Our Precious Ethan Carter

Ethan Carter Lane was born on March 12, 2010, perfectly healthy except for a rare congenital heart defect (Supravalvular Aortic Stenosis and Supravalvular Pulmonic Stenosis) that has been passed down through the generations in my family. His sister, Emily (born November 22, 2004), has the same defect. She had two cardiac catheterizations with balloon angioplastys and open-heart surgery, all before the age of one. She is a happy, energetic little girl who has never been sickly (you would never even know she has a heart defect) and has an incredible future. Her little brother Ethan was expected to follow a similar course. He was a "normal baby"... he never looked or acted sick, never struggled, never let us know just how severe his heart defect really was. On June 4, 2010, at two months and three weeks of age, Ethan underwent his first procedure--- a cardiac catheterization with balloon angioplasty. Only they never started the actual procedure. When someone is put under general anesthesia, their blood pressure drops. When the doctors put our precious Ethan under, his heart could not handle the drop in blood pressure. He went into sudden, unexpected cardiac arrest, and teams of doctors tried everything they knew to save him. But, Jesus did the saving that day in His Own special way... and Ethan went to live forever in Heaven. This blog is simply one mother working through her grief and reconciling a Loving God with One Who allows us to suffer the loss of a child. It is also one mother wanting the world to know about her incredibly special son--- and the God Who loves him.

Thursday, March 3, 2011

In Honor Of Ethan, Will You Consider...

donating blood this month?

As Ethan's birthday approaches, we would like to ask you to consider donating blood to your local blood bank in honor of our son.

Ethan received a blood transfusion when they were trying to save his life, because his doctors wanted to make sure he didn't become anemic, and we are so grateful to the donors that supplied that blood. Blood was also used to prime the ECMO machine for him, and though he never ended up being able to be put on ECMO, we are grateful it wasn't because they didn't have blood available to prime the machine.

On October 13th, I donated blood back to the very same bank that Ethan's came from, in honor of him and his Sissy... who received blood from that bank when she had her open-heart surgery at 11 months old.

I can't wait to donate this month in honor of my sweet son's birthday.

If you have donated before, would you consider doing it again? The American Red Cross says only 30 percent of first-time donors will ever donate again.

And If you have never donated blood before, we would be so touched if your first time was in celebration and honor of our son.

Every two seconds, someone in the United States needs blood... and one blood donation can save up to three lives!

If you would like to know more, here is a helpful link to some facts from the American Red Cross:

http://www.redcrossblood.org/learn-about-blood/blood-facts-and-statistics

And if you do donate in honor of our Ethan, would you post a comment on here or drop us a line at TheLanes3202@yahoo.com?

We would like to thank you and would love to celebrate!
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2 comments:

  1. Amy B.March 3, 2011 at 1:02 PM

    Because of meds I take, I can't donate myself. If I may, however, I'd like to share this page with my FB friends so that they may donate in honor of Ethan.
    I am the block captain this year for American Heart Association's "Dear Neighbor" campaign. I will add a note to my neighbors that I am collecting this year to honor the memory of Ethan Carter Lane.

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  2. BryanneMarch 3, 2011 at 8:51 PM

    Amy, we would love it if you would share this with your friends--- thank you! And we are deeply, deeply touched that you will be collecting this year to honor Ethan!!

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