Rich and Deahna holding Grant for the first time. 
Grandpa Leonard Brady with Grant
Nanna Linda Brady with Grant
Grammie Arlene Visscher with Grant
Poppy Larry Visscher with Grant
Getting ready to be transported from Rose Medical Center to Children's Hospital of Denver on April 9, 2008.
PICU at Children's Hospital of Denver
Aunt Kristy Gruppo holding Grant. She thought she might be catching something and didn't want to pass it onto him.
Grant having his first CT scan to determine how bad his coarctation of the aorta is.
April 10, 2008 it was determined that Grant was a little jaundiced so he needed to go under the special lights. He loved the warmth of those lights.
April 11, 2008 we learned that Grant would go in for surgery the next day. The x-rays showed that his heart anatomy grew a little uniquely. The coarctation that needs to be fixed would normally be in front of his esophagus and trachea and for hit it was behind. Since the coarctation was behind they had to use a gortex valve to do the correction to his heart. The aortic valve and mitrol valve issues that they had been watching did not need to have surgery on them after all.
Grandma Peggy Brady with Grant
Grant's surgery went from 9am to 3pm. It took longer then expected because it took them a little longer to stop his bleeding and warm him back up. The doctors were able to sever the coarctation and tie the valve off on both sides and insert the gortex valve to replace the coarctation and put the replacement valve correctly in front of his esophagus and trachea. They also tied off his left super vena cava valve that went to his mitrol valve to see if it would help his mitrol valve grow to normal size. While inside his tiny little chest the doctos did find a small hole in side the top section of his heart so they put in a few sutures to correct that.
We were lucky that he came out of surgery needing only one chest tube for drainage. He also is on the minimal amount of medication for post op. He only has 6 meds going into him. We were told it could be as high as 12, we were happy with just 6. That meant he was doing well. He was intabated (breathing tube) and would be on that for a day or two.
Grant post-op
Drawing of a normal heart, Grant's heart before surgery, and the Grant's heart after surgery. Amazing!
April 14, 2008 Grant had his breathing tube removed and so he was temporarily put under an oxygen tent.
Not long after the oxygen tent was removed and a nasal canula put on. At this time Grant is the most stable patient on the PICU.
April 15, 2008 the doctors removed Grant's chest tube and took him off of all medication except for oral Tylenol. The only tube he is connected to is one for nutrients. The hospital moves us up tot he Cardiac Progressive Care Unit. This means that we are closer to going home and now we can introduce Grant to his big brother Mason.
Mason meeting Grant for the first time.
Later that day Grant started having trouble keeping his pulse ox (oxygenated blood) levels up. They should be between 95-100 and his were around 80. A chest x-ray was ordered to find out why and they discoved that his lower left lung had collasped. The doctors said this was a common side affect from having open heart surgery in infants. To correct this they put Grant on a CPAT machine to keep pressure in his lungs and help them re-open his lower left lung. We called it snorkling in bed. 
April 16, 2008 Grant was taken off of the CPAT machine and put back on a nasal canula with regular nebulizer treatments every 6 hours. He had an upper GI (gateral intestinal) test to find out why the nurses were having trouble putting in his feeding tube. It turned out that he had severe reflux and his esophagaus muscles were under developed. The doctors had to put the feeding tube in under x-ray.
April 17, 2008 Grant's scar already healing nicely.
April 19, 2008 we are told that Grant might be going home as early as Wednesday. They just want to get him off of oxygen and fatten him up before sending us all home. The morning nurse was not comfortable with the type of feeding tube was in Grant so she got permission to put in a different type of feeding tube into Grant. She struggled a bit and I told her about the troubles they had with the first feeding tube and how they had to put it in under x-ray. She showed me
how to verify placement by pushing air into the tube and listening to the bubbles in the stomach. She then showed me how to pull fluid out of the tube to verify that it was in the stomach.
Later that day Grant started to get distressed. His pulse ox started fluxuating. He got very fussy which was out of character for him (all things considering). He also started blowing milky white bubbles. The noon nurse suctioned the bubbles out. That seemed to help a little. By evening Grant was very agitated and started turning blue around the mouth. We brought this to the night nurses attention. She was feeding him through his feeding tube at the time and continued pushing his feed while we told her he was blowing milky white bubbles like he did earlier and that he was starting to look very pale. We told her how the noon nurse suctioned his mouth so she did that. By this time Grant starting turning blue around the mouth. The nurse didn't notice so we told her. She then pushed the call light for help and got confused for me by the person that answered. She then asked me to run in the hall and ask for help. It wasn't until I ran in the hall and shouted that my baby was turning blue that a code blue was paged to our room.
This picture was taken on Grant's last day with us about an hour before he passed away.
At 9:10 p.m. on Saturday, April 19, 2008 Grant Lars Visscher suddenly passed away. A team of over 20 people were unable to save him. It was so shocking because just that morning they talked about discharging him in a couple of days. We later found out that the morning nurse had put the feeding tube through his trachea causing him to drown in his own feedings and then go into cardiac arrest.
Even in my grief I remembered hearing about an organization that would come out and take pictures of babies who had died so that the parents could have memories of their little one. The organization is called Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep (NILMDTS). One of their volunteer photographs came out that night around midnight to take pictures for us. His name too was Grant. The pictures below are what he took that night for us.
We had this picturd etched onto Grant's urn that we keep at home by our bedside.
April 25, 2008 Grant's Viewing was held from 4pm to 7pm at Horan and McConaty in Denver
Grammie Arlene and Poppy Larry Visscher with Grant
Nana Linda Brady with Grant
Aunt Kristy Gruppo with Grant
Grandpa Leonard Brady with Grant
Grandma Peggy Brady with Grant
Aunt Michele and Uncle Tim with Grant
Uncle Brent with Grant
Great Grandma Patricia Brady with Grant
Great-Aunt Mary with Grant
Friends Greg and Elisa Sodja with Grant
Friends Eric and Lisa Fetzer with Grant
Friends Vicky and Dave Meisinger with Grant
April 26, 2008 Grants Funeral at Horan and McConaty in Denver. The visitation was at 1pm and the service was at 2pm. My dad officiated the service. He spoke eloquently. We had three songs played at the service: Who You'd Be Today by Kenny Chesney, Precious Child by Karen Taylor-Good, and Fly by Celine Dion. The lyrics from all the songs resonated deeply with us. We even had the lyrics from Precious Child etched onto Grant's urn.
