Blue Baby
A Memoir
by
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The cath lab was an overwhelming and scary room. There were huge machines everywhere; the most intimidating one, a gigantic black fluoroscope machine, hovered over my body. I was strapped to the table. I personally would have preferred to go to sleep and wake up with it over but I had to be awake. Dr. Sones wouldn’t allow general anesthesia or deep sedation because there were times when I had to inhale deeply, hold my breath until I was told I needed to exhale. No other moving was allowed.
Dr. Sones was there the entire time and explained in detail everything he was going to do. He must have sensed my claustrophobic fear of the monstrous four- foot-square box which was squeezing the core of my body. “This is a fluoroscope machine which will come down to about four inches from your chest. It will take moving pictures while I look at the inside your heart. We’re going to make a little cut here on your leg (he pushed the spot in my right groin) and insert a tube that I’ll put up inside your heart.
“So be very still. Then I’ll be able to see inside your heart when I put a dye into the catheter. It will cause a burning in your whole body, especially your chest, then it will move up to the tip of your tongue. Now when this dye goes in, you’re going to feel like jumping up off this table. Don’t do it. It’s very important that you don’t move. You ready to start?” He patted me on that arm and began his work.
I didn’t move except to inhale, hold it, and then exhale as instructed. Even though I was given a drug to relax me, the only way I could endure the two plus hours of not moving, having needles inserted in my groin to make it numb, feeling the pressure/cutting sensation, feeling the catheter moving up my right side, the hot fiery dye, having that big black box only inches from my face, was to turn my head toward Dr. Sones and go to another place outside my body. My body wanted to rebel against being violated so deep within my core. I was choosing to allow it, but it was so horrible. I had to disappear from the reality of that room. It took all my will power, concentration to force myself to cooperate.
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About the Book
Dorinda Bush Jones started keeping a journal to share her struggles of being a terminal “blue baby” with her son and grandchildren.
Born with four serious heart defects before open heart surgery was a reality, she spent much of her time alone, unable to keep up with other children. She often joined her parents at church, where she learned to rely on God during her lonely times.
During the summer of her eleventh year, she began to see how God was steering the direction of her life to bring her to the place where she could go from being terminal to being here to tell her story.
While her journal was originally meant for her family, she realized that people beyond her inner circle wanted to hear about how she was miraculously healed when she mentioned her writing during her various visits to doctors’ offices.
In this memoir, she reveals to the world how God, who knew all about her, kept her alive and led her to doctors who were learning, trying out new inventions, machinery, and surgical techniques, including stopped-heart surgery.
About the Author
Dorinda Bush Jones has been a person of interest in the medical field because of her successful stopped-heart surgery in January 1957, which took place eleven months after the first ever successful stopped-heart surgery at the Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland Ohio. She lives with her husband, Jerry, in a small university town, Cedarville, Ohio. They have a son and a daughter (who is now in heaven). They also have eight grandchildren.