Haleigh Cox

We are the Cox Family. My husband, Brian, and I have been married for almost 5 years. I was always told that I would never be able to have chidren, then Christmas Eve of 2008 we found out we were pregnant. The best Christmas gift ever! Pregnancy for me was a very long, hard road. I have Insulin controlled diabetes, so that meant a high risk pregnancy. I continued to work as a firefighter/EMT, but no longer on a fire truck, I was able to drive my battalion chief around and aid him during fire calls, major wrecks or Haz-Mat situations. Of course on July 19, 2009 at 3:00 in the morning my water broke while I was at the fire station. I had to get a hold of Brian because we carpool to work. He is also a firefighter/paramedic and he works just North of where I work. It took me a couple of times to finally get a hold of him, but when I did, the nerves really started to set in. When we got to the hospital, we got a lot of funny looks. We were both still in our uniforms. We found out that we had some meconium staining and that they would have to flush it out before the baby could be delivered.  But after 12 hours of labor and 3 hours of pushing, Haleigh Reese Cox was finally born at 4:54pm at Henry Medical Center in Stockbridge, GA, without any problems. She weighed 7lbs 10oz and was 20 1/2 inches long. She was so beautiful!

We started to notice around 8 months that Haleigh was not really doing what normal babies were supposed to do. She wasn't sitting on her own and she was not rolling over on her own. I always told myself every baby is different. But, we decided to talk to Dr. Berry, her Pediatrician, and see what he thought. Dr. Berry also seemed very concerned that Haleigh was not developing like most babies, and about the size of her head. He told us she was in the 10-25th percentile, which is a sign that the brain may possibly not be growing normally, so he ordered a CT scan of her head and also referred us to a developmental doctor.

After the CT scan Dr. Berry called to tell us the results. He told us that Haleigh had damage to the front left part of her brain that was possibly caused by a stroke while in the womb. Dr. Berry then told us to go to a Neurologist to get an MRI. Brian and I were devistated. A week before Haleigh's appointment with the Neurologist, Haleigh began to have seizures. It was time to go to the hospital. We stayed at the Children's Hospital at The Medical Center of Central Georgia overnight for observation. Haleigh had one more seizure while in the ER but that was all. They put us on an antiseizure medication twice a day and sent us home. Once we got to see the Neurologist he ordered a MRI of Haleigh's brain and an EEG. He told us to continue her seizure medications and to come see him once we were done with the tests so he could discuss the results.

During our time waiting for the tests to come, we signed Haleigh up for physical therapy to help her build her muscles up and help her reach her milestones. That is were we met her Physical Therapist, Mrs. Beth Bryan. Haleigh loves Mrs. Beth! They get to see her for 45 minutes and practice sitting, rolling, grabbing and playing with so many cool toys. Beth told us that Haleigh suffered from hypotonia (low muscle tone) that affects Haleigh's central nervous system. She told us we could overcome it and Haleigh would live a normal life, we just had to work with her more. So we see the physical therapist once a week for 20 weeks. While at home, I work with Haleigh 3 times a day for about an hour. We have also been referred to see a speech therapist, Miss Barbra Jane. She helps Haleigh with the muscles in her face to help them become stronger so she can begin talking and eating big girl foods. Haleigh loves her too, but we seem to find she likes to talk to Beth more then Barbara Jane. Silly girl!

We went for Haleigh's MRI and then and then a week later the EEG. Now it was time to get the results. The Neurologist told us that Haleigh had a lot of damage to the front part of both sides of her brain and she also had lots of damage througout the rest of her brain. We were told this could have been caused by a stroke in the womb or by a lack of oxygen during delivery that went undetected till now. He told us we would start to see the signs of Cerebral Palsy within the next 2 months and told us that her seizures would continue to get worse because of the amount of damage Haleigh's brain sustained. He told us she would probably never walk or talk and that she would start to have seizures that would not be controlled by medication. Our world just seemed to crumble to the ground. The night before we got our results I had something tell me to go and look at the CBR (cord blood registry) website. We decided before Haleigh was born to bank her cord blood cells because I have diabetes and we did not want Haleigh to have to go through what I have been through for 17 years of my life. CBR told us that they were running trials to see if the cord blood cells could work on children with diabetes. When I got to the website I saw they had trials going on for babies with brain injuries and Cerebral Palsy. So after the results is when we knew we were going to get Haleigh the treatment to help regenerate the dead tissue in her brain and hopefully help her to live a long and happy life.

So here we are today, Haleigh is now 10 months old and we just found out that the procedure is at Duke University in Durham, NC. We have been accepted! Brian and I have been through a lot in just two months. We realize that even though we are going to get the Cord Blood Reinfusion, it does not mean it will work. But, just knowing that we did everything we could to help Haleigh makes all the hard work worth it. We have come closer as a family and have learned to cherish the little things in life. We have our good days and bad days, but we are looking down the road ahead and hope to see more and more good days.

 I was alerted to this website by a family memeber. My family has done a lot of research for me. I have been so overwhelmed with doctors appointments, second opinions, physical therapy, speech therapy, doctor appointments for myself, and so much more. My mother knew that it was going to be hard to pay for the cord blood procedure especially if insurance decided not to pay. So, she found the Dallas Hextell Foundation that is allowing people to make contributions to help people with the costs of Cord Blood Treatments. Dallas Hextell Foundation realizes that without the help of family and friends, families like ours would never be able to make it through some of the tough times we are in now, and the many still ahead of us. So, the Cox Family is thanking you for everything you guys are doing. We can't tell you how much we appreciate it.