My name is Krista (Hanley) Tuohey and my husband Robert and I are expecting our second child in March 2005. Our first child, Alyssa Grace is 2 years old. We currently live in Manchester, CT. Rob grew up in Hebron and I grew up right here in Manchester. We were very excited when we found out we were expecting again as we wanted our children to be close in age. The day of our 18-week ultrasound, we knew we wanted to find out if we were having a boy or a girl, but more importantly, we wanted to know that the baby was healthy. As we sat waiting for the sonographer to give us the good news, we were shocked when we were told that it appeared the baby's heart and stomach were too close together. What did this mean? We were told that there was a good possibility our baby had what's called Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia. Neither of us had ever even heard of such a condition. We were advised to have an amniocentesis to rule out any chromosomal abnormalities and waited what seemed like years for the results. We were relieved to find out there were no other abnormalities, but were told with certainty that the baby did have CDH. We did find out we were having another baby girl. We have decided to name her Gabriella Hope. Gabriella means messenger of God and we felt Hope was fitting as it is something we are going to need a lot of.

In my research, I have learned that CDH is a very serious condition that affects 1 in every 2,500-5,000 births. Basically, the hole where the baby's diaphragm would be didn't close as it was supposed to, allowing her stomach, intestines and a portion of her liver to move into her chest cavity. Because these organs are in her chest, rather than in her stomach, they are taking up valuable lung space and her lungs cannot develop properly. She will need surgery following birth, most likely within the first 24 hours. She will not be able to breathe on her own and will require ventilation and possibly a heart and lung bypass machine called ECMO to help her breathe. Our daughter's condition has been classified as moderately severe. I have come across varying statistics on the survival rate of babies born with CDH, most of which indicate a 50-65% chance of survival. We live here in Connecticut, but are going to deliver in Boston so that Gabriella can be immediately transported to Children's Hospital Boston, which has a Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia program and claims to have a higher survival rate. The average hospital stay is 4-6 weeks, with some babies requiring as long as 6 months. There can be life long health problems associated with CDH, though she has her best chance of survival and recovery being born in Boston.

We are living with the cruel reality that our baby girl has a life threatening illness and will need to fight for her little life the second she is born. All we can do at this point is pray and hope that our little Gabriella can survive her battle with CDH.