Jack Isaac Voigt

Born on February 3, 2009.

Celebrated his eternal life on April 2, 2009.

This page will soon have Jack's life in words. It is a work in progress. It will hold as many details as we can possibly remember, both the good and the bad. I do not want to lose a single memory of my little wonder, who is named after Jesus' most beloved disciple - Jack is a derivative of John. The Book of John holds a special place in my heart because after years of reading the bible, it took just moments with John to lead me to a personal relationship with Jesus. As for Jack's middle name, Isaac, it represents the story on the mountain where Abraham was told by God to take his only son, whom he loved, Isaac, and sacrifice him as an offering to the Lord. Abraham obeyed, showing his love and fear for God. In return, God spared Isaac by providing an alternate offering to give in the form of a ram caught in the thicket by it's horns. He knew in his heart that God had provided this animal for the sacrifice in place of his son. Therefore, Abraham named the place "The Lord Will Provide." I found this version of the Abraham and Isaac story in a children's bible storybook I had bought for Gaige years before. The night I read it, I was so worried about how we would care for our new baby Jack, but after I read Abraham's trial, I worried no more because I knew God would provide. We chose Isaac as Jack's middle name to honor the safety and assurance God allowed us.


Medical Diagnosis : Transposition of the Greater Arteries (classified as a Congenital Heart Defect)

Mom:
Jack Isaac was born on February 3rd, 2009, at 2:18 p.m. He weighed 8.3 lbs and was 20 inches long. We were so excited! He was such a beautiful and wonderful gift.  He let out a few strong cries and then it faded. In hindsight, I would have never believed that would be the only time I would hear his cry. We got to hold him for about an hour, which was one of the most amazing hours of my life. All the fears I had just slipped away. The nurses took Jack to do all the normal newborn things, and when he was getting his first shots and first bath in the nursery, the nurses noticed that he wasn't crying or responding the way he should. After some observation, the doctors became aware of possible complications due to a lack of oxygen in his blood. The doctors knew enough about what was going on to know that they didn't have the right facilities to care for Jack, and so they called for a life flight to St Francis Hospital in Tulsa.

It took close to two hours to stabilize him before they could lift off.  Watching strangers prepare our brand new baby boy for an emergency trip via helicopter to a hospital in another city - it was one of the hardest things to watch, and only 8 hours after delivery. I felt robbed. I wanted him back in my belly so badly. I wanted to protect him with my whole being. You have so many things running through your mind; I was consumed with "what if the helicopter crashes," which now sounds silly, but I was filled with dread. Jack did not respond well to the flight. In the air his vitals dropped a great deal and he struggled to hang on, but once they landed he became stronger. Putting myself in his position, I can’t even imagine how traumatizing a helicopter ride would be after being tucked safely in my mother’s womb for nine months, even for a healthy new born, let alone one with a weak heart. I wasn't able to go that night, but Tony went, and I was in Tulsa by the evening of the next day, which is a testament to the power of God. Making a long story short, my labor was long but my delivery was fast and painless (thanks to an epidural two days into labor.) I hit the floor running when Dr. Brestel released me.

Tony made his way to the hospital with his sister and father for support. But when they got there, they were greeted with no information, and were told to sit in a very small waiting room. One hour, two hours, three hours went by, and at one in the morning, a nurse came and allowed him to go see Jack now that he had a bed and a group of nurses  monitoring his health. He was still as beautiful as before, but he was still sedated from the trip and was on a ventilator, to regulate his breathing. The nurse told Tony that they were going to do a scan of his chest, but since most of the doctors were home, we probably wouldn't hear anything that night. They luckily had a room right near the ER in which Tony could stay, and that if the scan revealed something, they would let him know.

Dad:
Once in the parent's room with a moment to myself, I, Tony, broke down. My sister and dad had just left, and I was nervous and exhausted. I thought that Jack looked good, even though he was in a hospital bed, and he did have excellent nurses around him. I prayed. Fervently, I prayed. I showered, and I prayed. God graced me with a little bit of sleep. It took a while to get to sleep, and it felt like no time at all once I had gone to sleep when the phone rang, letting me know that a doctor was coming to the room. I quickly dressed, just in time for the knock on the door. One of the nurses who rode with Jack in the helicopter came in with Dr. Kliewer and she sat down next to me as the doctor explained that Jack had a defect called the Transposition of the Greater Arteries. When Jack was born, the two main vessels that stem from a normal heart were formed backwards. The short explanation is that blood with oxygen coming from the lungs was going not the the body, but back to the lungs, and the blood coming from the body with no oxygen was going back to the body.

Here is a link explaining it:

Transposition of the Greater Arteries

(look for the flash movie to see how the doctors repaired the condition)

God had blessed Jack with a hole in the septum, which is the dividing wall between the ventricles. Also, in normal cases, the Patent Ductus Arteriosus will fully close after birth. His didn't, and it allowed for good oxygen circulation despite the defect. God knew what He was doing. 


