Arabella Jean Oberg

Our sweet Arabella was born on September 12th, 2019, healthy at 5lbs 14oz, welcomed by her two fathers, two older brothers and tons of family. She blessed us with her happy little face for 2 months and 10 days, before she gained her angel wings. Never, ever did I expect to lose a child and certainly not as suddenly and unexpectedly as I lost my sweet baby.

On November 20th I took Arabella out of her basinet and she was sweaty. Got her undressed, changed her diaper and checked her temp again, it was 102.9 and she wasn’t her normal smiling self. My husband and I headed to the hospital with Bella. Not even 5 minutes from home she had stopped breathing. Called 911, and we were directed to pull over until help got to us. A sheriff flew up and pulled my daughter’s limp almost lifeless body out of my arms. She was in cardiac arrest. The Deputy performed CPR, another officer switched with the deputy. The ambulance arrived, the officer ran with Bella into the ambulance. They got her heart started with epinephrine and defibrillator. She was intubated during transport to the hospital. The Medivac was called right away for her to be transported to a bigger hospital. Arabella was transported by Medivac to the hospital around noon on Wednesday, November 20th, 2019. The day prior she had a low grade fever 99, but nothing alarming. I simply figured a dose of Tylenol and some rest would do the trick. I wish I would have known.

By the time Arabella was admitted on Wednesday at noon, she was already deteriorating quickly. She was on a ventilator during the day and a half she was in the hospital. She was breathing well over the machine from time to time. The doctor told us immediately she had sepsis and was in septic shock. (Sepsis and Children) She was on antibiotics and fluids were given intravenously, as well as epinephrine, the rest of her time there to keep her heart going and try to keep her blood pressure up. The doctor told us she was dying. There was nothing they could do, besides what they were doing already. Her Co2 level and potassium levels were dangerously high from her being in cardiac arrest for a long period of time, plus the sepsis.

By Thursday November 21st, her kidneys and liver were shutting down completely. Her blood was so thin they couldn’t run too many tests besides running her blood levels because they would need too much blood for any other test. Just from the small pricks to get a little blood and them trying to put in a heart line, she needed 6 blood transfusions and plasma. They ended up having to continuously give her blood. Her blood pressure was lowering from the 30s then the 20s. Myself and her two fathers talked with the doctor and he explained to us that soon her heart would stop again, due to the sepsis and her heart deteriorating because of her being on constant epinephrine. He told us he would perform CPR once the time came but that she would not come back.

We were hopeful because her ultrasound on her brain was good. She had no bleeding in the brain and had no bleeding in her eyes behind her retina. Her eyes were finally reacting when they’d check them. This was all happening so quickly, we simply could not grasp how our healthy beautiful baby girl was suddenly so dangerously ill and ready to completely leave us. We had no idea that when she stopped breathing that she would never again wake up. We’d never see her smile, laugh or hear her cry ever again.

On Thursday night around 11:40pm, my husband, myself and a few of our family members went outside for some fresh air. We prayed for Arabella that she would be okay and have a wonderful journey making her way to heaven and for God to welcome such a sweet innocent baby. At that moment I felt a sense of warmth wrapped around me (we were outside and it was below freezing so no real warmth). We had went back inside and were getting off of the elevator on her floor when we had gotten the call from her dad who was holding her, that her blood pressure was dangerously low. We had met the doctor at the beginning of the long hall and ran to her room. The doctor let us comfort her until she coded which was at 11:58pm and then started CPR. That was the absolute longest 10 minutes of our lives, sadly our beautiful baby girl’s death was called at 12:09am.

Our family spent a few hours with Arabella saying goodbye. We did some footprints, fingerprints. Our little girl went into the hospital at only 8lbs 10oz and when she passed away she was around 20lbs. It didn’t feel like my tiny girl holding her. She was so swollen from her retaining all the fluids because she couldn’t create any urine because her kidneys shut down. The hardest part at that point was leaving that hospital without our baby.

The medical examiner still hasn’t been able to confirm the source of infection that caused the sepsis due to her being on antibiotics for two days, but they are sending her tissue and blood samples to the CDC to see if they can find the source of infection.

I will spend my life remembering Arabella and educating others about her battle with sepsis. No parent should have to witness their child go through that, ever.

Source: Areial Burcham, Mother