Here is an article in the TBT Times about a family that needs some major prayers. The lady in this article is the sister of one of my trainers through USF. This family has been rocked and they need all the prayers they can get.
From joy to nightmare
St. Pete parents, waiting for a baby, are thrown two horrible curveballs. By Cristina Silva
csilva@tampabay.com The newborn baby shook, gasping for air. He isn’t screaming, Dennis Russo thought. Why isn’t he screaming? For the second time in two days, the young father wondered if one of his children would survive the night. ••• Classic control freaks, Theresa and Dennis Russo had their entire lives planned out. Dennis, 30, teaches 10th grade at Gibbs High School. Theresa, 31, was going to start teaching in the fall. Their two-year-old daughter, Ryleigh, would start preschool soon, and a new baby was on the way. Their lives were seemingly perfect. And then, very quickly, their lives were anything but. At first, the Russos didn’t think anything was wrong when Ryleigh suddenly began to complain of fatigue. Then, bruises began to appear all across her body. Toddlers fall and bump into sharp objects all the time. Even so, in late May, the Russos took Ryleigh to All Children’s Hospital just to be safe. The diagnosis nearly paralyzed them. Leukemia. Ryleigh began chemotherapy right away. She complained only of stomach pain. Her appendix had to be removed. Last Wednesday, hours after the surgery, the Russos sat with their recovering daughter in her hospital room. The worst was over, they hoped. In two days, on Friday, Theresa planned to give birth to a healthy baby boy. ••• The delivery was routine. Nothing had happened to explain why Reece was having problems breathing. The baby was whisked away for tests and X-Rays. That night, as his wife recovered in one hospital bed, Dennis visited his two children. In one hospital room, his daughter lay hooked up to machines in a morphine coma, a fresh six inch scar on her belly. In another hospital room, tubes and metal pumped air into his newborn son’s lungs. ••• Reese was diagnosed with persistent pulmonary hypertension. His lungs didn’t work. Nurses promised the Russos they would train their son’s lungs to breathe. Ryleigh’s hair began to fall out from the chemotherapy. She giggled as she pulled out her long, brown hair and watched cartoons. Dennis laughed, too, careful to conceal his horror. One moment, there was good news. Reese was breathing easier. Then there was bad news. Ryleigh suffered two infections from the surgery. After all that, the Russos began to take each development in stride. Their son might one day need an artificial lung or in two weeks, he could be breathing fine on his own. Their daughter could face a long bout with cancer, or she could be cured before it is time to enroll her in kindergarten. “It’s the ultimate test of humility,” Dennis said Tuesday, as he sat in the waiting room at All Children’s Hospital. “We are not in control. Everything is in God’s hands.”
Ryleigh Russo spends time with her mother Theresa and father Dennis at All Children’s Hospital in St. Pete on Tuesday. Edmund D. Fountain/tbt* Newborn Reece is hospitalized, too, unable to breathe.
