On July 26th, 2023, my life changed in a way I’ll never forget. I went into labor, excited and nervous, ready to meet my sweet baby boy Jace. I had no idea that day would be the beginning of the hardest, most heartbreaking journey of my life. Nothing prepares you for the moment your child enters the world without a heartbeat. Nothing prepares you to watch doctors rush in, or to wait begging for answers while your baby fights for every breath. For nine precious days, we held him, talked to him, kissed him, and prayed harder than we ever have. We clung to hope. But deep down, we knew something had gone terribly wrong. What happened to Jace wasn’t just tragic it was preventable. Signs were missed. Warnings were ignored. And because of that, our son never got the start in life he deserved. REST EASY MY SWEET BOY, the world will now know our story.
07/26/2023 – 08/04/2023 
On july 26th around between 4 am and 5 am I realized I was having contractions and I was in labor . My dad and sister brought me to Mary immaculate, of course Mary immaculate was my choice because my OB office works out of that hospital. Me and Jacob agreed we wanted our midwives we knew our whole pregnancy.
Let’s go back to exactly a week before this.
I went to my weekly check up and found out I was 1CM dilated already and it could stay that way for weeks. (At this point I’m 36 weeks and 5 days). At the same time I found out MY doctor wouldn’t be there unless there was an emergency. Okay cool but I’ll be in a hospital there should be a doctor atleast if my doctor doesn’t make it in time. (Right?) found out in February 2024 Mary immaculate doesn’t have a on call doctor for the labor and delivery unit.
Fast forward back to the July 26th.
I get to the hospital between 6am- 6:30 am about. They did my test strip to show my water broke and I’m in labor and sure enough I was. Shit was getting real.
They got me into L&D room and of course I tell them I’m getting a epidural. (Because obviously I don’t wanna feel the pain because the contractions alone had me wanting to bawl).
I got the epidural almost a hour after waiting for him to come in. Boom I get it I’m finally starting to relax. Yay.
8:42 a.m. is when I texted Jace God mom (Samantha Adam’s) that I am currently 5CM.
I ended up falling asleep for a few hours in and out of sleep due the fact I’m in labor I’m tired the meds are kicking in etc. I remember there was a time I was pressing my epidural button (as most women know it doesn’t matter how many times you press it , it’s only going to release every 15 minutes) The nurse comes in and tells me I need to stop pushing the button.
I was taken back and a bit confused. So of course at this time the nurse has been rude since morning shift change. My sister , Kenzie and Jace dad, Jacob are both in the room.
And I’m looking like I’m “I’m still going to hit it wtf, but at the same time I’m scared too.”
Then she came back again and this time yells at me, “I told you stop hitting the button you need to be able to feel everything.” And ofc at this point she leaves again and I’m terrified to even press my button again but I can slowly start to feel the numbness going away… ( whole point of a epidural is not feel anything” so finally I’m like I’m hitting it idc…
Around 4:15 pm I texted Jace god mom again.
At this point I am telling her I am 8CM.
Time goes by.
Around 5 I’m told I’m 9 1/2 CM dilated now by the nurse, she said she’s going to get my midwife.
Okay time flies by, it’s been over an hour now. She finally comes back with my midwife and I would say it’s about 6:30 pm now.
I’m prob way over 10 CM by now especially because over an hour ago I was 9 1/2 cm.
It’s about time to start pushing and it was also right before shift change as well. So the nurse who yelled at me says something between the lines of “I think she’s contracting let’s get you to push” first off if I’m not contracting I shouldn’t be pushing.
Then shift changed happened in the middle of this and I get passed on to a new nurse (who was a lot nicer and who helped my midwife).
Time goes by and at a point I’m not sure of the time but I start feeling like something is wrong and I’m being told everything is okay.
I get to a point where I’m screaming and crying because I can feel something is wrong. Meanwhile my dad and brother had been waiting In the hall outside my room and heard it all. They had been out there for 40 minutes because my sister had told them Jace was coming out or about to then. (Which clearly didn’t happen) so of course my dad and my little brother are hearing it all. When I tell yall we started with 1 nurse and only my midwife that was it in the room. So to start to see the room piling up with doctors nurses or whatever out of nowhere was terrifying.
We were told everything was okay, and toward the end it was “he’s just a little stuck”.. and then to finally open my eyes after pushing and him finally coming out. I look up to see a lifeless baby and the moment I seen the way he looked I knew something was wrong. Instead they told us “he is just having some trouble breathing on his own we have to work on him”. Okay so of course I’m telling his dad to go with him but he won’t leave my side because of emotional I am and they need to calm me down. Kenzie tries to go and they tell her no because they need to work ( okay cool I understand you can’t be distracted.)
