An Angel with a Message: Taylin’S Story

By Lee Mackay

This book, Taylins Story: An Angel with a Message, is the inspiring story of our beautiful daughter, Taylin. Taylin passed away from a genetic condition, spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), at almost five months old. This book is about our familys journey of turning a negative into a positive, going on and having more children, and living a happy, positive life after losing a child.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris AU
• Release date: Mar 31, 2015
• ISBN: 9781503504097

Lee Mackay

I am Lee Mackay, a mother of five beautiful children—four with us and one living on in our hearts. I hope to make a difference to people’s lives by sharing Taylin’s inspiring story. The book includes all of my heartfelt feelings and thoughts and what I have learned on our journey before and after losing a child.

Book preview

Copyright © 2015 by Lee Mackay.

Library of Congress Control Number:   2015904341

ISBN:      Hardcover      978-1-5035-0408-0

             Softcover      978-1-5035-0407-3

                  eBook              978-1-5035-0409-7

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Rev. date: 04/15/2015

Xlibris

1-800-455-039

www.Xlibris.com.au

705732

CONTENTS

Chapter 1:   Taylin’s Trip to the Royal Children’s Hospital

Chapter 2:   In Honour of Our Sweet Angel

Chapter 3:   The Day Taylin Passed Away

Chapter 4:   Taylin’s Funeral

Chapter 5:   The Story of Kyla and Taylin’s Baby Brother, Link

Chapter 6:   Back to Where Our Family Began

Chapter 7:   Arly’s Story

Chapter 8:   Baby Number 5! Tylan’s Story

Chapter 9:   Finished Having Babies

Chapter 10:   Book Publication!

I dedicate this book to our beautiful little daughter Taylin, who has taught me more than anyone or anything ever could. I am so proud that her inspiring story is being told and published worldwide, she deserved that. She was the most amazing little girl, so strong and brave. Taylin touched my soul and heart deeply. I will forever yearn for her and she lives on in my heart every day and inspires me to be the best person I can be.

This book is also for my family, my soul mate Jase, who supports me in anything I do and my beautiful four children we are so lucky and blessed to have, Kyla, Link, Arly, and Tye, you are all exactly what life is all about.

A big thank you to all our family, friends, and the local community in Traralgon who have supported us in our Journey and our Fundraising in Taylin’s honour. Your support has given me the courage and confidence to have my dream of publishing Taylin’s book come true. I am so very grateful.

CHAPTER 1

Taylin’s Trip to the Royal Children’s Hospital

As I sat there in our room at Ronald McDonald House in Melbourne, the only piece of paper I could find was Kyla’s drawing paper. I just had to write down my feelings and thoughts while there was nothing else I could do as our baby daughter, Taylin, fought for her life in the intensive care unit at the Royal Children’s Hospital.

The last few days had been our worst nightmare and not a time that we would ever want to relive, remember, or even try to describe, but I will start from the beginning.

Our second beautiful baby girl, Taylin Amily Mackay, was born by elective caesarean at 9.06 a.m. on 4 September 2007 at Traralgon Hospital.

From the moment that her dad, Jase, cut Taylin’s cord, there was a strong bond between father and daughter. We always felt that Taylin was different, like an angel, that she was extra something special as we got to know her. Taylin’s big sister, Kyla, who was four years old, was so excited to have a little sister and wanted to hold her all the time. They were the best of friends straight away.

Taylin was perfect during the first ten weeks of her life. She slept, drank, and was very content; she was strong and held her head up better than Kyla did at that age. Taylin loved going for walks in the pram and looking at her birds mobile. She loved bath time and always smiled and talked to us. She mesmerized us all and everyone she came into contact with by looking right through them and scanning their whole faces with her big blue eyes and Mohawk hair!

We had just moved in to our sparkling new home that Jase had built in an amazing sixteen weeks, and life was perfect. We had two gorgeous little girls and we were so happy and grateful.

It was Friday, 16 November 2007, when my mother’s instinct kicked in and I knew Taylin’s little cough was sounding a bit chesty, and I knew that it was getting a little bit worse.

I dropped Kyla off at three-year-old kinder and got Taylin in at the doctors on a cancellation appointment.

