Photo: Sontina Barnes holds her son Josiah, 4, as her husband Reggie holds a laptop showing a photograph of their daughter Selah. Selah, 2, passed away in February and her family decided to donate her organs.
Ypsilanti residents Reggie and Sontina Barnes were ecstatic when they discovered three years ago they would soon be proud parents of a baby girl.
Sontina was 16 weeks pregnant in 2009 with their second child when a doctor ordered a routine ultrasound. While examining the ultrasound, the doctor noticed something amiss and suggested the couple go to the University of Michigan Hospitals to make sure everything was OK.
At U-M, Sontina had a 3D ultrasound done and the Barnes learned their unborn daughter had a heart defect.
“Even at that time, we still weren’t too concerned until they told us she might have more of a severe heart defect,” Sontina said.
They were given the option to terminate the pregnancy.
“Before I could even say a word, Reggie was like ‘absolutely not, this is our daughter and we want to meet her,’” Sontina said. “So we decided to go ahead and go through with the pregnancy.”
It was a decision that that would bring them great joy and ultimately great sorrow over the next couple of years. It would also pull them closer together as a couple and a family.
The pregnancy
In 2009, the Barnes had moved to Michigan from New York after Sontina was accepted into the Thomas Cooley Law School in Ann Arbor.
Read more: http://www.annarbor.com/news/sontina-barnes-holds-her-son/
{Register to be an organ,eye and tissue donor. To learn how, www.donatelife.net or www.organdonor.gov}
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