The Details.......

Tenzin had Coarctation of the Aorta AND Late onset GBS (Group B Strep infection).  In less than 24 hours these two things took his life.

Dr. Jon S.Woods

Dr. Jon S. Woods, one of the doctors treating him that day/night gave Zac and CJ his card as they were leaving Primary Children's Hospital after Tenzin's death.  He said, "You will have questions, call me and we can meet and talk".   They met with him a week after Tenzin's burial.  He was amazing, and took the time to answer all of their questions, "Did they as parents do something wrong?" (NO), "Could this have been caught earlier" (NO), "Did McKay do everything right?", "Why couldn't he be saved?"  Many many questions, and he answered them all.


Late Friday night (October 28, 2016), CJ had called MacKenzie (Kenzie is CJ's sister, and is an RN) to come over.  She was worried.  Tenzin was grunting, and acting like his tummy hurt.  This was unusual.  He had never acted like this.  He had no fever at all. They were prepared to take him to the hospital, but he nursed very very good about 2am, and went peacefully to sleep.  Kenzie held him all night long so that CJ could get some good rest.  Zac was sleeping in the bedroom, and was going to be going to work (overtime) Saturday morning.   A couple of times, Kenzie was going to lay him down, but she didn't.  Zac got up and went to work, and neither the baby nor CJ stirred.  At some point near 6am, Kenzie looked down at Tenzin, and his lips looked dark, then he just went limp in her arms.  She yelled for CJ to hit the lights, and she laid him on the floor and began to stimulate him.  They called 911, and the ambulance came and transported him to McKay Dee.  He was breathing, and appeared okay, but Kenzie KNEW what she had seen.  She knew there was a problem.  Looking back on this, it became obvious that if she had laid Tenzin down to sleep during the night, that they would have woken up to a SIDS baby.  What a blessing this was, and even though the outcome for little Tenzin was the same, what a blessing for CJ, to not have to find him in his pack and play, lifeless......


Zac was working in Layton,  near I-15 and Hwy 193.  He received word, and began to run eastward up Highway 193 towards Highway 89.  Kenzie would pick him up near Walmart, CJ rode in the ambulance.
When they got to McKay Dee emergency room, Tenzin was acting normally.  They questioned McKenzie, and she was certain of the "episode" that had taken place earlier.   They began to treat him with antibiotics (for infection).  No one told Zac and CJ that this was being done, or that they suspected infection.  Dr. Woods later confirmed to them that this is standard procedure, and it is exactly what he would have done.    They moved Tenzin up to Peds (5th floor), and continued to monitor him.  His temperature was low - his little feet were cold.  They ordered an Echo-cardiogram.  It seemed forever until that came.

Roger and I took the boys down to see Tenzin at 10:52 am, and I took pics of the kids with him.  I'm so glad I did.  At this point they could hear a heart murmur, and so we knew something was wrong, but everyone kept saying that if it was serious, they would be transporting him to Primary's, and so we thought it was something minor.  We took the kids shopping at Walmart, and then headed back to the hospital about noonish.


Each of the boys were able to go back and see him.

12:53 pm the echocardiogram was performed in his room, with the lights down low.  We were all there watching it, (Rog had the boys out in the waiting room).  I even have video of it.  Of course not being experts, we couldn't tell what we were seeing, but it was obvious that something was wrong by the way the tech was graphing, and checking, and doing whatever it was that she was doing.  Apparently this video was being sent to Primary Children's automatically.

11:05 nurse checking

Earlier in the ER

Earlier in the ER

Landon and Kacey and kids came up to McKay also, and Landon and Zac were able to give him a blessing.  LuAnn was there also.    I was not in the room during the prayer, but out with the kids in the waiting room.  A little bit afterwards,  Landon came out and told me to go back.  There were many doctors and nurses, and people running around, and little Tenzin's vital signs were becoming unstable, and he was becoming septic due to the GBS (which they didn't know about at that time). 

