Fabrizio Semino

Hello my name is Sheyla and I have a beautiful family of 4. Cesar is my husband, Victor my oldest and Fabrizio my little angel. We are Peruvians but both my kids were born here.

When I was 12 weeks pregnant we found out our son had T21. We were happy we were going to have some extra love. At week 18 we found out he had Ebstein’s Anomaly. The first thing they told us was that he wouldn’t make it to 40 weeks. I felt his first kick when I was 19 weeks, I felt like he was letting me know that everything was going to be ok. We made it to week 39. Having a C-section with my firstson, I decided to go for a vaginal delivery; I was induced because of the risk with his heart. I was told assoon as he was out of my belly he would be taken to NICU but the doctor was kind enough to put him over me for about 5 seconds.

He was born January 27 th at 7.05pm, He was connected to a ventilator, he had two heart catheters, an open heart surgery at only 2 weeks old, he was connected to an ECMO machine for 10 days and even got dialysis because he was retaining too much fluid. He was a fighter. My little angel passed on February 23rd at 5pm. It was the hardest decision my husband and I have ever made. His lungs got compromised because of his heart condition and his liver started deteriorating. We were told that there was nothing else we could do and that we needed to disconnect him from all the machines because he started feeling more pain and at one point the medicine wasn’t going to help him anymore. 27 days old, a fighter, and angel, my little Fabrizio, I got to hold him for the first and last time that day.

Daddy and I didn’t want to let you go, we wanted to take you home but we couldn’t. Now you live with us in our hearts. My oldest son never met him, but he remembers him and he keeps asking us, why we didn’t bring him home. We always tell him he went to heaven. I know there is going to be a moment when he fully understands.

Drawing made by Fabrizio’s big brother, Victor. You see me (mom), my husband, Fabrizio is in the middle, his mouth looks like that because he had the tape there from the ventilator. The rectangle next to him is a cellphone that is being hold by my husband, in there you can see a person, that is supposed to be my son Victor. He explained it to us that way. This is how he met and remembers Fabrizio.

One thing that helps me through my grief is the fact that he is not suffering anymore and that we really did try everything! He had a purpose here on earth and it was to teach us to appreciate life and that family matters.

During my pregnancy what I liked the most was dancing with him, he loved music, even when he was born and was in his crib, we would put some music. Nurses told us that it seemed like the music relaxed him.

You can’t imaging all the thoughts we had when they told us about the condition he had in his heart, when they told us that maybe he wouldn’t make it to term, when they told me I wasn’t going to be able to hold him after birth because they were going to rush him to NICU so he could survive, when they told us that there was nothing else we could do to keep him alive and that we needed to disconnect him. That decision is going to be the most difficult one I’ve ever made in all my life.

Losing your baby is not easy and not everyone handles it the same way, but if you have other kids that is where you have to focus, on the kids that you have with you, because they need you right now at the moment. Remember that your angel is going to be always there with you.

Yellow and blue are always going to be my favorite colors from now on. They represent T21 and even though my baby was with us only 27 days, we loved all his features and all his chromosomes. We know that he would have been a bright light in our home, he actually is.