​Willow's Story . . . as told by her mother, Melissa

Willow
​October 31, 2014 - February 18, 2015

"I never will come to terms with my child's death, how can a person? But recently I found some clarity, thanks to an old school mate. I'll tell you my story. 

When Willow Schae Thomas was born she was the best gift I could have ever given her father, all he wanted was a baby and he finally got her. The best gift.. yet we barely had the chance to get all the wrapping off. 

She was born on Halloween last year 2014. And I loved it even more that she was born on such an awesome holiday. Sadly, In utero they saw her enlarged bladder on my last growth ultrasound and I was told I was then high risk pregnancy. When she was born we had scheduled an appointment with a urology specialist. Best, most experienced in the state. After many appointments she was on Oxybutynin for an overactive bladder. 

Willow's urologist had been in the business for years upon years and had no conclusion to why her bladder would not flow properly. 1 out of maybe 4 patients he was not able to help, or should I say limited to help because she was a mystery. Her urine would back up in to her kidneys. Even the medication wasn't helping. 

After infections, I was taught how to give her a straight catheter every 3 hours to relieve her so her kidneys didn't get destroyed, and eventually a catheter overnight made it easier on us but it was a lot of work. Anything for our baby girl though. 

Despite her issues and visits to her pediatrician, her specialist and 3 different hospital stays for 3 different infections, one being ecoli in the blood (thanks to all the cathing it was hard to keep bacteria from infecting her tiny body) she was still a very happy content baby. 

She was absolutely amazing, so beautiful. Then all of a sudden, 4 days after Valentines day (such a happy day for us) (she was 3.5 months old) she passed away sometime in the morning of February 18th. It's so hard, so fresh in our minds still. 

My partner, her father found her in her crib with mucus all over her face. The worst 6 hours of my life, harassment from the police, no consoling from my partner because they split us up. He was almost arrested because he didn't want to talk to them, he was so distraught as was I. They treated us like we killed her n waited on a search warrant so they could look through all of our stuff. It was so traumatizing not being able to hold her, just couldn't stop wracking my mind that she was gone... you never think it will happen to you and then when it does it's a nightmare come to life. I just wanted to wake up. eventually they left and finally we talked to the coroner after her autopsy. She had sepsis, was extremely dehydrated. She'd gotten Influenza which turned in to pneumonia. She had NO symptoms other then a stuffy nose, which had gone away a few days prior. How could that happen? I thought about it ever single day, until an old friend got in contact with me and asked me about Willow's vaccinations. I told her she'd had them at the end of January. 

I hadn't gotten her 2 month shots right away, I got them at 3 months. She'd had her 2 month shots. And that's when my friend told me that I needed to look more in to it. I was shocked to realize the truth: that she had likely gotten sick from the vaccinations themself. 

It's not just a coincidence that 2 weeks after her vaccinations she suddenly died with no symptoms. Now that I'm at this point of clarity where I actually realize and understand what happened to my little beauty, I wonder if any other parents out here have suspicion or know their child had passed from a routine vaccinations?

Update from Willow's mother 6/1/15 . . . So today I finally got her death certificate. She died from kidney failure, part of her urinary condition she had since birth. I cant prove it was vaccines but I do know she was given the influenza vaccine and she got sick from influenza.  The coroner told me she had influenza turned phenomena, and I've also been told by a friend who knows a ton about vaccines that Willow was given a vaccine by her peds nurse that wasn't suppose to be given to her with any other vaccines... i don't know what to think of it all. So much was going on with her health and it's so scary.