Interview with Jessica

Tell me your name, a little about yourself, and your location.

My name is Jessica Peterson, and I am located in good old Winston, Georgia, where there’s not much to see or do. But it’s beautiful all the same. I’ve been married to and with my husband, Chris, for 21 years. We met on a blind date when I was 17 years old. I came home and told my mom and grandma, “I’m going to marry that boy.” And they said sure, sure you are. So, I did prove them wrong. And I married him, and we’ve been very happy. We have a beautiful life together.

And the result of our fairy tale is these three beautiful children that we have. Rory is my oldest, he’s 13, and he’s my heart. He is what made me a mama. He’s just the sweetest boy. And then we have Riker, who’s ten. He’s my laughter. He is so funny, and he knows how to crack a joke.  When the sun shines, Riker’s shining. And when it’s cloudy, Riker’s sad. And then I have my 5-year-old daughter, Rose. She’s my soul. She’s the missing piece that connected us and filled in everything.  I homeschool them. I’m a full-time homeschooling mama. We’ve been doing that since Rory’s been school age, which Rory is my older. And we love it. We’re just living every day, living our best life.

Being a homeschool mama and having a family comes with its challenges. But have you had some significant challenges in your life so far?

Well, the most poignant time in our lives that has stood out the most is, you know we had Rory; he was a beautiful, healthy baby. Then we decided to have another baby, our son, Riker. There was a lot of uncertainty while we were pregnant with him. Specific scans showed maybe he didn’t have a stomach. And we went through a lot of panic with that, feeling like there was something wrong with him, only to find out that all was fine. Then, when he was born, he was this beautiful, perfect, healthy baby. And he was almost 10 pounds! And you bring him home, and the doctors are like, he’s perfect, he’s wonderful.

When he was 15 days old, I woke up to feed him. I was nursing at the time. He coughed and kind of struggled and then turned blue and became limp. He had stopped breathing. 

And so I laid him on the bed. I had taken an infant CPR class when I was pregnant with my oldest. So, I did some infant CPR on him, did maybe three compressions, and he came back. He seemed like there was no issue. No, nope, nothing wrong. And I sat there for a little bit. He seemed fine. I debated with myself, am I CRAZY? Was that all in my head? Because it happened so fast. I called up my pediatrician (fantastic people, everyone at my pediatrician’s office), and they’re like, just come on in. Let’s take a look at him. We went in, and the pediatrician looked at him, and she’s like, he’s perfect. Everything looks fine. I don’t see anything wrong. His oxygen levels are acceptable. His lungs sound clear. His heart rate is excellent. His blood pressure is great. I’m not seeing any problems. But let’s send you to CHOA, the Children’s Hospital of Atlanta. Let’s get observed overnight. So that was great. We went on to CHOA in an ambulance just for precaution.

We get there, and my husband gets there from work. The ER staff all said the same thing. He looks great. He looks fine. There doesn’t seem to be anything wrong. But you know, maybe he could have just choked on some milk. You know it could be anything. The ER doctor came in and said the same thing. But we’ll admit him. We’ll just observe him for 24 hours, and then we’ll send him home. We’ll get some bloodwork before sending you up to the floor.

So the nurse came in, and she was a young girl. She couldn’t get any blood from him. So she said, I’m so sorry. I’m new. Let me get a senior nurse, and we’ll handle this. You’ll be up on the floor in no time. So I said thank you, fantastic. No problem. The senior nurse comes in and gets the tourniquet tied to do bloodwork. And suddenly, she untied the tourniquet, quickly unhooked him from all of the monitors, and said, we got to run. And she’s taking my 15-day-old baby, and she’s running down the hospital ER with him, and I have no idea where we’re going or what’s going on.

I’m following. We go into a trauma unit, and that’s when all of a sudden, a fantastic team of doctors and nurses come in, probably about 15, and they get on the gurney, and they start doing CPR on him. And they have to do a spinal tap. It’s not looking good.  The nurse calls for a chaplain to come on in. At that point, we were thinking this is it. And so they did the spinal tap. Then they intubated him. 

Your 15-day-old baby, intubated? 

Yep, intubated and medically induced a coma.

They have no clue what’s going on. This is a perfectly healthy child. Thankfully, they got him stabilized. At that point, we were going up to the PICU (pediatric intensive care unit) and trying to figure out what was going on with him at this point. And, so we get in the elevator, and he crashes again in the elevator on the way up to PICU.  Thankfully, we had a staff of nurses in there, and they got on the gurney again. They started CPR, and they got him up, and we got into PICU. We spent two weeks in the PICU. They did cultures and everything. And they found out that he had a common cold. Basically, it’s rhinovirus that caused all of this.

They had to many more times do CPR on him in the PICU to get him back up and running again. That’s what I like to say. And as a result of that, he had a collapsed lung. It was a long journey. But finally, on day 11, I want to say it was, of being in the PICU, all of a sudden his numbers started going off again, and it shows he was not running again. The entire team comes on in. This time, instead of performing CPR on him, they sent us out to the PICU waiting area because they needed to work, right? But we don’t get any information. We don’t get anything about what’s going on. About an hour later, the doctor came out, and we’re sure that he had passed away during that time. But he came out and said he was ready to be extubated. He woke up from his medically induced coma, and he just ripped everything out.

