Kala’s Story: “My Angel Here on Earth”

This past sum­mer was a scary time for Kala Bred­er and her fam­i­ly. As she await­ed the arrival of her third child, a baby boy, Kala began expe­ri­enc­ing bleed­ing at 33 weeks preg­nant as a result of pla­cen­ta pre­via. After her baby failed to respond to a non-stress test, the deci­sion was made to deliv­er him via emer­gency C‑section. Her son, Chan­ning, made his arrival at 12:12 a.m. on July 16 and was air­lift­ed to St. Louis Children’s Hospital.

Lat­er that day, as Kala con­tin­ued to recov­er, she passed out and was rushed for emer­gency surgery due to inter­nal bleed­ing. Once she was sta­ble, Kala was also air­lift­ed to St. Louis.

Through­out this time, her doc­tor, Quin­cy Med­ical Group OB/GYN Dr. Jean Alexan­dre, was there. She shared her sto­ry with us.

“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. Every­one prayed. I think the whole city of Quin­cy prayed for me. Peo­ple prayed all over the coun­try for me.”

Her health­care team thought Kala would be in the ICU in St. Louis for four days, and she was only there 32 hours. She was hold­ing her baby 40 hours after land­ing in St. Louis.

“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.”

She is for­ev­er thank­ful for Dr. Alexan­dre, who, Kala says, holds a spe­cial place in her heart. While she was in St. Louis, Dr. Alexan­dre drove down to see for him­self that she was ok.

Through tears, she says, ​“Dr. Alexan­dre went above and beyond, just like he did with the birth of my oth­er two chil­dren. He is my angel here on Earth. After all this, I thanked him for sav­ing my life. This is how self­less he is. He said ​‘I didn’t do it; God and your fight to sur­vive did it.’ But, in the end, it real­ly came down to him. He kept my heart pump­ing. He won’t take cred­it for it, but he def­i­nite­ly saved my life.”

Today, both Kala and Chan­ning are healthy and doing well. She looks back at this time with grat­i­tude for the com­pas­sion and care of Dr. Alexandre.