By KEVIN CHIRI
Slidell news bureau
SLIDELL – Stacey Boerner had just delivered her second child on Oct. 1, 2001 when she quickly noticed her baby was not in the room.
“I ended up waiting six hours and never seeing my baby,” she said. “I knew something was wrong.”
When her doctor walked into the room, tears in her eyes and announced, “your baby won’t make it through the night,” Boerner was stunned.
“My doctor didn’t have to say anything when she came in,” she recalled about that night over 11 years ago. “I knew something was seriously wrong just by the look on her face.”
Chloe Rene was born at East Jefferson Hospital with serious problems, Boerner would later learn. As the nurses began to wash the newborn, they noticed bruising on her little body, finally finding out three months later she had fluid on the brain that would eventually lead to Cerebral Palsy.
But the surprising thing for the doctors involved was that little Chloe did survive, and surprised many as she lived for 11 years before recently passing away on March 1, 2013. As a recipient of a special gift from the Children’s Wish Endowment organization of Slidell, she had been picked as the child the 2013 fashion show and fundraising luncheon was dedicated to, even though she unexpectedly passed away shortly before the show.
Boerner attended the show in Chloe’s name, still grieving over the loss of her daughter only weeks earlier, but wanting to carry out the spirit of a little girl who meant so much to her.
“Right now I’m still very sad that she is gone, but I am also relieved she is peaceful now and not suffering anymore,” she said.
The journey over the past 11 years for Boerner, her children and husband, not only taught Chloe’s mother a lot about any child with special needs, but did more for her than some people might understand if they have never spent much time with a disabled person.
“Most people don’t realize I took care of her like any other baby, special needs or not,” Boerner said. “This was still my baby, no matter how many problems she had.”
The biological father for Chloe did not remain in the picture, but two years after Chloe was born, she started dating a friend from high school who married Boerner, along with a son she had from a previous marriage.
“My husband is not Chloe’s real father, but he is an amazing man, especially to take me with a child who had the problems that Chloe had,” she said.
The family is still together and went through the journey with Chloe that saw her surprise doctors with her improvement.
“When we brought her home, she couldn’t hold her head up or move,” Boerner said. “She smiled sometimes, but she was screaming, crying and throwing up a lot since doctors still didn’t have her diagnosed correctly.”
When she was three months old, a doctor finally discovered she had Hydrocephalus—water on the brain—but by that time, the pressure led to Cerebral Palsy and left her blinded.
“The first three months were so stressful since I wanted to help her feel better, but we still didn’t know what the complete problems were,” Boerner said. “It was overwhelming not knowing why she had such problems.
“Even through those early years, we still did everything with her. We took her everywhere, we dressed her up the best she could look, and the amazing thing was that she touched many people just with her smile,” Boerner added. “I think that’s one thing I was so amazed at, the way she could light up a room with her smile.”
Even after the diagnosis and knowing the future was going to be difficult, Boerner said she never gave up hope that somehow Chloe might get better.
“As a mother, you always hope things will improve. Some doctors said there were stories of the brain regenerating, and maybe she could get her sight back,” she said. “We had hope since the doctors kept calling her their little puzzle. She didn’t seem to go by the book.
“As a mom, you still hope, dream and pray that things will get better,” she added.
But at the age of 3, Boerner recalls a startling disappointment.
“I was still hoping for the best, but when we had to get her first wheelchair, it really hit me that she was probably not going to get a lot better,” she said.
Boerner and her husband, Charles, were still able to teach her to eat and drink—a phenomenal feat considering Chloe’s physical condition. And Chloe showed how much she wanted her mother around by refusing to eat once she entered public school.
“She wouldn’t eat for anyone but me, even at school,” she said. “And even being blind, she knew if I was there.”
A year ago, Boerner said she knew Chloe wasn’t doing well, showing fewer smiles or giggles.
“Our doctor finally asked me how long I wanted to keep her alive,” Boerner said. “He told me, ‘you keep saving her’ when she stops breathing.”
Boerner said that 11 years of Chloe living with severe physical problems had been enough, and she knew she had to let her daughter go.
“I knew she had been in a lot of pain, even if it was hard to know from what,” she said. “Finally we brought in Hospice and I let her go.”
Charles and Stacey had a baby two years ago, adding to two children he already had. She said her life with Chloe will forever impact her.
“I had to do everything in her life. But she was the one who taught me what true unconditional love is,” Boerner said. “That’s what I want people to understand about children like Chloe. She was still my child like any other baby.”
The Children’s Wish Endowment granted a wish to Chloe to be a fashion queen at Disney World. Anyone who would like to donate to Slidell’s CWE can contact the group at 645-9474.