So we spent a few more days in the PICU just to make sure he was okay, and then a couple of days on CHOA’s floor level. And then we were able to go home. (smiling brightly) He’s 10, and you could just never tell anything ever happened to him. 

That is just amazing!

It is!

That whole time you were in the hospital and going through this, what was it that you were holding on to that got you through it…you and Chris?

Well, we never left. I never left his side. Chris never did, either. We were on autopilot at that point. It was a very numb part of my life because, like, (pauses) I prayed, but I didn’t know how to pray during that time. So, I just prayed that God would be there with me, hear me, and do what he needed to do in this situation because I didn’t know what to say.  I didn’t know what to hope for. I didn’t know what his life would be like after all this. So, I just prayed for God to lead and guide me. And then he did because I was entirely on autopilot during that time.

That was ten years ago, you made it to the other side. How has that experience impacted or informed your life decisions or experiences?

Sure. I learned how to be a medical advocate for myself and my children. If there was something that I felt like wasn’t just right, we listened to how I felt. We’re going to go in. We’re going to get checked out. It may cost us our copay, but we’re going to do it. So, I am definitely learning how to be a medical advocate.

Through all this, I’ve also learned that mental health is critical. I did not realize how badly I was suffering from PTSD from this situation. And it was not until I came out on the other side that I saw that both Chris and I had a lot of PTSD from it. And just talking about it helps. And, you know, I would encourage any person who’s gone through a traumatic medical situation like that or any traumatic event whatsoever to seek help. Talk to people, even if you feel like you’re okay.

Other families are going through the same thing. What advice would you give that mom about how to walk through it, hold on, and get to the other side? And what signs and symptoms should you look out for once you are there?

I felt crazy throughout the whole process. I felt like I was wasting a whole lot of everyone’s time and a lot of our money by just, you know, going in because I felt like he had choked on some milk. I thought that I was crazy for wasting everyone’s time. But something was nagging in me that I needed to get it checked out. Listen to your mommy’s gut. God gives us a mommy heart and a mommy mind for those specific reasons. You just have to listen to them. And definitely talk to many people about what you’re experiencing, even if you think you’re okay because I thought I was fine. I felt that I was OK. And I thought, you know, we’re in. We came out of it. We’re all okay.  A lot of parents don’t get to say that. And so I felt selfish for feeling like maybe I had some residual issues from this because he is okay.  So definitely talk about any issues that  you mabe feel like or that you don’t feel like.

And I cannot say enough about how CPR saved my son’s life. Take those classes. The American Red Cross offers an online class for $37. YouTube has free YouTube classes, and local hospitals. I know the local hospital in our area, they offer monthly free classes for pediatric and adult CPR.

Speaking of mental health, do you or have you talked to your kids about this?

Absolutely. Yes. Riker, as we talked about what I was doing today (this interview), we told him a little about his struggles when he was little. But then, this morning, we sat down and told him his whole story. And he was blown away. He said, “So I beat death, didn’t I?” And I said, “Yeah, you kind of did, buddy.”

Looking back, would you do anything differently?

Yes. One of the biggest things that I would do differently and that I would encourage every parent to do, you know how, when you get ready to give birth, you have a hospital bag. And you are prepared to go at any moment’s notice? I would encourage any parent to have a bag in their vehicle with extra car charges or cell phone chargers, tablet chargers, and a couple of changes of clothes. Feminine products. Because I was a postpartum mom, I had absolutely nothing with me and had to rely on the grace of people bringing stuff to us. I would even recommend, in this day and age, where we have Uber and Uber Eats, get yourself a $25 Uber gift card. Just keep it on hand so that if you ever have to take one of your kids to the hospital, you have some sort of couple of days start.

What are your hopes for your family now or for the future?

Well, I think our biggest goal right now, because we are homeschooling all of our kids, is to get them fully educated and at least on to the next level, whatever that choice may be.

My husband, the kids, and I rent from my mother. We have a duplex apartment-type situation. We’d love to be homeowners one day. But, you know, due to many life circumstances, we have not been afforded that. So that would be a dream: to be a homeowner and then to get to travel someday. That would be lovely. Because I have seen a lot of the world, but my husband has not.

Any last thoughts or anything else you’d like to share?

I’d probably just like to reiterate that the American Red Cross offers CPR classes for $37 online, and you can get fully certified. YouTube has many free resources. (performing CPR pumping action with hands.) Just know the beat to the song Staying Alive. There is a newer song for the younger generation, but it escapes me. I need to look that up.

(The American Red Cross recommends using the song Stayin Alive to help you maintain the proper chest compression rate during CPR, as it contains 103 beats per minute. Any song containing between 100 and 120 beats per minute may be used. ~Mama Grizzly)

Check into your local hospitals for free CPR classes. It is always a good idea to brush up. I never, ever, ever thought that I would ever use CPR. And taking the infant CPR class when my first was born, I had no clue that would ever be something that I would need one day.

Brush up. It’s a good idea to do it annually but now is a great time. It saves lives.