For Zoe
After taking a break from writing over the past few months, I feel the time is right to resume my duties here at TheClevelandFan.com, starting with bringing back The Crystal Ball as a weekly feature.
I took the time off as it was very difficult for me to find the proper frame of mind to write given the events that were transpiring for my family.
On June 3, my daughter Erin gave birth to a beautiful baby girl named Zoe Aris Fisher. But she was not even able to hold her after her birth. Zoe had an insidious birth defect called a congenital diaphragmatic hernia, a hole in her diaphragm that allowed her stomach, about half of her small intestines, and part of her liver to form in her chest cavity as opposed to her abdomen, which did not leave any room for her left lung to develop. The cause of CDH is unknown, but it does occur in one out of every 2,500 births...and the survival rate is only 50%. She was immediately rushed to Brenner Children's Hospital in Winston-Salem, NC, one of the finest pediatric care facilities in the world.
