Luca’s Story
On the evening of Wednesday, 5 March, Cassia and I had friends over for dinner. Cassia nursed Asher and settled him in his rocking chair, where he fell asleep. Cassia then nursed Luca, and he fell asleep in her arms.
Shortly after Luca fell asleep, he stopped breathing. He was unresponsive and his heart stopped beating. I performed CPR on him within seconds, the paramedics arrived within minutes, and he was taken to the emergency room quickly thereafter. (Our friends remained at the house to watch Asher.) After 30+ minutes at the hospital the doctors were able to get Luca's heart beating. Doctors continued to work on Luca for hours, ultimately stabilizing him on a ventilator to assist his breathing and drugs to support his heart. Unfortunately, when Luca first lost consciousness, his brain was deprived of oxygenated blood.
An MRI on Thursday morning revealed that Luca had suffered catastrophic damage to his entire cortex. All of the higher functions that allow us to interact at a human level are controlled by this area of the brain.
This type of brain injury is irreversible.
Over the next several days and sleepless nights at UCSF Medical Center, Luca was cared for by some of the best pediatricians, neurologists, and nurses in the world. However, they could not undo the effects of the oxygen deprivation his brain had suffered.
Sunday morning a follow-up MRI showed the brain damage had worsened and now much of the brain stem, responsible for the reflexive actions that keep us alive, was also significantly damaged. Late Sunday afternoon, Cassia and I decided our baby had been through enough. We removed artificial life support. Luca died shortly thereafter, in his mother's and my arms.
Luca was a healthy baby. After investigating every other possible medical reason, the only diagnosis the doctors feel describes Luca's death is SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome). This is a diagnosis of exclusion - little is known about what causes SIDS, and it is generally used as a cause of death in situations where no other cause is evident.
As you can imagine, Cassia and I are devastated.
Luca's twin brother, Asher, is healthy as ever.
Cassia and I have received so many lovely notes, emails, calls, flowers ... the support of our family and friends is a huge comfort and a pillar of strength for us. For anyone that does feel the need to take some action, in lieu of flowers we ask that you make a donation to Partners In Health. You can donate online or just give them a ring. Donations made in honor of Luca Albers will be directed to the work in Rwanda to which Cassia and so many others have devoted their time and hearts. (Luca and Asher spent some time in utero working on this project, too.)
Peter Albers
Father
24 March, 2008
Luca Holstein Albers
9 December 2008 - 9 March 2009
San Francisco, California