Marquise is now 15 year old a very beloved child of everyone who meets him, he has cerebral palsy and a combination of other severe disabilities. At birth doctors advised his parents that he would not live to age 5 due to brain-damage and a botched delivery which resulted in him being deprived of oxygen for 54 minutes.

On April 3, 1993, Marcus and Adriane Winston lived in Kentucky as Marcus was in the military and stationed at Fort Knox. Adriane went into labor at home and was then taken to Ireland Army Community Hospital at Fort Knox where she remained in labor for an additional twenty hours. This was their first child so they made sure all the right things were done like keeping all prenatal appointments, eating the right foods, and exercising regularly, throughout the pregnancy. They were reassured by the doctor at each visit that they would be having a normal delivery and not a Cesarean section. They were anxious, very excited and looking forward to the birth of their first son. However, their joy was short lived due to Adriane’s long hours of labor and inability to have Marquise. On her arrival to labor and delivery she was connected to a fetal monitor and given potassium as the hours of labor continued to pass without a birth she was given more Potassium.

Then at 2 am on April 5, she began having major complication because she had been given too much potassium over a period of time which caused the Marquise’s heart rate to drop sufficiently. The doctors decided she would not be able to have a normal delivery and due to the baby’s decreased heart rate ordered a stat emergency c-section. The hospital called an off duty anesthesiologist, at home, who took 48 minutes to arrive at the hospital, by the time the emergency c-section was performed Marquise had been without adequate oxygen for 54 minutes. Medical guidelines say an emergency C-section should take place no more than 30 minutes after a doctor decides to perform one.

However, because Marquise did not get enough oxygen during birth he consequently suffered catastrophic brain injury, cerebral palsy, cortical blindness, (meaning the brain does not receive visual images from the eye), and epilepsy due to the lack of oxygen for 54-minute at birth.

Adraine Shelley