by Robert Stewart

    It is not every day that a child saves its mother's life. It is even more rare when the child in question has yet to be born, but in the case of Janice and Caden Brooks, just such a rescue occured.
     Janice, age 39, and husband Gene, 38, were not planning on another child. The couple had four children, Jackie, Cameron, Emily and Allison. Allison, the youngest, attending was attending third grade and Janice was using the time while the children were at school become re-certified as a teacher. She had begun filling in as a substitute teacher.
     She had also been suffering some medical problems, having trouble with her thyroid and all-around fatigue.
     It came as a surprise when she found that she was pregnant with another child. The couple had some reservations about Janice's health and the timing of the pregnancy, but no problems occured during the development of the baby. But early in the morning, two weeks before Caden's due date, Gene was awakened to an unusual noise.
     "It was about three in the morning and I woke up to this horrible sound," he said.
     At first, he thought Janice may have been having a bad dream or going into labor, but as he woke up he realized that she was having a seizure.
     Janice was rushed to St. Elizabeth's Hospital in Lincoln to undergo some tests. Gene said Janice was concious but incoherent for the next 20 hours.
     "At one point, the doctor asked if she knew who I was and she said, 'No,'" Gene said.
     "The last thing I remember was that evening going to bed. Then I don't remember anything until Monday morning," Janice said.
     Gene said that the trip to the hospital was one of the more terrifying experiences he has gone through.
     "That trip in the ambulance was one of the darker times of my life," he said.
     Plagued by thoughts of worst-case scenarios and the harm that could come to Janice and to the baby and how he would tell the children if something happened, Gene came to a realization that helped prepare him for whatever may happen.
     "All of a sudden it came to me that I just needed to trust the Lord," he said. "That's when I started praying."
     Upon arriving at the hospital the doctors thought that Janice may have been suffering from preeclampsia (see sidebar), despite that fact that she had not shown any symptoms.
     They performed a battery of tests, found no symptoms and prepared to do a CAT scan. After the CAT scan the doctors were still unable to determine what had caused the seizure and so scheduled Janice for an MRI.
     Janice was not able to remain as stationary as was needed for the MRI and the doctors did not want to give her more medication due to the pregnancy, so they decided to perform an emergency Ceserean section.
     Gene said that when Caden was delivered he was not breathing due to the medication given to Janice.
     "It seemed like a couple minutes went by. It seemed like a long time," he said.
     The doctors revived Caden, made sure he was breathing regularly and prepared to give Janice the MRI.
     The first neurologist to examine the results of the MRI did not see any problems. Janice came to and was able to talk to Gene about what had happened.
     "It was very overwhelming hearing all the things that had happened while I was out," Janice said. "I don't think it really made sense until I saw Caden and it really came together."
     "It was looking like everything was going to be OK," Gene said. "Then a second neurologist came in and said they wanted to do another MRI."
     The second MRI revealed that Janice had an unruptured aneurysm in her brain. The Brookses were quickly referred to Dr. Eugene Kang, a neuroradiologist at St. Elizabeth's.
     "He came in and told us the grim stats about brain aneurysms," Gene said.
     Among the things Dr. Kang told the Brookses were that most aneurysms are undetected until it is too late and 50 percent of brain aneurysm sufferers do not make it to the hospital.
     Janice said the doctors told them the aneurysm was small, but was located on a small vessel, increasing its danger.
     "The first doctor, when he told us about the brain aneurysm, said, 'Do you know what a coincidence is?' and Dr. Kang called it an incidental discovery," Gene said. "They said it was an incidental discovery. We're thinking it's divine intervention."
     Kang, an expert in dealing with brain aneursyms who had performed over 300 procedures, performed an operation called coil embolization or endovascular coiling (see graphic) to eleminate the possibility of the aneurysm erupting. Janice emerged from the procedure healthy and recovered well.
     Gene said the string of events, and the order in which they occured, no doubt saved the lives of both Janice and Caden.
     "The bottom line is through this pregnancy that we didn't plan on and through these improbable, what I call miraculous, events we found out about the brain aneurysm and she's (Janice) doing fine and the baby's doing fine," he said.
     He added that the doctors said if the baby had not been born by Ceserean section it is possible that the stress of a normal delivery could have caused the aneurysm to burst, adding another detail that fell in place in saving Janice.
     "(During the pregnancy) one of her (Janice's) friends said to her 'There must be some special purpose for this baby," Gene said.
     When the statement came up in conversation with Janet, she replied, "When she (the friend) said that I had no idea one of those purposes would be to save my life."
     "That was kind of a profound moment," Gene said.
     Gene said he believes it was more that coincidence and fortunate circumstance that surrounded the whole event.
     "I think it was the power of prayer we saw that day," he said.
     He added that there were "literally thousands of people" praying for them during the ordeal.
     Gene said the experience was difficult for their other children, but they were incredibly supportive.
     "It was a very scary experience for them. It was very hard for them, but I know they prayed. They prayed hard," he said. The Brookses said the whole experience was a very emotional one for them and their family and the support of people in the community helped them to get back on their feet.
     "We felt very fortunate to be in our little town," Janice said.
     "It was a time of crisis in our lives and you don't realize how connected you are to the community that you live in until you go through a crisis," Gene said. "We're just so thankful that we've been blessed with the outcome that happened."
     Now that five months have passed and both Janice and Caden are doing well, Gene said the adjustment to having another child has been easy to make and Caden serves as a constant reminder of the good that can come of the unexpected.
     "He has been an incredible blessing to our whole family," he said. "He's just enriched the lives of all of us. He's caused all of us to grow closer together. He's brought out a lot of positive qualities in all the kids and in all of us as a family."
     "I've been so overwhelmed with life," Janice said. "You just think of every day as a gift now."