Gary and Kelly Parrish say Louis is a happy, healthy baby. A STORY OF SURVIVAL Kelly and Gary Parrish Trust Regional One Health’s Center for High Risk Pregnancy to Save Their Baby 4 REGIONAL ONE HEALTH FOUNDATION He wasn’t supposed to survive. Nearly as soon as Kelly Parrish discovered she was pregnant she faced the near certainty she wouldn’t bring her baby home. The pregnancy was a shock. Kelly – the mother of two boys – had recently suffered a miscarriage at 24 weeks and delivered a stillborn son, Elliott Theodore. But thanks to Dr. Jacques Samson, MD, and the nearly 20 medical professionals at Regional One Health’s High Risk Pregnancy Program who were prepared to handle her one-of-a-kind, high-risk pregnancy, this story has a happy ending. To call Kelly’s pregnancy, labor and delivery experience improbable is too simple, at least without understanding the full story. This is a story of one determined mother and the trust she and her husband placed in Dr. Samson and his team at Regional One Health to guide them through a pregnancy and delivery that is surely heading for medical journals. An emotional rollercoaster Kelly Parrish thought for many years she was destined to be the mother of one son, Aiden Turner, born in 2003. But after delivering another baby, son Oliver Jean, in 2013, Gary and Kelly decided to try for a third child. Less than two years later Kelly became pregnant again. She thought it was progressing well. At 23 weeks and five days she had an ultrasound and the baby was “perfect.” But then she developed a rash, and out of precaution – and some worry – Kelly called her doctor who had her come in for blood work. While there, Kelly asked to have the baby’s heartbeat checked. Minutes later in the ultrasound room, her worst fears became reality. “He was just lying there. He doesn’t have a heartbeat,” Kelly said. “It was such a surreal moment. The doctor got on his knees and said, ‘I’m sorry. We need you to go to the hospital. You can deliver today.’” Meanwhile, Gary – a national college basketball writer for CBSSports.com, studio analyst for CBS Sports and radio host on 92.9 ESPN Radio in Memphis – was in New York preparing for one of his regular TV spots. The phone call he received was one every father-to-be never expects to get. “You don’t imagine that,” Gary said. “It’s weird because you realize you’re doing something the next day you’ve never done in your life: deliver a baby, hold the baby 5 DONATE.REGIONALONEHEALTHFOUNDATION.ORG
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