My dad and my younger brother witnessed how he looked after being rushed out of the room to the nicu.
At this time I’m freaking out of course because my baby isn’t in my arms and I can feel something is wrong, and I keep begging for updates.
Time goes by, the pediatric doctor comes and talks to us. The condition Jace was in was out of their specialty basically. We had the option to sending him to CHKD in Richmond or Norfolk. Of course we chose Norfolk.
They told us a transport team would be coming soon to transport him to CHKD. At this time all I am worried about his jace and if he’s okay and when can I see my baby. I didn’t meet my son until 4 hours after his birth, and even then he was on tubes, and in a incubator ( I think that’s what it is called) and I was only to see him on his way out to be transported to another hospital….
Of course I’m not getting much more news about Jace. Jacob and his mom Kelly Barrett went to CHKD to get updates etc because I couldn’t leave the hospital. (obviously I just gave birth.) But exactly 12 hours after giving birth I was discharged from Mary immaculate hospital.
I walked out of the hospital in socks not being wheel chaired out like they claimed on my medical records.
Before I get to anything else to the 9 days we were at CHKD.
Let’s go back to labor, during the time I felt stuff was not right. Jace was losing his heartbeat.
Of course during our time at CHKD, everyone kept telling me and Jacob they fucked up but we were so blind and just worried about our son we told everyone to leave it alone.
Now back to the labor, I have read all of my medical records now and have seen everything the lawyers have now.
Jace didn’t have a heartbeat for over 15 minutes until they finally requested a vacuum. That same vacuum took over 10 minutes to arrive and by that time he was already out.
The fetal heartbeat monitoring strips from right before 8:05 pm start to slowly fade. Everything after that time is blank. Completely blank.
Jace was born @ 8:27 PM
My son was born with no heartbeat, they resuscitated him. Because he had no heartbeat for that long, it cut any oxygen getting to the brain off.
When the brain doesn’t get the oxygen it needs brain cells start dying.
Now fast forward back to me getting discharged.
I walked out of there on my own with my sister, Kenzie Stevens, My mother in law , Kelly Barrett and Jace dad Jacob Rowland.
We went home for me to get a little sleep as well as Jacob (he works 3rd shift he had been up for 48 hours) and myself I didn’t get any sleep worrying about my baby.
We got to CHKD and ofc had to go through everything before I finally got to see my sweet boy.
Of course the moment we got there they got the doctor, neuro doctor at that.
They explained everything to us, of the fact they were doing a 72 hour cooling on him to try and stop any further brain cells being killed off. Because they way they put it is when something like the brain not getting oxygen and cells being killed off it comes in two waves. They didn’t want a 2nd wave to hit Jace brain.
They explained to us the worst outcome to us.
He would never walk, talk, breathe on his own, eat on his own, open his eyes nothing. But that we wouldn’t know the extent to everything until after the 72 hour cooling and then a 12 hour warming process, because after the warming process they would get him into a CT to see everything and go from there .
Time comes before the ct results and we’re told jace is breathing over the one breathing tube through his mouth so they switched him to the one through his nose. So at this point we have hope that he’s going to be okay and he’s healing.
One of the nights I went to see Jace by myself because I needed my baby. That night I thought I seen his eyes opening and I was so excited that it was a good sign just to be told it wasn’t his eyes opening.
We finally got results of the ct. it was everything they expected and told us in the beginning… it was one of the worst cases they seen.So of course I asked about his eyes and the doctor explained it was his brain stem causing it to look like his eyes were opening.
To be told my baby would never have a life outside of tubes the rest of his life and his brain was completely damaged. Broke me and Jacob both, but we had to do the most selfless thing any parent could ever do and that is take him off of the machines that are helping him live.That night of August 3rd is when we went over everything possible.
We could either bring him home on all machines etc etc orWe could either bring him home and let him pass away at homeOr have them take him off of everything at the hospital and be given morphine so he doesn’t feel any pain at all and get a private room and wait for him to stop breathing on his own.
We were told it could take minutes, hours, days or even weeks..
That night we had decided. Jace stayed breathing on his own for 17 hours about until he took his last breath in his daddy’s arms and went to heaven….
@2:30 Pm august 4th my baby left this earth… but July 26th is when my baby died……
He had no brain activity no nothing….