Meet Henry

Meet Henry

Henry's Story

Henry Leland Seretta was born on April 14, 2014. This little monster invaded our hearts even before he was born. He was a completely healthy and happy baby, until he started getting an ear infection and colds in mid-October. We finally got rid of the ear infection, but the cold symptoms never fully disappeared. Over the weekend of November 8 & 9, Henry got significantly sicker. He was admitted to Children's Hospital in Omaha on November 10, 2014, and was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia on November 11, 2014. He fought hard for nearly two weeks, before passing away on November 22, 2014. This blog depicts our journey through the grief of losing Henry. If you would like to read more about his medical journey, you can visit his CaringBridge page. More photos and community posts can be found at our Hope for Henry Facebook page. Thank you for sharing this journey with us!

Thursday, January 15, 2015

Autopsy

When Henry died, we agreed to an autopsy. We didn't do it because we thought we'd get new information. We did it mainly to see if there was anything that could help other kids fighting leukemia...to make sure there wasn't anything we missed.

We met with Henry's oncologist today to go over those results. Dr. A told Tim yesterday when he talked to her that there wasn't anything earth-shattering. The autopsy told us most of what we already knew. Henry's leukemia had infiltrated his organs and had caused damage, thought this damage was not necessarily permanent. His organs were enlarged, which we also knew due to the amount of fluid on his body. When Henry died, there was no leukemia in his body-not even in his bone marrow. The chemo was doing its job. The last straw for Henry was his lungs. Henry was rhino/enterovirus positive, and had bronciolitis. This weakened his lungs, and when he was on ECMO there was bleeding in his lungs. This is what he ended up unable to recover from.

This is all such medical mumbo-jumbo. Here's my mother-interpretation. Henry got sick, very sick. But he was such a tough cookie that we didn't know how sick he was until he was really really sick. Even then, he fought his heart out. He took everything we threw at him and kept fighting. He kept that up until his poor little body just couldn't fight anymore. And then he left this world and is now in a place with no more needles, beeping machines, medicines to regulate his body. He's free to run and play with no coughing or sniffling or pain. And although I'd give anything to have him here with us, I am so incredibly thankful that he is no longer suffering, no longer in pain. 

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