BLAINE, Minn. – (April 16, 2015) – Every family has a story. From pregnancy to birth and growing up, babies and their parents go through joy, fear and struggle.
For the Hedin family in Blaine, a healthy pregnancy with twins soon became complicated.
“Despite being healthy and fit and all the things that you’re supposed to do right, my pregnancy was riddled with problems from the very beginning, so the girls had to be delivered and they were delivered 12 weeks early. So they were born at 28 weeks gestation,” said Eden’s Garden co-founder Amanda Hedin. “Reagan was small, she was two pounds five ounces but Eden was even smaller. She was one pound .5 ounces. She actually fit into the palm of here daddy’s hand, she was that little.”
Eden and Reagan came a little sooner than expected. Their lives were going to begin in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Children’s Hospital in Minneapolis.
“The girls endured a lot. They had this long journey in the NICU with surgeries and blood transfusions and lung issues and growth and development. Learning how to feed. We got to the point where Eden was just continuing to get worse and worse. Her lungs weren’t developing,” said Hedin.
As weeks went by Eden had serious health issues. “We were at Texas Children’s for a week and Eden just deteriorated so rapidly that she couldn’t hang on. She passed away on March 30, 2011.
It was shortly after that Scott and I realized we need to do something to keep Eden’s legacy alive,” said Hedin. Out of this tragedy came a new hope to other families dealing with children in the NICU. Amanda and Scott decided to take their experience and honor Eden’s life by forming the non-profit Eden’s Garden in 2013 with the hope of providing other families going through similar situations help that they may not even know they need.
“Eden’s Garden is a 501(C)(3) and our mission is to provide resources and support to families going through the journey in the NICU,” said Hedin.
“One of the things with helping these families is that we’ve been through the journey. We know what they are going through and we know a lot of times what they need. We get families all the time that are like, ‘I don’t know what I need.’ They are so focused on their kiddo that that’s all their world is. So then we can help out with different ideas. Do you need parking, do you have kids at home? What can we help you out with,” said Eden’s Garden co-founder Scott Hedin.
With the help of Eden’s Garden, many families have had help through a trying time. The Abdi family in particular couldn’t have asked for a better outcome with their daughters Rania and Amina.
“For these guys they made it to 25 weeks, and at that point they started struggling and the doctors thought it would be better off if they came out. They’d be able to help them our a lot more if they were on the outside than if they were on the inside. I had a cesarean section and they came about a minute apart, went straight to the NICU and stayed in there quite awhile. I mean for how early they were born and what they had gone through to have them at this stage and not have any long term health effects that we can see right now is just a fantastic thing in of itself. We’re very grateful,” said Eden’s Garden recipient Siman Abdi.
With healthy happy twin girls now, Simone is extremely grateful for the help as she didn’t know what would happen to her babies. Having someone with the same experiences offer help is exactly what Eden’s Garden is able to do. The organization provides hope to families during the bleakest of times.
“When you’re in there your whole focus is just on the babies and the babies health and sometimes that’s changing from day to day, sometimes hour to hour. If you can have other people doing the thinking for you that you would’ve and thinking about the day to day things that normally you would’ve taken care of it just takes a load off and it’s just a huge relief. It gives you more time with your babies, it gives you that ability to just sit down and relax and not have to worry about what’s happening or what’s going on. How am I gonna pay for this or what am I gonna get from here. What Amanda and Scott manage to do I think just to make this really fantastic thing grow out of what was I’m sure for them a tragedy that I’m sure they still grieve for is such a great thing. It’s a noble thing. I really can’t say enough good things about it. I would absolutely recommend it 100 percent. Get in touch with them because it’s not just about the financial services, it’s just about this ideas that there is a group of other parents that are either experiencing this or have experienced this and have come out on the other side,” said Abdi.
There are a lot of questions when babies are sent to the NICU and doctors have to field a lot of the panic and stress that the parents have in such an unknown situation.
“They go through a lot of shock and grief and emotional ups and downs. They have sorrows and triumphs and a lot of uncertainty. It can be very difficult,” said Children’s Hospital and Clinics of MN Dr. Jeanne Mrozek, MD. With the advances in modern medicine, the doctors at Children’s Hospital are now able to give premature infants the best chance to survive and grow.
“In the late 80’s a medicine called surfactant was discovered which is a chemical that helps the air sacs in babies lungs stay open and to help them breathe and that drastically changed survival,” said Dr. Mrozek.
For Eden’s Garden, lending a hand, a voice, finances, even parking passes to those in need is just another way to preserve Eden’s memory and give back after they have dealt with the same issues.
“While we were on the journey there were so many things we needed. We needed someone to walk our dog or someone to clean our house or we needed to pick up Subway or pizza on the way home. We needed people like that to step in and help us, so Scott and I decided we can do that for other people,” said Amanda Hedin.
Regan is a former NICU baby that now has dreams, smiles, and plays like every other 4-year-old. Her family has overcome great tragedy to inspire others in the same position. Eden’s life and memory are now preserved in a way that allows her to keep giving back.
“Eden’s Garden is small and we’re new and we’re local and we’re helping families that you might come in contact with on a daily basis. No one can know what their pregnancy will be like or what will happen to their child or what unfortunate thing might happen in the end but it could happen to anyone and we want to help those families if they’re going through the journey,” said Amanda Hedin.
Nothing will change the past but giving hope and encouragement to families with children in the NICU is a gift that will not soon be forgotten. “I’d say just to have hope. Never give up hope. These kids are amazingly resilient,” said Amanda Hedin.
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