Kerri News

September - October 2001

Kerri was hospitalized after running a fever for 10 days. It was discovered that the shunt tubing in her abdomen had perforated the bowel. They did surgery and externalized the shunt. After some lab work came back is was also determined that Kerri had a cerebral spinal fluid (CSF) infection. She was placed on Meropenum and Gentamiacin. The doctors called the first drug gozdillacillin because, like godzilla, it takes out everything in its path.

After a week of having her shunt externalized, Kerri was scheduled to have the shunt removed and have an external drain placed. The morning of her surgery there was some problems. Julie woke up and heard Kerri breathing funny. Kerri had coded. Her blood pressure was 41 over 26, her heart rate was 207 and she was only taking 8 breaths per minute. The nurses rushed in along with the doctors and they were able to stabilize her. They pulled 10 cc's of CSF off of her head and pushed 60 cc's of saline intravenously. They rushed her downstairs and did a CAT scan. It was determined that the shunt had become blocked during the night. The neurosurgeon told us that the shunt probably became blocked because of the infection and the white blood cells fighting the infection.

They placed the drain and Kerri again came through that surgery fine. The doctors wanted Kerri to stay on the Meropenum three more weeks and because she had the external drain, she had to stay hospitalized. After three weeks, another surgery was performed and a shunt was placed. Because her abdomen was not ready to receive the shunt tubing, the doctors again externalized the shunt (the two bags in this picture are CSF fluid that she has drained, she fills a bag every 2 half days). They also placed a Broviac. A Broviac is an IV access that is placed in the largest vein in your body close to an artery.

Believe it or not, they allowed us to come home with the externalized shunt. Kerri is only the second child EVER to leave the hospital with an externalized shunt in South Carolina. They also placed Kerri back on Meropenum for another three weeks. We were taught how to use the IV port and how to keep it flushed so it can be used. Kerri was in the hospital for 28 days.

Kerri has shunt surgery scheduled for Nov.14. They are hoping to place the shunt back in her abdomen. If her abdomen is not healed enough they might externalize the shunt again. There are other options for the shunt to be placed but the abdomen is the best place.

Some good news is, the day before Kerri got sick she did real well in pool therapy. She actually stood unsupported in the pool. The therapist had her hands just barely touching Kerri, just enough to catch her if she fell.

November 15, 2001 5:08pm

Our little angel, Kerri Elizabeth Allison, finally received her wings. She passed away Thursday, November 15, 2001 in the GMH PICU. The Doctors’ believe that Kerri’s ventricles compartmentalized and caused excessive intracranial pressure. This lead to pulmonary edema and thus, asystole at 5:08 pm.

Kerri went in November 14 for her shunt revision in the abdomen and was recovering well. Approximately ten hours after surgery, Julie knew something wasn’t right. Since her vitals appeared stable, nothing was to be done. At approximately 1:45 am, Thursday morning, Kerri went into cardiac arrest. She was intubated and rushed to CT where the pressure was confirmed. The doctors told us that her pupils were fixed and dilated and the damage was rarely reversible even when the pressure was released. Kerri coded twice more in the PICU and was put on the ventilator. Due to the pulmonary edema she suffered massive mid-brain damage and her lungs filled with fluid. Her heart was damaged also after the cardiac arrests. We, of course, knew that death was imminent. We are so very glad we did not have to make any decisions to remove the ventilator, her body was so traumatized that her heart finally stopped beating on its own.

Although this was sudden, and we are devastated, Kerri’s heart valves and corneas were donated. Hopefully the South Carolina Organ Procurement Agency (SCOPA) will be letting us know if and when they are used.

Kerri is also in heaven with her new glorified body, which is PERFECT! We can always smile when we think of her and know that a disabled body does not inhibit her anymore. We will be so sad, especially here at the holidays, but we will see her again when Christ calls us home.

November 18, 2001

We had a beautiful service on Sunday afternoon. Julie and I planned the entire service and it was perfect. There was no mention of funeral in the entire program, because this was a celebration of life. We had children's lullabies playing prior to the service and then when they brought us in we had Kerri's favorite song played, which was the theme song from Veggie Tales. We then sang a congregational hymn "It is Well". During this hymn I felt a release that it truly was well with my soul. I will miss Kerri but at the same time I knew that everything was going to be OK. Kerri was in a better place and she was doing things that she could not physically do on this earth. After the hymn our pastor, W.D. James, gave some wonderful words of encouragement to us and the congregation. Next was an original song written and sung by G.L. Millspaugh one of our college friends. Ruth, a girl in our church, had wrote a poem about Kerri so we had her read it. Kerri's nurse, Alysen, that looked after her during the weekdays gave her memories. Julie and I created a PowerPoint show of pictures from the last three years and this was shown while the song "If You Could See Me Now" was playing. One of Kerri's Care Coordinator's ,Tina, was next and gave some more memories of the past three years. My brother Keith then read a poem that he had written the a couple of days after Kerri's birth . Pastor Capps then gave some more scripture and remarks. He was the senior pastor of our church when Kerri was born and we had asked him to come and help with the service. Julie then sang a song that she had wrote during the pregnancy after the doctors told us she was going to die at birth. It was absolutely beautiful. God gave her the strength to sing the song. Brent, a friend of mine had written a letter to Julie and I and we got so much comfort from it that we asked him to read it in the service. It was the titled "Be Joyful for your Daughter". There was a prayer and then Kerri was escorted out by members of my fire department, Central Volunteer Fire Department, to the song "Testify to love" and "You Were Loved". The service could not have been better. It was absolutely wonderful. At the burial we had bought some white balloons and had Kerri's cousins release them with little notes written to Kerri in them.