CDH International welcomes Lawrencia Scurlock to our Patient Advocacy Board. Lawrencia is a CDH mom to CDH survivor Lyric.
Lawrencia and her husband, Eric, have been married for seven years and she is the mother to six amazing children! Her entire life revolves around her family. Her daughter, Lyric, was born Nov 14, 2016, with CDH. Lyric was diagnosed in utero at about 20 weeks gestation. They had no idea what this journey would be like and was in denial, thinking someone had made a mistake. She blocked it all from her mind and continued her pregnancy as if she would come out perfectly fine.
Lawrencia had no idea of the events that were to happen on that day she was born. She didn’t know she wouldn’t hear her baby cry because both of her lungs collapsed as she took her first breath. She didn’t know she would see her baby for the first time on an ECMO machine sedated and fighting for her life. Depression kicked in and began affecting her other children and her relationship with Eric. Lawrencia held Lyric for the first time when she was 2 and a half months old. She felt like a stranger to her, she knew her voice and her smell but holding her was different. Lyric stayed intubated for four months and then finally after having a catheter placed in her heart, she was extubated.
Lyric came home after five months in the NICU at Children’s Hospital of Richmond. She is now five years old, she’s wild, crazy and full of excitement! She still suffers from GERD and she is still on her feeding tube due to her oral aversion from being intubated for so long. Lyric was never able to drink from a bottle. She was never able to figure out how to suck, swallow and breathe at the same time. Lyric also has some cognitive hearing loss, they believe it’s a side effect from being on ECMO. She also has severe asthma. During her NICU stay, she caught a staph infection that ate away at her right shoulder and now has a deformity that has left her right arm to be shorter than the left.
Lyric doesn’t let anything stop her. Her attitude is fierce, and she loves to keep up with her older sister and brother.
Lawrencia doesn’t remember life before CDH, she only looks toward making the best of her future. Her husband found the CHERUBS support group and requested a care package, that box opened her eyes and she quickly took control of what was their new normal.
For more information on CDH International, please visit https://cdhi.org/.