Dr. Kliewer explained the procedure that was to follow. They would go into his heart via a catheter and inflate a balloon in the upper septum, allowing more oxygen flow. The vessels in a newborn's heart are tiny and the catheter has to slip in and make it to this tiny heart, making a perfect tear to the atrial septum. It is a very dangerous procedure, and they had to have my permission before they could perform it, which of course I gave. They also invited me to see Jack again before they did it.

It is such a scary thing to walk into a room where there are many, many babies, and all of the nurses have stopped attending their charges so that they can give you a moment with your son. The machines hum, the monitors beep, but the nurses stop bustling and moving so that you can have an intimate moment with your child. Because it could be the last one you have, and they don't want to take away from it. It was terrifying. I remember feeling numb and feeble, like someone who was being lead by hand after a tragedy. And still precious Jack slept. I prayed over him and sang "It is Well" into his ear, and started to leave, and I couldn't quite make it. I tried so hard to hold it together, but the nurse knew, and she prayed with me. It was a great prayer.. I thank God for that nurse. They led me back to the sleeping room and said that the procedure should take a while and that they would come for me when it was over.

When the door shut, I fell to my knees. Fear washed over me, and I knew that it was in God's hands alone. I surrendered it to God, and I promised to God that if He would only spare Jack, I would commit everything for the rest of my life to the Glory of God. I promised that Jack would know daily what a gift he was, and that he would be raised in the Word, as was Samuel in the Old Testament. I also pleaded that if God did want to take someone, that He would take me and spare my son. I've never begged anything of God with such fervor, and I wept. Finally, when I was numb with it, I laid back down and went to sleep for a little longer.

Dr. Kliewer and the surgeon came back two hours later, and they were very happy! The surgery allowed an acceptable amount of oxygen to flow through my baby boy's body, keeping him stable until he could recover and be able to go through the next procedure.  God had blessed these gifted doctors and nurses with steady hands and He allowed all the right people to be in the right place at the right time to allow this to happen.

"For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not harm to you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. You will seek Me and find Me when you seek Me with all your heart.


The arterial switch was scheduled for a week after Jack’s birth and during that time his lungs began to weaken. The left lung had fully collapsed while the right was holding strong. Much prayer was requested and received and, praise God, those prayers for the left lung to inflate were answered. But as the left lung grew stronger, the right lung began to partially collapse as well. So we repeated the same path of prayer which only strengthened our faith more.  The doctors began to question if there was an underlying problem to the random weakening in the lungs.  Their first assumption was cystic fibrosis, so they ran further tests to rule that option out.  It took a really long time to get the results but we received a “normal” result.  Praise God! The next battle was the possibility of pneumonia, which again meant more tests that also ended in a good result.  Praise God!!!  We received so many prayers over my son’s lungs; it was overwhelming to know how many friends and family wanted to reach out to God and ask for healing in this little baby’s life. Jack’s lungs made a well enough recovery to proceed with the surgery and continued to stay strong.  The original issue that caused the lungs to collapse is still unknown.  But we that stand in faith know very well that it was God and the power of prayer that allowed his lungs to recover.

They performed an echo to prepare him for the "big surgery.” The echo revealed that he had only one coronary artery, where there should be two, attached to the vascular artery. (see flash movie above for a visual.) Dr. Kliewer watched the echo tech search for the coronary artery, and after the tech announced there was only one, Dr. Kliewer took over. She searched, and searched, and searched. When she finally came to tell me the results, she had tears in her eyes. She said that she knew it was there but couldn’t find it and didn’t know where to look. This would make the surgery much harder. The doctors said it had been done before but it was very complicated due to the additional vessels attached to the coronary artery. Those vessels could tangle causing kinks and resulting in improper blood flow to the heart. The next day, they were resolved that they could find the missing artery, and they did a dye test through the heart. Dr. Kimberling came to us a few hours after they started and told us that indeed, there was only the one coronary artery. This whole time we had been receiving prayer via text messaging through friends and family. So our prayer request at that time was for the doctors to find that artery to be sufficient. The surgery was scheduled for the next day.  The entire night and day we prayed, even harder, for not only the one to be sufficient but for the second one to appear.  The morning of the surgery, Dr. Kimberling came to us with a printout of some of the images from the dye test. After deciding to take another look at it late in the previous evening, he discovered a very faint mark on the image that he knew for sure was the second artery.  When they told us the news I cried complete tears of praise for God, I was in utter amazement and still am to this day.


 Dr. Nikaido and Dr. Barth, two prominent surgeons at St Francis, performed open heart surgery on Jack. The procedure is called the Arterial Switch. In this procedure, they sever the two greater vessels and reattatch them into their correct pathways. The procedure was successful, and the doctors were pleased.  I will never forget the excitement that filled Jack’s room that day. Dr. Nikaido seems to be a very quiet, humble man, but that day you could hear his laughter down the hall. By this point, Jack had undergone 6 procedures and surgeries, including several Cardiac Catheterizations.