- May 18, 2024
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Though Eric and Melissa DeVriese were expecting twins, they only brought home one baby boy May 17.
When Eric and Melissa DeVriese found out they were going to have twins, they were excited, surprised and very overwhelmed.
“We always hoped for children,” Melissa DeVriese said. “Twins are always high risk and I’m a little older so that raises the possibility of issues. We were heavily monitored. We went through a lot of screening and a lot of exams and nothing ever indicated there was a problem. While cord accidents are the primary cause of still births, in twins that's seldom a problem. According the two doctors that I was seeing, in their combined 52 years of experience, they had never lost a baby to a twisted cord this late in a pregnancy.”
It wasn’t until Melissa DeVriese went into pre-term labor May 17, that the problem surfaced. One of the twins, Eric Jr., had a cord twisted and turned over during childbirth. He did not survive.
“There was nothing wrong with him, he was a perfectly normal baby,” Melissa DeVriese said. “It was just that his cord got twisted and that’s what led to his demise. It was something that just wasn’t detected, even with all the sonograms and tests. No one had picked up on it.”
Still, Melissa isn’t bitter. Though the DeVriese’s lost one baby boy, his twin brother Henry barely survived.
“The incredibly lucky part is that Eric Jr., passed while we were already in the hospital for pre-term labor,” Melissa DeVriese said, “giving the doctors enough time to deliver his twin, Henry, which saved Henry's life. The doctors who delivered Henry had to resuscitate him and said that had the delivery been delayed even a few more minutes, we would have lost him as well.”
Henry DeVriese has been in NICU since his birth, but the DeVriese’s are hopeful they can bring him home in the next few weeks.
“When the time appropriate, we’ll explain to Henry that is was a very unfortunate accident,” Melissa DeVriese said. “ We will tell him that his brother was very loved and cared for and how happy we are that Henry survived.”
The family buried Eric Jr., and held a funeral service for him. Melissa DeVriese said they plan on keeping his memory alive through local charity work. A donation was made in Eric Jr.’s honor to Food Brings Hope so that they could build a home for teenage boys in need.
In November, the family will participate in a walk that their friends Tyler and Kahlin Kelly organized through the Tears Foundation. Tears is a nonprofit organization that assists parents with financial expenses for their baby who has died. It was the same night that the Kelly’s found out they were going to have a baby boy, that Eric Jr. passed away.
The Florida Walk and Rock is set to take place 8 Nov. at the Port Orange City Center.
