Jaclyn Burke

Jaclyn Burke

May 11, 1990 our daughter Jaclyn was born. Though the delivery was without complications for Terri, when her water broke, there was an awful lot of amniotic fluid. Our friend and nurse midwife, Joyce commented our daughter came out with a limp body and very blue, cyanotic. There was no movement. When Joyce suctioned our daughter's mouth, she took a deep breath, cried, and went limp again. Joyce became very concerned. She commented how small our daughter was. Joyce said, "Terri, do you think you could have twins"? She did another manual exam and said, "Terri, I thought you might have had twins, but I don't feel another baby." Again, our daughter was very limp, and Joyce was extremely concerned. She said, "I don't know what is wrong. The baby doesn't move, and she is just so small." Joyce put a catheter down her throat and suctioned. Our daughter became agitated, cried , and started to move. She went limp shortly after and Joyce was now extremely nervous. Her words were, "Terri, I just don't know what's the matter." She has all her fingers, toes, arms, legs, eyes, mouth. Everything physical was fine. Joyce said, "Terri, do you want me to baptize your baby"? Terri was still trying to recover from the delivery. Terri said, "What do you mean?" Joyce said, "Terri, I don't know if your baby is going to live. I just don't know what is the matter. She is so small and blue and won't move." My wife turned to me, and I said to my wife, "Terri, Joyce wants to baptize our baby because she may die." My wife said, "Yes." Joyce took the water in her hand and placed her fingers on our baby's forehead; she said, "In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit..." I said to Joyce, "Don't worry, If our baby dies, that's another part of life. We live and we die." Joyce now had asked her assistant to call the ambulance. I was transported with my daughter to a hospital in Washington D.C. I spent the night suctioning my daughter in the Neonatal Unit. All night it was my daughter and myself. It was quite a night, talking with her. A doctor came in at 5:30 in the morning. She said, "Hello, can I do anything?" I said, "No." At 7am a nurse from the morning shift came in and said, "What are you doing here?" I said, "Taking care of my baby." She said, "You're not allowed in here." I said, "If I wasn't here, who would take care of my daughter?" She said, "You have to leave or I will call the police." I said, "That's up to you." I was removed, but that's another story. I can't explain the pain of how cruel humans can be, but this nurse fits the name.

That afternoon my wife and I came back, and the nurse was mean and nasty. "Don't touch your baby, she doesn't need that, don't move her." That same day we were called and were told to please come to the hospital immediately. Terri had just asked Greg to call Children's Hospital to see if the baby could be transferred there. We were trying to figure out how to get around the red tape when we got the call. Your baby needs immediate surgery, and we have to transport her to the hospital what they can do that. My wife and I went to the hospital, and our baby was in an enclosed glass incubator with tubes and lines hooked to her. There were 10 people waiting to transport her. My friend, the mean nurse, was there. I asked who was in charge. A girl in overalls stated that she was from Children's Hospital National Medical Center in Washington D.C., and she was in charge. I asked her if I could talk to her. The mean nurse was not happy. When I explained to the nurse from Children's Hospital that my wife had never gotten to touch or hold her baby, would she let her do that? I told her how I was treated and all that had happened. The nurse from Children's went over to the incubator and said, "Mrs. Burke, would you like to hold you baby?" The other nurse was livid. She started to say something. I said, "You're out of you jurisdiction.. and smiled." The nurse from Children's said, "Once I come into this hospital, I am in charge of this infant." The only thing I could think was "Paybacks"!

We followed the ambulance to Childrens' Hospital National Medical Center, and so began our life with Esophageal Atresia.

There is so much more...the surgeries, the palsy and reflux to this day. Our daughter is alive, many times a royal pain, but, as I promised her in the hospital I would take care of her and other children or parents who would go through this. Because Jaclyn was born, we founded the only group, TEF/Vater International.