OUR STORY

In February 2017, our healthy and happy 7-year-old named Charlotte was taken to the hospital with what we thought was a severe case of pneumonia. Within hours she couldn’t breathe. The doctors and nurses at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital worked frantically to keep her alive. Within 24 hours, all her organs had shut down and she was on life support. We found out days later that it was a co-infection of flu and staph that had gone septic.

Charlotte survived 3 surgeries on the first day alone, open-heart surgery days later, and hundreds of other things. The doctors weren’t sure if she would be able to recover.

Six and a half weeks later – though still connected to four machines and 3 IV stands – she was doing crafts, watching movies, teasing her mommy and daddy and making a list of the things she wanted to do when she got out of the hospital. Although the outcome of her lungs was still being determined – the rest of her body was surprising the doctors each day. She was our Tiny Warrior.

At seven weeks from the day she was admitted, she died when one of those machines malfunctioned. The doctor said she was the first child to make it that far, but there is no blame to cast.

We were given seven weeks we shouldn’t have had. She shouldn’t have survived the infection, or any of the surgeries. But she did. We weren’t forced to regret not being able to tell her how much we loved her one last time. In those seven weeks, we got to tell her a hundred more times instead.

What gave us this chance? A team of brilliant doctors and nurses at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, and a lot of blood. She received blood non-stop for weeks.

We were also blessed to receive a ton of support from family and friends during our stay at the hospital. This included gift cards for food (on and off-campus), care packages with the comforts of home like shampoo and essential toiletries, soft blankets, hotel night stays and much more.

Charlotte is an example to us all. She fought so hard. She did her best. She brought so much joy to her family and will be remembered by so many – even people she never met. In her name, we’d like to help other children and families that are, or will be in our situation.