All I could think of was to call my mom and dad at home, and ask them to get on their knees and pray (which they did).  I was so upset and worried, and I felt like we needed their prayers immediately.


All I could think of was that they had waited too long, too long.....   Treyson had been worried all day about Tenzin, asking question after question, and I had kept reassuring him that it was just a minor thing, and that things were not that bad, and here this was happening ! 



Life Flight was called, and it seemed like it took forever for them to get there, but when they rolled in, my goodness, they took charge, and it was obvious they knew what they were doing. Labs were drawn, meds given, and he was intubated and placed in the incubator, ready to go.  I think this was about 3pm.

When they rolled him by us on the way to the helicoptor, it was the last time we would see him alive.  CJ flew with him in Life Flight, and I drove Zac and Treyson down in their van.  Roger D. followed in his car.  Shirlee and Kenzie drove down, and Landon and Kacey took Tagg and Thatcher home with them. As the kids were walking out, a kind security guard asked them if they wanted to go and see Life Flight take off, so they walked back through Emergency, and were able to see them fly out.

Leaving McKay Dee

When we arrived at Primary's they sent us up to the CCIU (Cardiac Critical Care), and they would only let Zac and CJ (who are already back there) in.  We all waited in the waiting room.

Zac came out, and we were told for the first time that little Tenzin had Coarctation of the Aorta.  They had drawn him a picture of the heart, and diagram of what was wrong.   When I heard Aorta, this scared me, but Zac seemed calm, and said that they would need to do open heart surgery to fix it, but that it WAS fixable.

Coarctation of the Aorta

At the time Tenzin went to the hospital, it was not known that he had late onset GBS, but they (McKay) were treating him as though he had an infection due to his quickly escalating symptoms, AND they did treat him with the correct anti-biotics for GBS.  (The test to determine whether or not GBS was present takes a couple of days to confirm, and little Tenzin passed BEFORE this was determined).

*Note - CJ did NOT test positive for GBS, and Tenzin was delivered via C-section, AND CJ was put on antibiotics (they give this to all moms before delivery even if they test negative for GBS), AND Tenzin didn't appear to have it right after birth (it was late onset).

Coarctation of the Aorta means there is a narrowing or constriction in the aorta, and when the PDA finally closed (at 8 - 10 days), this became a problem, and he was not getting enough blood to his organs and body parts below the heart.  His heart was only pumping at 20% capacity.   They worked to stabilize him at Primary's, taking blood, and adjusting medicine every 5 minutes.  His labs were looking up.

We had all gone home for the evening (Shirlee, Kenzie, Blakeley, Roger, Gwen, and Treyson).  Only Zac and CJ were there at the hospital with Tenzin.

All the way home I sent this text to almost everyone in my contacts:  Just wanted to let you know that Tenzin, Zac and CJ's new one was taken to the hospital today via ambulance, then life-flighted to Primary Children's.  He has major problems with his heart, specifically the aorta.  They will have to do open heart surgery in a few days.  He is in very serious condition, and quite frankly if Aunt Kenzie hadn't been there this morning we would have lost him.  Please pray for him, Thank you.


CJ posted this on Facebook at 8:43 pm: 
Please pray for my little 💙Tenzin 💙we are at primary's and he needs all the help he can get. Thanks!


About 9pm, Tenzin's vitals became unstable again.  It was a repeat of McKay, with tons of doctors, nurses, techs surrounding him, working so very hard to save him.  They had worked on him for about 10 minutes, when a doctor stepped aside, and told Zac and CJ that they were doing everything they could, but it wasn't looking good.  They would keep going another couple of minutes, but if he didn't come around, they would stop.  Tenzin passed away at 9:23 pm. 

