Baby’s Memory Guides Parents She Left Behind
Baby Chelsey Dove stole Jamie Doney’s heart, then broke it.
“I knew something was wrong when I found out I was pregnant,” Jamie says, holding a photo of dark-haired Chelsey, grinning and beautifully vital in her floral sleeper.
Jamie’s premonition was accurate. No problems were detected during pregnancy, but for six months after her birth, her daughter struggled to live with a cruel and fatal genetic skin disorder - epidermolysis bullosa.
Chelsey died three years ago, and Jamie pledged to raise awareness of the disease. Grief overwhelmed and silenced her until now.
“The wounds aren’t healed, but they’re not open,” she says. “If it happens to anyone else, I want to be there to help.”
Jamie was 30 and exhausted from 24 hours of labor when Coeur d’Alene doctors whisked her newborn daughter away. Chelsey was a month early. Jamie worried.
A half-hour after birth, blisters popped out on Chelsey’s backside. Doctors noted her fragile skin. Nurses had Jamie diaper the baby in cloth and swaddle her in sheepskin.
Jamie learned at home that the blisters grew if she didn’t pop them. Within a few days, they’d grown and merged, turning tiny Chelsey the raw red of the worst diaper rash.
Tests showed Jamie and her husband, Jim Dove, each carry an abnormal collagen gene, which leaves their children a 25 percent chance of being born with the fatal skin disease.
Chelsey moved from hospital to hospital as doctors tried to control her blistering. She lost her top layer of skin, which protected her from infection. Everything stuck to her. She bled.
Doctors wrapped her in pigskin and gauze. Jamie helped with everything, her daughter’s sweet grin giving her strength she didn’t know she had.
Chelsey’s death on Sept. 1, 1994, threw her parents into a dark stupor. Jamie slept with a teddy bear to fill the emptiness in her arms. Jim drank.
The following February, Jamie learned she was pregnant. She was terrified. The 75 percent chance the baby would be fine wasn’t enough.
Doctors knew which gene was the problem, so they tested Jamie’s amniotic fluid. The baby was fine. Shortly after her healthy son was born, Jamie beseeched a friend to check his bottom for blisters. There were none.
Jamie and Jim raise money for EB research now because they know its benefit. Jamie’s church helped her corral her grief enough to share Chelsey’s story with other parents.
“For a while, I was really mad at God. But I know I couldn’t have done it without him,” she says. “The time is right now. I think I can be there for someone else.”
For information on EB, write to D.E.B.R.A., 40 Rector St., 14th Floor, New York, NY 10006.
Best neighbor
Few good Samaritans beat Coeur d’Alene’s Tony LaPan, according to his Seventh Street neighbors.
Tony, who’s 30-ish, snow-blows two blocks at a time and helps neighbors rake leaves and carry out garbage.
Beth Henderson says he dug a grave for her beloved dog when she lived next to Tony. He later moved the grave to her new home and still works on her mower.
William Youmans says his neighbor helped him with his ailing 95-year-old mother at any time of the night.
“He’s the type who drops everything he’s doing when he knows someone needs help,” William says. Any vacancies on that block?
Box one up
Lake City High’s first community picnic dinner, 5-7 p.m. Thursday, will raise money for scholarships. Boxed meals for $5 in the cafeteria, right before the football game with Coeur d’Alene High.
, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
MEMO: What’s your favorite school event? Cheer about it to Cynthia Taggart, “Close to Home,” 608 Northwest Blvd., Suite 200, Coeur d’Alene 83814; fax to 765-7149; call 765-7128; or e-mail to cynthiat@spokesman.com.