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Heartbreaking loss Guy Wathen/Tribune-Review

The third annual Emma Marie Keller Memorial/The Promise Walk for Preeclampsia will be held Saturday at Cook Township Community Center. Registration begins at 9 a.m., and the 3-mile walk starts at 10 a.m. Adults donate $20 to participate; children, $10. Each participant receives a T-shirt. Food and refreshments, including birthday cupcakes, will be provided. a Chinese auction with prizes, including Pittsburgh Penguins tickets, will be featured. a balloon release in Emma’s memory will wrap up the event. for more information or to register, visit the website and look for the Stahlstown walk.

About the writer

Jennifer Reeger is a Tribune-Review staff writer and can be reached at 724-836-6155 or via e-mail.

Ways to get us

by Jennifer Reeger TRIBUNE-REVIEW Monday, August 16, 2010

Before Emma Marie Keller was born, preeclampsia was something her mom, Chrissy, had read a paragraph about in a pregnancy book. Emma’s dad, Ryan, knew even less.

In fact, the first time anyone uttered the word preeclampsia to the Kellers was just before paramedics loaded Chrissy Keller into an ambulance for a ride to Magee-Womens Hospital of UPMC in Pittsburgh three months before the baby’s due date.

Two days later, Emma was born. her birth was the only cure for the little understood condition her mother had developed. five months later, Emma had died of complications surrounding her premature birth.

Devastated by their loss and searching for something to do, the Bullskin Township couple has been holding fundraising walks on behalf of the Preeclampsia Foundation to raise both money and awareness in hopes of sparing other families the loss they suffered.

The Kellers will hold the third annual Emma Marie Keller Memorial/The Promise Walk for Preeclampsia on Saturday at Cook Township Community Center.

The first two walks, which began in August 2008 around what would have been Emma’s first birthday, have combined to raise more than $10,000 for the Preeclampsia Foundation.

The couple hope to raise at least $5,000 in this year’s 3-mile walk, in which Emma’s little brother, Wyatt, born July 14, will make his debut.

Preeclampsia, a disorder that occurs only during pregnancy and the postpartum period, affects at least 5 percent to 8 percent of all pregnancies, according to the Preeclampsia Foundation.

The rapidly progressive condition is characterized by high blood pressure and the presence of protein in the urine. Swelling, sudden weight gain, headaches and changes in vision are some symptoms, but some women report few symptoms as the disorder rapidly advances. There is no known cause of preeclampsia, which forms the leading reason for premature birth in the United States.

An estimated 1,200 babies in the nation die every year as a result of preeclampsia, as do some mothers.

Chrissy Keller’s pregnancy in 2007 was progressing normally. she had noticed some swelling in her hands ? her wedding ring didn’t fit ? but she attributed that to a typical pregnancy symptom.

“The doctors told me it was my first pregnancy and I didn’t know what to expect,” she said. “It was the middle of the summer, so I thought it was normal.”

She was 28 weeks along when she went to the doctor for a regular monthly visit. her blood pressure was slightly elevated, and an appointment was set a week later to recheck it.

Emma Marie Keller would arrive before then.

Two days after the appointment, Chrissy Keller awoke with a severe headache. her doctor sent her to the hospital for monitoring. Nothing showed up in tests, so she was sent home the next day.

The symptoms came with a vengeance on the following night. Chrissy Keller felt severe pain under her right rib cage, something she attributed to gallstones such as what her mother had suffered during pregnancy. When Chrissy started vomiting, she headed to the hospital.

Tests showed she had preeclampsia and her liver was involved. The pain under her ribs was indicative of that, she learned later.

“The doctor said we had preeclampsia and we were headed to Magee and probably within 72 hours she would be born,” said Chrissy Keller, 32.

Doctors gave Keller drugs to help her daughter breathe outside the womb if she were born early. Ryan Keller watched helplessly as a team of doctors worked to help his wife and child. Shouts rang out: “We’re losing the baby!” Then another: “We’re losing mom!”

“I thought I had to make a decision that night,” he said. “I thought I’d have to choose one or the other.”

That choice did not have to be made. Emma was born Aug. 22, 2007, at two days shy of 29 weeks’ gestation. she weighed 1 pound, 6 ounces.

“They held her up in the incubator and said, ‘Hi, Mom. hi, Dad. Bye, Mom. Bye, Dad,’” Ryan Keller said.

For five months, the Kellers’ lives were tied to the Neo-Natal Intensive Care Unit at both Magee-Womens and Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh. Emma was on a respirator or oxygen for about three of those months. she underwent surgery to repair a blockage in the intestines. she also had a cluster of blood vessels growing near an eye.

In January 2008, she was ready to come home. The Kellers got to enjoy their daughter for eight days before she developed an infection and headed back to the hospital.

At Children’s Hospital, surgeons were concerned about the pressure the blood vessel cluster was putting on Emma’s eye. Such clusters normally go away on their own, but the doctors worried about its location.

The Kellers sent their daughter in for another surgery. she died on the operating table.

All of the oxygen left her blood during surgery. nobody could explain why. her official cause of death was listed as lung disease due to extreme prematurity.

The only reason for her prematurity was preeclampsia.

“I couldn’t sleep at night,” Chrissy Keller said. “You just don’t know what to do with yourself. I spent hours on end on the Internet looking for a reason why.”

She found the Preeclampsia Foundation and the local fundraising walks held across the country, typically in May, around Mother’s Day.

The Kellers decided to hold their walk every August around their daughter’s birthday and at a time when Ryan Keller, a teacher, would be able to help.

They picked the Cook Township site because it had a walking track and was on the same mountain where Emma would have grown up.

The Kellers plan to continue the walks every year and expect Wyatt will become more and more a part of the event.

Chrissy Keller’s pregnancy with Wyatt was preeclampsia-free, if not worry-free. The couple debated for a while about whether to have another child, but in the end decided to try before Chrissy Keller’s age became a complicating factor.

“Having him presents a whole other set of emotions,” Ryan Keller said. “You’re so happy, but at the same time, you miss her so bad, and he’s never going to play with his big sister.”

But he’ll know her. The Kellers will be sure of that.

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