The GP doctor said she had bronchiolitis and that she will get over it with time and rest. He said that if she gets worse, is off her bottles, or is chest-raising more, to take her to the emergency department at the hospital. At the last minute, he said he would check her oxygen levels, but his machine was not working well, so he suggested I take her to the hospital to get her checked just in case.

I thought I was being a bit over the top by calling Jase to get him to come home from work and pick Kyla up from the house of her kinder friend Bella and for Mum to come from work and pick Kyla up if we had to wait a few hours to be seen.

Taylin was put on oxygen as her levels were a bit low. The nurse had mistakenly put adult oxygen prongs up her nose; she said she had never put it on a baby before. Taylin screamed for about three hours because it was hurting her nose. I demanded that they take the oxygen off, and after that, she instantly fell asleep and was content with an oxygen mask on.

Seven hours later, we were admitted to the paediatric ward where we felt confident that Taylin would be home after one or two nights. At 8 p.m. Taylin had a bottle and slept all night. I slept beside her cot in a fold-up bed.

In the morning, Taylin had another bottle but not much of it. At 11 a.m. she was smiling and gooing and garring at her dad and then went to sleep.

At 1 p.m. she would not wake up to have her bottle. She was becoming weak, exhausted; her chest was raising, and she was a bit warm. The nurse called the paediatrician, Doctor Ameen, who ordered another X-ray as the one the night before in the Emergency Department was not clear enough to read. He had said the night before that he would do another X-ray when she got better! He also took her to the procedure room to put the drip in so she would not become dehydrated. I said I could not watch the drip going in, so I went for a walk. Jase stayed with her.

After it taking a while, I went to see what was happening. That was when our lives changed forever. Doctor Ameen could not get a line in as Taylin was shutting down. He was poking and prodding every vein, bending her tiny little wrists and feet backwards. He then had to shave her hair to put the drip line in her head. By this stage, I was hysterical, and Jase and I were almost falling to the floor as he showed us the X-ray of her lungs. One lung was full of infection and the other one was on its way to pneumonia. I told Jase to be careful not to fall over as he would hit his head in the small room; he went as white as a ghost.

The doctor said we would have to go to Melbourne as Taylin needed intensive care; she was struggling to breathe and needed help. That was when we knew it was serious; only really sick babies needed airlifting to Melbourne. It had always been one of my fears—having a premature baby or a sick baby having to be rushed to the city for treatment.

We went back into Taylin’s room to quickly pack up her stuff, and I called Mum and asked for Dad and my brother, Mike, to come over. We went back to the procedure room, and the doctor yelled, ‘Is she breathing?’ He slapped her head, and the nurse picked Taylin up and ran with her to put her back on oxygen in her room. A code red was called. Resuscitation was ordered, and there were about ten people in her room. We were told it was best to leave the room, and we walked out with the nurses holding us up, not knowing where to go or what to do. Jase rang his dad and Lyn and asked them to come in.

Timing was perfect when my dad and Mike walked in the door. The pain in our hearts was just too much, and no one could tell us if she was going to be okay. Jase went into shock; he was collapsing, shivering, and shaking, and his body was shutting down. The nurses got him a hot blanket. The feelings of him not being able to protect his little girl were overwhelming. I knew then I had to be strong for Jase. The best thing about us is that when one is down, the other one gives all their strength. I kept telling him that Taylin needed us to be strong.

I asked if this happens often with babies. ‘Do they get sick this quick and sent to Melbourne?’ They could not really answer me, other than saying it can happen but all cases are different. I think they were just as shocked as we were.

The NETS (Newborn and Paediatric Emergency Transfer Services) team were called to pick Taylin up as she was not well enough to go in the local air ambulance.

When she was stable enough, she was rushed to the emergency department resuscitation unit, where they resuscitated and intubated her before she needed CPR. A tube went down the throat into her lungs so that the machine could breathe for her.

As minutes felt like hours, there was hardly any room in the emergency department for us to sit and wait as every bed and chair was taken up by sick people. We wanted to know what was going on but we were so afraid to find out we felt sick as we waited for updates on Taylin’s condition. The chopper was still going to be another forty minutes away, time we did not have. I had a towel with me as I felt like I was going to be sick. I wanted to eat because I had not eaten since breakfast and was worried I would faint.

We eagerly waited outside for the chopper to arrive, and seeing it land was a tiny bit of relief. When the NETS team walked into the hospital, I desperately asked them to please save my baby