In October, 2000, our lives changed dramatically when our seemingly healthy ten-month-old baby, Olivia, went into severe respiratory distress and was placed on life support at Penn State Children’s Hospital. What was thought to be a common cold turned out to be severe abnormalities of her trachea (windpipe). During her first ten days in the hospital, Olivia had three major surgeries to correct these abnormalities. She struggled to survive. She spent almost an entire year in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit. The complexity of her condition required the services of many pediatric specialty doctors and multiple other surgeries. More...
