Landen's Story   — Kaci Barnes, AZ, USA

Landen was born November 17, 2006. He passed away February 15, 2007, almost 3 months old. There were no signs whatsoever. I even tested negative while I was pregnant. I woke one morning and thought it was odd that he hadn't woken up yet so I checked on him and he was not breathing. We tried CPR and called 911, but it was too late. We had lost him! Everyone thought it was SIDS and the cause of death was never uncovered by the Medical Examiner. However, shortly after we lost Landen, I became pregnant and went to a specialist because of the fear that something would happen to my little girl, too. I brought the autopsy report in and the specialist took it home and studied it. He did some test and found out that I had GBS with this pregnancy and he said that if you have it with one pregnancy you have it with all* which he said led him to look more closely at the autopsy where he found signs that Landen did in fact have a late-onset infection. It is so heartbreaking to lose a child! He would have been 2 yesterday.....I miss him. *According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) patient brochure, "Each time you are pregnant, you need to be tested for GBS. It doesn't matter if you did or did not have this type of bacteria before -- each pregnancy is different." However, the CDC August 16, 2002 MMWR also states, "Women... who previously gave birth to an infant with GBS disease should receive intrapartum antimicrobial prophylaxis."