Memories of Wyatt:
Wyatt Haydes Quintana was born Feb.
15, 2013 at 2:30 am to James and Melynda Quintana on his Grandma
Donna's birthday. He weighed 5 lbs 9 oz and was 19 ½ inches long.
He was a perfect, beautiful baby with his daddy's blond hair.
From the moment of his birth, he was
surrounded by friends and family who loved him. In addition to his
parents, he was blessed with two older brothers, Jason and Jesse who
adored him! He was lucky to live next door to his Grandma Donna and
Grandpa Vino Quintana and to have numerous cousins, aunts, uncles,
and other loved ones near by. He was Grandpa Vino's “little big
man” and brought joy to the entire family.
He had a wonderful, happy personality
and beautiful, frequent smile. He started smiling much earlier than
he was supposed to. He loved attention and did his best to make sure
everyone was always paying attention to him. He loved to reach up and
hold onto his mom's hair.
Through last Wednesday, he seemed
perfectly healthy and happy. Thursday morning, his dad found him not
breathing and unresponsive. James rushed him next door to Grandma's
house where Donna did CPT and brought his body back to life. He was
taken by ambulance to the Twin Falls hospital and then life flighted
to Boise. He was in critical condition and the doctors and nurses
worked hard to save him. Over the next three days, those who loved
him watched with roller coaster emotions as he beat one challenge
after another. Doctors determined that there was a problem with his
digestive system and performed exploratory surgery to find the
problem, which ended up being that his colon had died as the result
of C diff and E Coli bacteria. They removed 2/3 of his colon on
Thursday and did another surgery on Friday morning to remove the
rest.
Because of his critical condition, he
could not be transported to the operating room, and both surgeries
were done in his regular hospital room, a first for most of the
doctors and nurses participating. There were other procedures done to
Wyatt that had never been done on a baby that young and small,
including the vacuum device on his stomach and dialysis on his
kidneys, both of which were very successful.
I talked to the surgeon yesterday and
she wanted to reaffirm how much they had learned from little Wyatt
and how that knowledge will save not only other babies needing
dialysis or a stomach vacuum, but other patients as they now know
they can do surgeries outside the operating room successfully. He
will touch and bless the lives of many, many people for years to
come.
During the time Wyatt was fighting to
live, he also healed many broken relationships. Contact was
reestablished with friends and relatives who had not spoken in a long
time. We can honor Wyatt's life by doing all we can to maintain those
relationships and build on what he started.
Hundreds, if not thousands, of people
were touched by Wyatt as they read his story on Facebook, prayed for
him, and held their children a little closer. He may have also save
his little cousin who tested positive for C diff and is on
antibiotics.
In the end, while his body was being
healed, doctors learned that his brain had died from the lack of
oxygen and determined nothing else could be done. It was time for him
to return home to his Heavenly Father. He passed away at 8:50 pm on
April 20, 2013. He was 64 days old.
Melynda and James offered to donate
his organs, but fortunately, there was not a baby needing them at
that time.
Wyatt's life was only 9 weeks, but the
lives he touched and will continue to touch cannot be numbered and
will last forever.
Wyatt's full name, Wyatt Haydes
Quintana means, “light in the darkness.” He truly lived up to his
name and was a light to those around him. His light continues to
shine as a beacon, leading us back to Heavenly Father again.
Thank you Wyatt for blessing us with
your light! You will be forever missed, always loved, and never
forgotten. We love you!
Words of Comfort:
The scriptures teach us that before we were born into this life we lived
in a pre-earth life or a preexistence. In this preexistence there were
basically 3 groups. I will tell about the middle group first because that
is the group that all of us here today were a part of. This group were
pretty good people who generally did as our Heavenly Father or God
wanted us to do but sometimes we wavered. So we come to earth
to get a body and to prove to Heavenly Father that we will keep his
commandments.
The third group would not do what Heavenly Father wanted so they do
not get to come to earth and get a body.
The first group is the group that Wyatt is a part of, these are the
ones who were very very good so they do not need to further prove
themselves. They just need to come to earth to get a body then they
can go back to live with Heavenly Father. At the resurrection they will
be reunited with their bodies which will be perfect. Wyatt is promised
that he will go to heaven.
So Wyatt came here and got a body, then he was ready to go back
to God. When his soul or spirit left his body and went to the spirit
world he was greeted by family members who were already there.
He was greeted by his uncle Jason, his cousin Jesse Driesel, who both
passed away as babies, his Aunt Amber, his Aunt Tina, his great great
grandpas Jack and Duane who passed away on the same day 26 years
ago. We know this from people who have had near death experiences
and have come back to tell us that they were met by family and friends.
They tell us that they were very happy and it was very peaceful their,
and I know that Wyatt is happy and is being well taken care of and that
he is just waiting for the rest of us to join him.
As I prepared these remarks I kept coming back to the idea of what
would Wyatt want me to say. So after much thought and prayer there
are 3 things that I know Wyatt would want me to tell you.
1. James and Melynda, he would want me to say thank you for
giving him a body and for loving him.
2. He would want me to tell you that his passing away was neither
one of yours fault so please do not blame each other for his
leaving and please be kind to each other and love each other.
3. The last thing he would want me to say to everyone here is to
please live our lives so that we can all be with him after this life
is over. He will be with Heavenly Father and he wants us to all be
there with him.
