Zachary's birthday card from his mommy:
Your first year's been a wonderful one...
You've brought grins and giggles and oodles of fun!
You've grown everyday since you've made your debut-
You've explored the wide world and learned so much that's new.
And now it's your birthday- time's gone by so fast!
You've brightened each day with more smiles than the last.
So make any wish in your sweet little heart,
blow out that candle and let the fun start!

With all my heart and love,
-Mommy

When I got home from taking that up to his grave, I got on facebook and seen this one from Katey, Karla's sister:
my lil angel no one saw
your wings now everyone can
you would have been one
today cake presents we would
all sing happy birthday but
instead we come here to talk to you
to cry to hug to remember you
to tell you that we miss you
that we love you and your
still our lil angel and
our lil army boy
rest in peace lil angel
zachary joseph allen mitchell
3/10/08 - 2/6/09

Zachary is one today.  But he's not here for us to celebrate it with him- He's up in heaven.  I know that my grandma and grandpa Mitchell are taking good care of him and having lots of fun playing with him.  I know that there's holes in the floor of heaven and that he's helping pour out the rain.  I know that one day I will get to be with him again and do all of the things that I don't get to do now- Like watching him take his first steps which he was so close to doing, have him clinging to my leg the first day of school because he's nervous to spend a whole day with new people instead of his mommy, meeting his first girlfriend, driving him to his first school dance, talking him through his first heartbreak... Like watching him get behind the wheel of his first car, get his acceptance letter to the college that he had been dreaming of going to, walk down the aisle at graduation... Like saying his wedding vows and helping his wife give birth to their children... On top of all the other great things that happen in a person's life.  It's not fair that his precious little life was taken.  Although nothing can bring him back now, I would give my own life for Zachary to be alive because at least I would still get to watch everything.  Yes it would be from heaven, but that would be better than not being able to watch anything at all.

I miss my little boy much more than anyone could ever imagine.  I will NEVER forget him, but FOREVER love and miss him.  To anyone that has children: Please please please cherish your children like there's no tomorrow because for me, there wasn't a tomorrow to spend with my son.

I started the process today to get some relief.  We know that he died from a small intestine and we know that having a twisted intestine is a birth defect where the intestine does not grow properly, but we also know that his intestines were not even inside of him when he was born and that they had to do surgery to put them back in.  Right after the surgery, the doctor told me that it was a tight fit and that they may have to go back in to do another surgery to release the pressure by pulling the intestines back out and put them in a silo.  They ended up not needing to do that.  Or so we all thought.  A hernia formed and they had to go back in to do surgery in order to remove it.  After that, we thought that we were done with the gastroschisis problems.  With all of the research that we have been doing, we have come to the conclusion that they shouldn't have made it such a tight fit.  If they would have just placed the silo around it in the first place, Zachary may not have formed a hernia and his intestines would have more than likely grew correctly.  Even still, during the "follow-up" visits, the surgeon could have done ultrasounds to make sure that they were growing correctly, rather than just eye-balling his stomach.  Zachary was only sick for 12 hours before he died.  There was nothing that we could do by that time because even if we would have raced him to the ER, they would have told us to continue watching him overnight and come back the following day if he was still sick.  If, and that's a BIG if by the way, they would have admitted him then by the time they did the ultrasounds and gotten ahold of a surgeon, it would have been too late.  The reason I say a surgeon instead of the surgeon is because the surgeon moved outside of Oklahoma.  I was advised not to mention his name, his company's name, or even the hospital's name due to slandering laws.  But if he would have been just a little more careful and caring, Zachary would still be alive.  There is no doubt in my mind about that.  I am waiting on the autopsy report to be finalized so that I can get a copy of it, along with copies of the medical records from his surgeries and stay at the hospital.  I already have a lawyer and she seems wonderful.  I am very pleased to be working with her on this case.  If you know anyone else who has losed a child due to the small intestine being twisted, but was born with gastroschisis, please inform them of what I have found out and am sharing with you so that they can possibly have some relief as well.  I am not out for any money seeing as how I didn't pay for anything.  I just want other parents' out there to know they're not alone and if the same surgeon did their surgery, then hopefully we can all work together and get this surgeon's license revoked.

R.I.P. ZACHARY JOSEPH ALLEN MITCHELL-BROOM 3-10-08 to 2-6-09.