Hannah Deal

30th October 2002 - 4th October 2007

Hannah's Story

Hannah was born on October 30th, 2002 at 1:45am at Morton Plant Hospital in Clearwater, FL. She was born exactly 32 weeks. When Hannah was born she was not breathing on her own and had other premature problems. She was stabled in the room, to then be rushed to the NICU for her special care. Later that morning, about 7:00am, the doctor arrived to tell us that they were doing everything that they could to keep her healthy. They stated that she was taking oxygen and somewhat breathing on her own. She was also jaundice and had other premature problems. He then recommended that Hannah be sent to All Children's Hospital in St. Petersburg, because they were the best for her. Hannah did arrive at All Children's around 1:00pm and from there she did wonderful. Day 2 she went out of intensive NICU to the upstairs NICU. The day before Thanksgiving we took our little girl home without any monitors or medication.

Hannah flew through everything from crawling to walking without a hitch. She was picture perfect. Then came Memorial Day of 2006, and everything starting going wrong. Hannah's grandmother noticed that Hannah's left eye was increasingly partially closed most of the time and then I noticed that she was starting to favor the left side. She would talk to you with her head to the left and run using her left right eye as a guidance.

We took her to the ER and was told she was fine because she was showing no symptoms and acting happy. So we took Hannah home about 5:30pm and started our barbecue. After we finished eating, Hannah played on the swings. After she finished, she fell straight to the ground and was unable to get up. We then took her back to the ER and she had a CAT scan and that scan provided was clean.

Then the Wednesday after, she was seen by her regular doctor and that doctor thought that Hannah might be having seizures. She sent us to the neurologist. Then Monday, June 5th, 2006 she had an EEG and that was clean too. The Neurologist then sent us for an MRI to see if she might be having a type of migraine. On June 7th, 2006 Hannah had the test and after the test, the doctor pulled me in another room and showed me her brain scan. He then showed me a dark spot on the brain. Then came the words "Your daughter has a brain tumor, and we cannot operate". I just broke down. We were then sent to the ER to wait for a bed to be cleared upstairs. During this time, the Specialist in Neurology told us the name of her tumor, Pontine Glioma, a tumor of the brain stem. She then stated "Hannah will need radiology and chemo and this will help prolong her life". I asked "What do you mean prolong??" and she then took us out of the room and told us that our little girl has 1 year to 5, to live. That broke me further.

Then on June 8th, 2006 we were hit again by her Oncology Specialist that our girl has 12 months to live. I can tell you that there is no greater hurt in this world than someone telling you that your only daughter is going to die and it will be soon. I am not sure I can say goodbye. Plus, how to I keep her memory strong for her 9 month old brother?

...
Hannah had her second MRI in September that told us Hannah’s tumor shrunk up to 75%. This gave our little girl a chance of a life time. Hannah’s Oncologist, Dr. Henry E. Cotman, told us that Hannah was eligible for the Gamma Knife procedure. Wow, we were all so excited for Hannah.

On 10/3/06, Hannah had the Gamma Knife procedure at Bayfront Hospital in St. Petersburg, Florida. She did great. The procedure with all of it’s many steps took 5 hours. It was a wait that my family was happy to do. Hannah came out of the procedure with no incident. Matter of fact when she arrived home just started playing up a storm and did not atop until bed time.

On 12/17/06 Hannah had her 5th MRI, that would show the progress of the Gamma Knife. Man were we on pins and needles when waiting for those results. They came that Monday and we were told that the tumor has had no growth. We were all so happy. You see Hannah is now in her 7 month since diagnoses. In this time period the child starts to see growth. Most children with her tumor only live 10 to 12 months.

We asked the doctor on her last trip, “Do you think Hannah’s life has defiantly be prolong?” She said without a doubt that we did. She told us that we do not know if it will be more months or years. The Gamma Knife is still in it’s trial phase for children. All the children (which are very few) are still alive. We were also told by her doctor’s that Hannah is the best they have seen. You see my daughter plays everyday and is a truly happy child. You would to look at her and never guess that my baby was so sick.

Thank you all for your sweet heartfelt words. Hannah is in heaven and I know that one day I will see her again. The last couple of days were filled with love. Hannah started taking a turn for the worse on Tuesday morning. She was in so much pain the night before that mother and daughter were up all night. She had round after round of pain medicine to make it go away. It would kick in and would last maybe an hour and we have to put more in.

Tuesday morning we decided to up her medicines and pull her feeding tube. We pulled the feeding tube because it was hurting her more, than helping. Then Tuesday we through a birthday party at Hospice House for Hannah and it was great. She was not awake during it, but you could tell she could hear everything that we were saying.

After the party she changed more for the worse. She stopped caring about her surrounding and was sleeping all the time. Wednesday she mostly slept through the day with the occasionally eye opening. During Wednesday night Hannah stopped breathing off and on, and became more spaced apart. We thought that she might go over the night, but Hannah was not ready.

Thursday morning we woke up and Hannah had changed color. She became grey looking. At 9:00 am the doctor's came in. I sat beside Hannah will she examined Hannah. She then looked up and I nodded sadly and she nodded yes back. Then she asked if she could remove the remaining oxygen from her nose. I said yes.

At 1:40 she sighed and took her last breath with her father and me holding her. When she was pronounced I picked her up in my arms and held onto her for the longest time crying. I am very sad that my baby girl is gone, but happy that she no longer has to have this horrible tumor. I told her that she was free over this whole week and now she truly is. I love my little be’ be'. She will always be my hero and I will carry her every where.