The Beat

This is the article that showed up in the The Beat (Which is a weekly newsletter that goes out to Portnuef Medical Employees. Most of it you’ve all read before but I’m excited to share this with yet another group of people. Also today in the  mail we received a wonderful Thank You card from EIRMC. And I’ve also attached part of an email that we received concerning the books we donated.

Email from Kristin Jones at Portneuf Medical
There has been such a positive response to these books that were donated.  I know I have personally taken several families into the playroom to pick out a book for their sick child and sibling and the children and their parents get so excited and they are all just amazed at how many books there are and when they find out they get to keep the book they are just so excited and I tell them a little bit about how the books were donated and some people have said"oh, I know the Saville family, they are so great!"  Please know how appreciative I am for what you did and you will always have such a special place in my heart and so will Gabe.  I also want you to know how appreciative the staff are of these books and especially our patients and their families.  They have already brought so many smiles and so much excitement to patients.  What a wonderful thing you did and I look forward to this being a tradition every year.  Please let me know if I can do anything for you.  I hope you are doing okay and please take care.

Sincerely,
Kristin Jones

Gifts from Gabriel
“Gabriel Grant Saville was born into our family on January
26, 2009. Gabe was our fifth child, second son. Gabe was a
healthy 8lbs 2oz. and was in perfect health. Gabe was just
like any other child his age hitting all the normal milestones
and always passing his well-baby checks with flying colors.
Gabe was a very happy boy . . .
“On Saturday, July 10th we planned on spending the day
like any other regular Saturday, we ran a few errands,
played outside in the water, and just spent time together.
Saturday evening David and I were downstairs with the
three oldest playing . . . the XBOX. Gabe and Isaac were
watching a movie upstairs like they did all the time. Isaac
came downstairs and said ‘Mom, Gabie is dead’. I, of
course, first thought he being a 4 year old, was just being
silly but decided to go check on Gabe anyway, and our
nightmare began. 
“I found Gabe in the bedroom with blue lips. I immediately
called for David who knew something was wrong and
called 911. We started CPR and the ambulance got there
very fast. We had a three minute ride to the ER and then 45
minutes of the scariest waiting of my life. After 45 minutes
of CPR and adrenaline shots, the doctors and nurses . . . got
his heartbeat back. . . The doctor on call informed us that
Gabe had massive swelling of the brain from lack of oxygen
and blood flow for so long. The next 48 to 72 hours were
critical.
“On Monday, July 12, 2010, after many tests and waiting
for some sign of brain activity they declared Gabriel brain
dead. This has truly been the hardest thing our family has
ever had to handle.
“We wanted a way to celebrate Gabe’s life on his second
birthday and to keep us busy so we didn’t sit around crying.
So when my mom suggested a book drive in honor of Gabe
we jumped at the idea. Gabriel loved to look at books and
be read too. I felt sad that I never thought to take any books
to the hospital with us to read to him. I believe we have
fixed that problem for future parents with children in the
hospital. Our desire is that the nurses will have enough
books on hand to give them out to patients, and I mean
GIVE. Some of the books will remain in the hospital library
to be read by several children but most will be given to
the children who are sick or injured and their siblings. We
wanted to give them a gift from Gabriel.
“The end total was amazing, 1584. I had wondered if I
would get enough books to donate to just one hospital. In
the end we received enough to donate to three hospitals.
The first hospital of course was Portneuf  Medical Center
because that is where we said goodbye to our Gabie.  Port-
neuf ended up with 816 books from the book drive. All had
been cleaned if they were used and all were labeled with a
note from Gabe. When we went to deliver the books it was
very emotional. We had not been back to the hospital since
losing Gabe. We were surrounded by loving smiles and lots
of hugs. . . After Portneuf . . . we went to Bingham Memorial
Hospital and delivered their books. They only have around
100 children admits a year so we took them 150 books. At
EIRMC we delivered 618 books . . .”
The Saville family is so thankful to all of those who donated
and helped with this great project and they plan on doing
this every year as a tradition for their family and to celebrate
their precious son,
Gabriel Grant Saville.
These books have
already brought many
smiles to our pediatric
patients and their fami-
lies and will continue
to do so. The Saville
family are absolutely
amazing people and
they have touched so
many people’s lifes, including myself. On behalf of the staff at
Portneuf Medical Center, I would like to thank the Saville family
for their generous and wonderful donation and for letting us be
part of such a special time in remembering their sweet Gabe.

Sincerely, Kristin Jones
If anyone is interested in reading more about Gabe and the
Saville family, they have invited those interested to visit
their blog at da.savillefamily.org.