All of our efforts are aimed at improving the lives of individuals. Get inspired by our courageous patients and their families.
All of our efforts are aimed at improving the lives of individuals. Get inspired by our courageous patients and their families.
Our Stories
We at Ascension St. Vincent and Peyton Manning Children’s Hospital are inspired daily by the courage and determination of you, our patients and families. Your fortitude stirs our hearts and propels us to continually seek new and better forms of treatment and healing. Here we share some particularly moving stories.
Separated at Birth
“The ride from the Women’s Hospital to Cole’s bedside felt like four hours.”
Lyndsey Abshire
“He was supposed to be a healthy baby,” recalls Lyndsey Abshire of her full-term, eight-pound newborn. Cole was born via scheduled Cesarean section and Lyndsey thought she knew what to expect. Unfortunately, Cole had a severe complication. From the moment he was born, he was unable to breathe due to previously undiagnosed congenital pneumonia.
For two days doctors used a series of advanced devices to pump air in and out of Cole’s lungs; but his blood still wasn’t getting enough oxygen. That’s when doctors moved him from the NICU at Ascension St. Vincent Women’s Hospital to Peyton Manning Children’s Hospital, where he received lifesaving ECMO therapy.
Lyndsey, back at the Women’s Hospital recovering from the C-section, was desperate to be with her newborn son. She said the bumpy three-block ride from the Women’s Hospital to his bedside “felt like four hours.”
When Lyndsey reunited with her son, Cole was lying on a bed surrounded by tubes, monitors, screens and a pump that were acting as his heart and lungs to give those vital organs much-needed rest.
After four long days, his tiny body responded and Cole came off the ECMO machine with an ability to maintain a healthy blood oxygen level on his own. Nearly one month after receiving the ECMO therapy, Cole went home and finally met his older brother, Gage. He never gave up then, and has that same spirit today, Lyndsey said.
Looking back, Lyndsey said the Women’s Hospital where she was recovering “might as well had been on the other side of the world” from Peyton Manning Children’s Hospital. That’s why she is especially appreciative of plans to build the Women and Children’s Tower and co-locate the facilities.
Navigating Complications
“I was so thankful I ended up here and so thankful to be alive.”
Misty Monson
August 21, 2021, was like any Saturday for the busy Monson family. Misty Monson, who was about 27 weeks pregnant, drove her 9-year-old daughter to softball, then watched her 7-year-old son’s soccer game.
But that day she developed a cough and by Monday tested positive for COVID-19. She quarantined herself and rested. By Wednesday, she was having trouble breathing. “I couldn’t catch my breath,” Misty said.
After being admitted to a nearby hospital, Misty’s doctor sent her to Ascension St. Vincent Women’s Hospital because of the complication of treating an expectant mother for COVID-19. Initially doctors at the Women’s Hospital tried to treat her with oxygen, but that did not work. She needed to go on a ventilator and was transferred to the adult hospital on the 86th Street main campus. Misty begged the doctors to slow down the procedure so she could first say goodbye to her husband, David. She didn’t know if she would wake up.
Misty went on a ventilator, but needed even more intervention, so was put on a life-saving ECMO (extracorporeal membrane oxygenation) machine, which acts as both the heart and lungs for extremely ill patients. She was the first pregnant woman treated for COVID-19 at Ascension St. Vincent who went on ECMO. Her condition worsened, and to save both Misty and her baby, the doctors performed a Cesarean section to deliver baby Chase at 31 weeks the morning of September 9.
As a premature newborn, Chase was transferred to the NICU (newborn intensive care unit) several blocks away, where he stayed for about three months. Misty remained at the main campus to recover and anxiously waited to meet her newborn son for the next six days.
Having family members in separate buildings was also hard on David, Misty said, because he had to split his visiting time. “It would have been so great to have Chase right there in my room,” she said, referring to couplet rooms, where a mother and her baby can recover together.
While Misty doesn’t remember her time on the ventilator or ECMO machine, she does remember the acts of care and kindness health care providers showed her. She remembers the nurses who washed and braided her hair, health providers checking on her mental state and a visit from a chaplain. These made an enormous difference to Misty.
“The staff was there for me,“ she said. “They understood and validated my feelings.”