Zac told us later when they came home, that the doctors seemed surprised.  It was unexpected, and they didn't know why this had happened, when his labs were trending upwards.  Much study was done (after the fact, and was reported to Zac and CJ a week later), and Dr. Woods said after the GBS discovery, that he was finally able to wrap his head around what happened, at least medically. As they were administering medicine to open up the heart "hole" again, to get the blood pumping through the heart and to the organs at full capacity (which absolutely needed to be done) , his little body was basically "flushed" and the bacteria (that they didn't know about)  from the GBS assaulted his little body, and it was catastrophic.   He said that in his 25 years of practicing pediatric critical cardiac care, he had never see these two things (coarctation of the aorta AND GBS) happen together.  In fact, he said he had never even HEARD of it, and he had checked across the country at various hospitals.  It is basically unheard of.  He said little Tenzin would and will be talked about in medical circles for a long time.


Zac called us between 9:30 and 10pm.  Rog had just gone to bed, and I was laying in the living room on the floor with Tagg and Thatcher.  We had just said our prayers, asking for blessings for little Tenzin, and telling stories about him.  Roger's cell phone rang, and it was plugged in in the living room.  I looked at the number, and didn't recognize it, so I didn't answer it.  Seconds later, my phone rang........same strange number.......it was Zac calling from Primary's.  He said, "Mom......he died".   My heart just  broke in two for my son, as I heard the anguish in his voice.  All I could do was tell him over and over again, just like my Dad told me with Ambure, that THEY WOULD HAVE HIM AGAIN, THAT HE WOULD LIVE AGAIN.  I promised this over and over, and I walked into the bedroom, flipping on the light, the little boys trailing after me, confused, and not knowing exactly what was going on.  I talked with Zac a little longer, and Roger, listening to my end of the conversation was able to grasp what was going on.  Zac asked me to call the mortuary.  I told him I would, but to take ALL THE TIME they needed to be with Tenzin.  "Don't you let them take him away from you until you are ready", I said over and over.  They took Ambure from us before we were ready, and being so young we didn't object, and I've regretted it every since.   As we hung up the phone, and Tagg looked at me in confusion, and asked, "What's the matter"?   How do I tell these little ones that their baby brother had died?  Hard Hard Hard.  We knelt around the coffee table in the living room, and Roger said a prayer, asking Heavenly Father to bless little Tenzin, and to bless all of us. 

Kenzie and Blakeley came upstairs, as they had received the news from Shirlee..... as you can imagine, everyone was very upset and sad. I called Landon, Roger called LuAnn, I called my parents.  I tried to call Manda, but no answer.  Shirlee and Jim and Treyson came up to the house to wait for Zac and CJ to get home.  Treyson was inconsolable.

We waited for Zac and CJ, talking about the day, what had happened, trying to make some sense of it all.  When they arrived, and after the hugs and tears, we sat around and usually quiet and non-talkative Zac did all of the talking, explaining what had happened.  CJ didn't say much, she was almost in a stupor.  Everyone finally left, and we tried to sleep.  I couldn't, and wrote the following, which I would post on Facebook at 7am:

Our sweet baby grandson, Tenzin Christopher Rich, passed away last evening, not long after prayers were asked for in his behalf. Apparently Heavenly Father has... a different plan for him. He lived a precious 11 days, and was a joy to his family, and loved so much by his three big brothers and Mom and Dad. The knowledge of his heart defect was sudden and serious, and in less than 24 hours he went from seemingly perfect health, to fighting for his life, and then passing quickly and unexpectedly back to his Father in heaven. We know that the Plan of Happiness IS REAL, and that HE LIVES. There is life after death, thanks to our Savior, and we KNOW we will see him again. Please pray for our family, we need the comfort your prayers will bring. Families are forever, all is well, Tenzin has received the "crown without the conflict".

Over the next few hours and days , the responses, and words of love and caring were overwhelming.  Truly the prayers offered in behalf of Zac and CJ, and Roger and I, and Jim and Shirlee and all of our families have been felt.  Thank you.