center in Lubbock.

As soon as Trent was born he was whisked away to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), and would remain there for the next three months. We soon found out that there were many problems that we could not see on the ultrasound: a cleft palate, a heart defect, and cranial synatosis of the sagital suture (a condition in which he was born with his skull already fused together like an adult's).

Trent was also born with pulmonary hypertension, a condition that caused the blood vessels in his lungs to shut off. Within a few hours of delivery Trent quit breathing. He was immediately put on a breathing machine and his right lung ruptured. A chest tube was put in to relieve the pressure in his chest cavity. They then had to place Trent in a medically-induced coma so that his little body would not fight the ventilator.

This meant that we could not hold, touch, or even speak to our baby as it might stimulate him. We were told that Trent wouldn't even make it through the night. He remained in this minimal-stimulation environment for three weeks. Finally, on April 23, I got to hold my son for the first time.

He was still on the vent and had lots of other tubes and wires attached, but that did not matter. I was holding my baby. During all of this they had to drain the fluid from his kidneys - almost two coffee cups full of fluid just from his left kidney. Trent was born six pounds, eight ounces. After removing all of that fluid he weighed only five pounds. All of that fluid inside had crushed the renal tissue and his kidney was no longer working.

Once Trent was strong enough for surgery the doctors had to remove his left kidney. They were able to repair his right kidney with a stent and a procedure called a pyloplasty. Trent also had to have surgery to release the tendons in the back of both his feet. He had to wear full casts on both legs for several months so that his feet would heal straight.

During all of this we had no time to think of where we would stay or how we would be able to remain close to the baby. A social worker came to our room and told us about the Ronald McDonald House in Lubbock. We were accepted into the Ronald McDonald House within three days of Trent being born. It was a home away from home, for the next three months. We were able to be there for every procedure, surgery, or bad night that Trent went through.

D.J. eventually returned to work and I was able to remain close to Trent. The Ronald McDonald House took away all our worries of how we would be able to afford food, shelter, and transportation. The Ronald McDonald House is located right next to the hospital so we were able to be there immediately when Trent needed us.

It really was a home for me during this time: a safe place that I could go to when I needed to get away from the hospital, a place to get a hot meal, or a place to take a shower. They even provided a real bed to sleep in instead of a hospital chair. There were always churches, groups, and restaurants donating meals to the house so there was always plenty of food and plenty of friendly faces. There were always other families there to talk to; families going through the same things as you.

We were always surprised at all the different places that these families came from: New Mexico, Oklahoma, even El Paso and Big Spring. But it did not matter where we all came from because we all had one thing in common when we were there: a sick child. We all went through it together, good days and bad.

Trent has gone through many other surgeries since we took him home. And every time we have to go back to Lubbock we stay at the Ronald McDonald House - sometimes for weeks at a time while he recuperates. Trent still has a few more surgeries to go through; one to repair his cleft palate and another to repair his heart. We are not sure exactly what else we may have to go through, or where we will be, but we do know that we will always have a home in the "House that love built."

Christi Pearson