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Michael A. Crane, III and Santa Claus
Location: Seattle, King, WA, 25 Dec 1983
1
Photographer: Santa's helper
Digitally re-mastered by: Michael A. Crane, Jr.
- Name:
Michael Allen Crane, III
- Sex:
Male
- Birth:
19 Dec 1983 in Everett, Snohomish, WA, USA
2
- Death:
15 Jan 1984 in Seattle, King, WA, USA
3
- Burial:
19 Jan 1984 at Cypress Lawn Cemetery, Everett,
Snohomish, WA, USA
- Note:
Michael was delivered at Everett General Hospital,
which is now called, The Providence Everett Medical Center,
Colby Campus.
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Michael was born with a genetic defect called
Myotonic Dystrophy (similar to Muscular Dystrophy) which, it was
determined, to their surprise, he had inherited from his mother,
Lisa, and his grandfather, Royal C. Hamlin.
Lisa had told me early in our marriage that
she had been born premature and had lived her first days in an
incubator. Ultimately, Lisa had proven strong enough to survive.
Sadly, little Michael's condition at birth was worse than Lisa's
had been.
It had been a long night. Lisa's water had
broken just after bed time the night before but Michael had not
been in a hurry to be born. Also, there had been some concern
over the readings the monitors were displaying, anyway, so much
for getting any sleep. By this time, Lisa and I were getting
used to complications though; she had already had a blood clot
in her left leg a few weeks before, and in the last month, her
belly had become huge, like as if she was going to have
quadruplets, with excess fluids. But finally, at 9:27 AM little
Michael Allen Crane, III was born and hope that everything would
be okay was high.
I was there in the delivery room and watched
little Michael being born. It did not take long to realize that
there was a big problem. A "Code Blue" problem. They,
the doctor and nurses, could not get little Michael to breath on
his own. Shortly, he was rushed to The Children's Orthopedic
Hospital in Seattle where he would spend the remainder of his
short life in an incubator hooked to a respirator to help him
breathe.
The irony is that Michael did not die from his
genetic disease, at least not in a direct way. He died from an
"overwhelming infection [of E Coli Sepsis] in [the] blood"
which led to "congestive heart failure."
4
Michael was so small, about 4 lbs at birth, and
weak that it really was no surprise that he did not survive.
Still, there is nothing that can compare to the loss of a child.
It really is true that a piece of yourself dies with your child.
My soul still aches and who knows how different I might be today
if Michael Allen Crane, III had lived.
Michael A. Crane, Jr.
18 Jun 2005
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Michael A. Crane, III - Struggling For Life
Location: Children's Hospital, Seattle, King, WA, 1983
Photographer: Dorothy June Crane
Digitally re-mastered by: Michael A. Crane, Jr.
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1
A dated Polaroid picture that came with a Christmas gift for Michael.
2
Washington State Department of Health, Certificate of Live Birth.
Local File Number: 04275. State File Number: 146-8 [space left blank].
3
Ancestry.com. Washington Death Index, 1940-96 [database online].
Provo, UT: Ancestry.com, 2002. Original data: Index created by:
Washington State Department of Health. Microfilmed copy of index
obtained from: Washington State Archives.
4
Gross Necropsy Findings. Necropsy signed by Robert R. Coffin, M.D.
Necropsy Date: 16 Jan 1984. Necropsy No: A84-007.
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