Chapter 13 – Enter Victoria

Victoria had just lost a baby to vasa previa. In an even more tragic way that most of us had. She KNEW something was wrong. She was bleeding and begged her doctor to take her baby. People bleed from many things during pregnancy, but this doctor would not listen to her or follow up. Instead he sent her home. When she bled again he sent her across town instead of to the nearest hospital. It was too late. Victoria knew she had failed her daughter. Eventually her very best friend found the IVPF and knew this is what killed Victoria’s baby. She contacted us and I encouraged her to have Victoria email us.

Victoria’s loss was devastating. She was a business owner and PR professional, having worked in major companies around the world. We knew she had been sent to us from God, but had a difficult time accepting such a gift. Victoria and I immediately became fast friends. We chatted online every day. She couldn’t live with Sophie’s loss any more than I could live with Nate’s. Finally she started coming to meetings, motivated (and paralyzed) by her grief. She never went back into the PR business and eventually sold her company. By this time there had been more medical papers published about vasa previa. Victoria found them all. She also found the authors and convinced one to help us with a study. The largest study to date was only 18 cases. We had more than 100 in our email group by then.

Victoria took over PR for the IVPF. She also spear-headed the study. A comparison case study was commenced. It took 2 years to collect all the records. In the end, with the rise in awareness about this condition, several other doctors were able to supply records from other institutions. When we went to the medical journals we had 155 cases, all of which demonstrated that prenatal diagnosis, hospitalization, and C-section delivery by 35 weeks changed the outcome of vasa previa pregnancies from only 5-0% survival to nearly 100%. This information was sad for many of us, but exciting. Victoria was motivated to contact the ultrasound organizations and IVPF members started staffing informational booths at medical conferences. We received a standing ovation at the very first one, where we presented only the preliminary results of our study. The IVPF has been attending obstetrical and ultrasound medical conferences around the world ever since.