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This memorial website was created in loving memory of our angel Dylan Ross Kissic. God blessed us with Dylan on August 27, 2003 and he went home to be with Jesus on May 16, 2006. We love you and miss you Dylan!
This is a picture of a beautiful rainbow
That Dylan sent for Nana and Papa and
Michael and Lara while they were in Sanibel Island FL.
Dylan went home to be with Jesus while resting in his mommy's arms. His daddy, Dr. Fiser, Chuck, and Janet (his transplant coordinator) were all there to help say good-bye to our angel.
Dylan is now running and playing in God's beautiful garden with his friends who have also earned their wings..Jacob Snelling, Joshua Evans, Tanner Williams, Tre Andrew Burch, and Baby Noah.
A candle to remember, may it burn ever so bright
As we look to the heavens on this very night.
Beyond the stars, our dear Dylan soars
Embraced by his Savior on heaven's shores.
As the angels protect him and sing his sweet name
We honor his life with the glow of this flame.
So we light this candle for our Dylan tonight
As a symbol of our love and his eternal life.
DYLAN'S STORY
I had a very good and uneventful pregnancy and on August 27, 2003 I gave birth to a beautiful baby boy named Dylan. He weighed 8 lbs and 4 oz and appeared to be a healthy child. It wasn't until he was 2 years old that we found out that he had a very serious heart problem. He had a murmur when he was born and the pediatrician told us that it was normal for newborn babies to have these and it should go away in a few days. A week later it was still there and he made us an appointment with a cardiologist at UAB for the following week. Two days before we were to take him to UAB he had his 2 week check-up. The doctor said that the murmur had gotten worse and when they checked his oxygen saturation levels it was 54 which was very bad. He told us to take him straight to the ER at Children's hospital. He called them and told them that we were on our way and to be expecting us. When we got there they rushed us straight to the back and that's where we met Dr. Romp (Dylan's cardiologist) for the first time. Our worst fears were confirmed when he did the echo on Dylan. He had a very serious heart defect called Transposition of the Great Arteries along with pulmonary stenosis, ASD, and VSD. TGA is a defect where the 2 arteries at the bottom of the heart are switched. One pumps oxygen poor blood to the lungs and back to the heart and the other pumps oxygen rich blood out to the body. Dylan's were switched and the oxygen poor blood was being pumped to his body. They told us that the only way he had survived this long was because of the VSD. It had allowed enough of the oxygen rich blood to mix with the oxygen poor blood that you could not tell anything was wrong with him right ater he was born. It was truly a miracle that he had the VSD. If he had not had it he would have died right after he was born. The normal procedure was to do and arterial switch and just simply switch the arteries, but Dylan never liked things the simple way. Since his pulmonary artery was so narrowed and underdeveloped they could not do the switch. They were going to have to a procedure called a "Rastelli" where they put a conduit or artificial valve in place of his. We embarked on a jouney for the next 2 and a half years that would be physically, emotionally, and spiritually draining. His first surgery was at 2 weeks old. They put in a bt shunt to help get his oxygen saturation levels up and to allow him time to grow and get bigger before they did the rastelli procedure. He was in the hospital for 8 days. The first year of his life was very difficult. He had alot of developmental delays due to him being sick. Two weeks after he turned a year old he had his first open heart surgery to put in the conduit. He was in the hospital for 14 days. After he got home he took off!! He started gaining weight, got caught up on all his delays and was during great. If you didn't know that he had a heart problem, you would have never been able to tell. Six months later (March 2005) he started showing signs of being sick again. A doctor visit and echo showed that the conduit was narrowing due to scar tissue and calcium build-up. He went back into the hospital and had an angioplasty done to open up the conduit. That worked really well, but only for a short amount of time. In September of 2005 it started narrowing again. He went into the hospital again. This time they were going to put in a stent to see if that would work better. Everything went well (we thought). When they were waking him up him up in recovery his blood pressure bottomed out and he coded twice. They rushed him back to the cath lab to see what went wrong. When they put the