The Unforgotten Child

It all began on May 12, 1967. Everything was just fine. Her body was normal, her bodily functions were normal; she could suck a bottle, cry, sleep, like any other normal newborn. However, Tammy Vert had just one minor, slight deformity—she was born with a hair lip and cleft palate. John, her father, was only eighteen years old when she was born. Being of that young age, he was inexperienced in a lot of different things. One of them, and foremost, was lack of medical knowledge. So at the young age of twelve days old, Tammy’s doctors spoke to her father on the situation saying, "If we operate now, at a young age, there will be little or no scar, to see when she gets older."

"Well, you’re the doctor; you’re the one with the experience and should know what you are talking about. Okay, go ahead with the surgery," replied Tammy’s dad. He had then signed the necessary papers allowing the doctors to perform surgery on her hair lip.

Surgery began. After a short while had gone by, out came a nurse from the operating room, straight towards John. "I’m sorry; Mr. Vert, but we’ve lost her."

"Oh my gosh--NO! It can’t be! No, she is not dead, she is still alive." John screamed in horror. He had gotten very emotional and his thoughts were just about ready to drive him over the edge. "How could it be? Such a simple operation, what went wrong?"

Again the nurse repeated, "I’m sorry." John was then left alone, feeling very grief stricken and full of pain.

A short time elapsed after this incident, when the doctor that performed the surgery came over to John. He tried to explain what had happened. However the shock was too much for him to handle after talking to the nurse. After calming him down, and returning him back to reality, the doctor began to proceed with explaining to John, what had actually happened during surgery. Life seemed to start flowing back through John’s veins when the doctor had started talking to him. After the anesthetic was given, Tammy had suffered a cardiac arrest. The dosage had been too strong for her small body to handle. They had lost her. At this date and time, medical knowledge could only revive a person up to six minutes without any damage. After that time, brain damage would result. The doctor explained that they kept working on her. They were determined that they were not going to lose her. Finally, after ten minutes, she came back to reality. They had succeeded in reviving her, but still the damage had been done. She was no longer normal; brain damage had caused her severe handicap and mental retardation which she lives with to this day.

Hearing that her first born was now mentally ill and handicapped, Tammy’s real mother, Peggy, had left. Sad, but true, she walked out. Not only did she walk out on Tammy, but also on her husband, John, too. "I don’t want a retarded child!" With these words she left them both and was never heard from again.

In spite of all this, John stood by Tammy’s side. Even though she was on a machine to keep her from choking, he watched and took care of her the best way he knew how. With Peggy leaving them both, John and Tammy moved in with his sister Marie. She took care of Tammy for a couple of months, when John would go to work. She kept watch on the machine, tube fed Tammy, changed her diapers, but she always had that fear that Peggy might possibly return, and if she did, might stir up trouble. Legally, Peggy was still Tammy’s mother, since she and John were not yet divorced, and if she would have come back insisting for her baby, Marie would have had to let her go. John did not want this to happen. He would not lose Tammy to someone who had abandoned him or her both, especially when needed the most. He refused to put any more burdens on his sister, Marie, so he and Tammy left and sent out on their own.

It was rough. No place to go, just a car to live in. John had to work, so naturally Tammy went right along with him. The company nurse had watched her during the day while he was working. But after a couple of weeks of really roughing it, Tammy became ill. Was it just a cold or could it have been pneumonia? John didn’t know. He just knew he had to take care of Tammy’s health and find a place, relative, anyone responsible enough, to take care of Tammy while he was at work. He couldn’t take her to work with him daily—it wasn’t the company nurse’s job to baby-sit. So he talked to his boss, and it was agreed upon, to let him take a week or two off, whatever it took to find a home and someone to care for Tammy.

The first place, the two of them went back to, was to the same hospital where Tammy was born. John took her into the emergency room and explained her symptoms. They admitted her in right away. Seeing that all was under control at this point, he left the hospital and went straight down to Poplar Bluff, Missouri, where he thought possibly his mother, or his other sister, Ester could help or at least come up with some helpful suggestions. Since his time was limited, he did not tell anyone where he was going. He had to find a home, someone to take care of his precious daughter, while he carried on with life’s struggles. It had to be done now, not later. Tammy needed a place to live when she got out of the hospital, a place to call home. He talked to relatives, checked with a Diagnostic Clinic, in vain, he searched, determined to come back, pick up his little bundle when recovered and bring her to a real home. But something went wrong.

While down in Poplar Bluff, Uncle Sam, the U. S. Army, sent draft papers to John’s mother’s home. He was to report to the Army now; one more problem to tend with. He couldn’t avoid Uncle Sam—he had to hit it head on. So John went. Within a week after the induction, he spoke to the commander about his unfinished business in Indiana. He explained the situation about his daughter being hospitalized and that he had to go back up there to get her and bring her back to Missouri. But it wasn’t that easy. Finally they agreed to let him take the weekend off to get this done. He left immediately.