Kala’s Story: A Year Later

As the date of July 16 approached this year, Kala Bred­er found her­self struggling.

“The week lead­ing up to that day was real­ly hard. I start­ed hav­ing pan­ic attacks and just kept play­ing that day through my head over and over,” she shared.

A year pri­or, she wel­comed her son, Chan­ning. Although she was look­ing for­ward to cel­e­brat­ing his first birth­day, she couldn’t help but have mixed emo­tions from that day because it was also the day she almost lost her life.

We first shared Breder’s sto­ry last Novem­ber. You can view that sto­ry here. We sat down recent­ly to fol­low up with her.

When Bred­er was 33 weeks preg­nant, she expe­ri­enced some com­pli­ca­tions with her preg­nan­cy and was hos­pi­tal­ized for obser­va­tion. On the day she was to be released, she had a con­ver­sa­tion with her OB/GYN physi­cian, Dr. Jean Alexan­dre, with Quin­cy Med­ical Group (QMG) about a recur­ring dream she couldn’t get out of her mind.

“I had kept hav­ing this dream where I hem­or­rhaged and my daugh­ter found me. The dreams were so real that I even trained my daugh­ter to call 911 to help if some­thing would hap­pen,” Bred­er recalled. ​“I also dreamt that my hus­band found me and he couldn’t wake me.”

Bred­er told her­self it was just a dream, but felt she need­ed to share her fears with Dr. Alexandre.

“He didn’t dis­re­gard me or look at me like I was sil­ly. I felt com­fort­able enough to bring it up to him and he took it seri­ous­ly,” she said. ​“He decid­ed to keep me anoth­er night.”

Lat­er that evening, an ultra­sound showed her baby was in dis­tress and at mid­night Dr. Alexan­dre deliv­ered Chan­ning via C‑section at 12:12 a.m. on July 16, 2020. He was flown to St. Louis Children’s Hos­pi­tal and Bred­er stayed behind to heal.

As Kala con­tin­ued to recov­er that day, she got up to use the restroom with the help of a nurse and passed out. She was rushed into the oper­at­ing room for emer­gency surgery. There, doc­tors dis­cov­ered she was expe­ri­enc­ing inter­nal bleeding.

Kala under­went a major life-sav­ing pro­ce­dure that includ­ed Dr. Alexan­dre, QMG Gen­er­al Sur­geon Dr. Todd Pet­ty, QMG OB/GYN Physi­cian Dr. Obio­ma Mad­u­akor, and assis­tance from the Quin­cy Anes­the­sia Asso­ciates specialists.

“The team here had exhaust­ed all of the blood resources with­in 45 miles of Quin­cy and it took 32 units of blood before I was sta­ble enough to fly,” she shared.

She was flown to St. Louis, where she would recov­er in the same city as Channing.

“When I woke up in the ICU, I wrote a note. I was on a ven­ti­la­tor and couldn’t talk, and one of my first ques­tions was ​‘Is Dr. Alexan­dre com­ing to St. Louis to fin­ish the surgery?’ because I didn’t want any­one else in the world to work on me. I had com­plete faith in him and that he would do what was right for my baby and me.”

After she came off the ven­ti­la­tor, her first call was to Dr. Alexandre.

“I thought it was Fri­day and I would catch him before he got his day start­ed. It was 7:30 a.m. and it was actu­al­ly Sat­ur­day, but he answered. I want­ed him to know I was ok,” she said.

He didn’t believe it, he had to see it for himself.

“Lat­er that day, I heard a knock on the door and it was Dr. Alexan­dre. He want­ed to see me for him­self and see that I was ok. He stayed a short time, but that meant the world to me.”

Reflect­ing back on that day, Bred­er said she still strug­gles with the expe­ri­ence of that day.

“As I approached the one-year mark of the day, I see life dif­fer­ent­ly. I val­ue life more, but I also have survivor’s guilt. I often ask ​‘Why me? Why did I sur­vive?’ There’s a lot of tragedy in our com­mu­ni­ty in our world, and I end­ed up ok.”

Though those feel­ings creep in from time to time, a year lat­er she is more filled with grat­i­tude for all those who helped her and she want­ed to pay it forward.

On Good Fri­day of 2021 and July 16, 2021, she host­ed blood dri­ves to thank those who saved her life with their blood dona­tions and to also pro­vide life-sav­ing blood for those who need it, like she did.

Her goal was to col­lect 32 units. She col­lect­ed 34.

She plans to con­tin­ue to pay it for­ward to help oth­ers and remain grate­ful for all those who helped her in her time of need, espe­cial­ly Dr. Alexandre.

“He had a huge role in get­ting me through this. He did every­thing in his pow­er to help me and I won’t ever for­get that. He is my angel here on Earth.”