stent in it blocked a coronary artery and he had a heart attack. He now had significant damage to the left side of his heart. It was barely pumping. They called it left ventricular dysfunction. He was in the ICU at UAB for 7 days and then moved to Children's hospital for another 7 days. He began to get somewhat better and they were going to try to get him off IV meds and onto oral meds. He did well and they sent him home. Little did we know that would be the last time he would be home with us. Three days later he started vomiting and we took him back to Children's. The next morning he went into congestive heart failure. We almost lost him yet again. He was put on the venilator and was on it for 5 days. Dylan's heart was now to weak and he needed a heart transplant. He was put on the transplant list on October 26, 2005. Preliminary bloodwork showed that Dylan's PRA (panel reactive antibodies)was 100%. That meant that Dylan would most likely reject any heart that he received no matter how good the heart was. They tried several diferent things to try to get his PRA down but nothing worked. Dylan could not go home until he received his transplant because he was dependant on IV meds. He was in Children's Hospital PICU for the next 7 months. In March 2006 the surgeon sat us down to discuss Dylan's future. He said that even with a heart transplant Dylan only had about a 20% chance of survival because his PRA was so high. He basically told us that there was not much hope for our baby. We immediately started looking at other options. One of the doctors mentioned Arkansas Children's Hospital. They had a heart center and it was one of the best in the country. We surely did not want to go to Arkansas, but you'll do whatever you have to for your kids. On March 26, 2006 Dylan and I boarded the UAB jet and went to Arkansas. Three days after we got there, Dylan was back on the venilator. We were told that his heart was failing. They said that his only chance for survival until a heart became available was a mechanical assist device called a Berlin Heart. It connects to the heart and actually takes over for the heart. They said there were many risks, but there were also many benefits. On April 3, 2006 Dylan had open heart surgery again to put in the Berlin Heart. The surgery took almost 12 hours. The surgery went well but somehow a line that was running to his heart came out and air got into the device. They had to turn off the device and start CPR while the air was gotten out. They told us that there was a good chance that he might have had a stroke. He did have a stroke. It damaged 3 parts of his brain. When he woke up several days later, he could not talk and no use of his right side. Dylan had a remarkable vocabulary for a 2 year old and he was very frustrated when he could not talk. But he amazed the doctors yet agian. Within 2 weeks he had almost all his speech back. Within a week he was standing with help. About 5 days before he died he got to walk around the unit with alot of help and he was so excited. On May 15, one day after Mother's Day, he started having seizures. A CT scan showed that he had a severe brain hemmorage and there was massive brain damage. The doctors said that their was nothing that they could do. I called my husband and the rest of the family and they all came to Arkansas to say goodbye to our angel. On May 16, 2006 at 11:00 am we took Dylan off the venilator and his mechanical support for his heart. He was so tired and had fought so hard and I knew it was time to let him go home to Jesus. He passed away at 11:07 am.
*A Poem for Mommy*
A kiss to you on Mother's day,
a hug from me to you.
I know that you are sad sometimes,
I know that you are blue.
Please wipe away that tear,
and put on a happy face.
For I'm with God in Heaven now,
and oh, Mommy, what a wonderful place!
God gave me wings so I could fly,
they are white with a hint of blue.
I'm a big boy Mommy, with these wings of mine
they carry me down to visit you.
God is teaching me how to catch your prayers,
prayers that come as wishes.
Your wish is the same everyday,
a wish that I could have stayed.
I have a prayer for you now Mommy,
I pray that you will hear.
God needed me here with him,
I have no pain or fear.
For I am an Angel now you see,
I watch over you each night and day.
A little piece of Heaven on earth,
guiding you on your way.
I come to tuck you in each night,
as you wanted to do with me.
I hear your prayers and kiss your cheek,
and then I watch you dream.
Before I leave you and go back home,
I look at you and sigh.
And as I fly back to Heaven
I sing you a lull-a-bye.
A kiss to you on Mother's Day,
a hug from me to you.
I love you Mommy, please don't cry,
you'll get to hold me soon.</
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