Our son Alex

by Troy Morones

Our son Alex suffered an ALTE incident on 1/8/96 at the age of 5 weeks. It was called ALTE because I found him in time to have him artificially resuscitated. He has suffered severe brain damage - he cannot swallow and must be suctioned nasally and orally 24 hrs/day to prevent fluid from entering his lungs. He is fed via nasal-gastro tube and IV bag. He is not expected to live long and does not respond to human contact. There has been no improvement in the past 9 months.

Needless to say, this has been a hard time, full of contemplation. I have written a few poems. I don't know if your network would be interested because our son is technically "alive", but I thought I might share them with you just in case. I have found that our situation is not too uncommon, unfortunately.

let down

he looked straight
into our eyes
pupils centered
in crystal clear blue
and his lip quivered

"he's o.k.", i said
and breathed a sigh of relief
and had a good night's sleep

no one bothered
to tell us
that it takes days
for brain cells to die

denial

all the toys
in the world
for my bouncing baby boy

ring it up, sir
i'm in a hurry

my little man
is at home
waiting for me