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Bay Area family overcoming incredible odds
Mark Wilson reports
TAMPA, Fla. - A Bay Area family is grateful for March of Dimes research that led to a discovery that saved their baby’s life and now they are giving back.
Bradley and Kayla Tooker cherish every moment that they have with their daughter Kayley.
"She makes us laugh, and she makes our life so much better," said Kayla Tooker. "And for what we also went through, it makes us more grateful for all the good, for all the bad. But she is an amazing child."
Three years ago, the Tooker's almost lost Kayley.
Kayley Tooker was put into a coma and laid on a hypothermia cooling mattress to reduce body temperature to slow down brain injury.
Kayla Tooker had just gotten home from her nursing job when she went into full-blown labor. They drove to the hospital thinking it would be a routine delivery, but it turned out anything but ordinary.
READ: March of Dimes: 'Karter Cause' collects hand-kitted Octopi to handout to NICU families
''All of the nurses came flooding into the room right after mom's water broke, and it was just kind of turned into a nightmare from there, unfortunately," Bradley Tooker said.
Doctors delivered Kayley, but she wasn't breathing.
"When she was born, she was born not alive, basically. And so, they had to basically bring her back to life and resuscitate her," Kayla Tooker stated.
Kayley was flown to Johns Hopkins All Children's Hospital in St. Petersburg.
Kayley Tooker was flown to Johns Hopkins All Children's Hospital shortly after birth.
"I had just left work taking care of other families and then to go back, to watch people take care of me," Kayla Tooker explained. "And my child was just a very big shift for us. And so, it was just very scary."
Kayley was put into a coma and laid on a hypothermia-cooling mattress. It reduces the body temperature to slow down brain injury.
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The March of Dimes helped to conduct the research that led to that discovery.
"Thank you so much. Because without that therapy, even as a nurse, I was not really, I wasn't really sure what it was, but without that therapy, we may not have the child that we have today," Kayla Tooker shared.
The Tooker family is the ambassador family for the 2024 Hillsborough County March for Babies walk.
Three years later, the family embraces life to its fullest and is so thankful for the March of Dimes.
"She's perfect now," said Kayla Tooker. "She walks, talks, says all the things that we were told that she may never do."
"She's a miracle," said Bradley Tooker. "She's doing incredible. We had so many ideas of how this could have gone in the long run. We were so scared. We had hope, of course, but we were prepared for the worst. And to see her how she's doing now is just nothing less than a miracle."
The Tooker family is grateful for the March of Dimes and their miracle baby.
The Tookers are fervor grateful for their miracle baby. They are the March of Dimes ambassadors for the upcoming March for Babies in Hillsborough County, taking place this weekend.
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