{"id":208688,"date":"2019-08-17T12:45:42","date_gmt":"2019-08-17T17:45:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=208688"},"modified":"2019-08-16T23:17:10","modified_gmt":"2019-08-17T04:17:10","slug":"cassie-33-days-birth-parents-missed-19-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/cassie-33-days-birth-parents-missed-19-years\/","title":{"rendered":"Cassie lived just 33 days after birth, and her parents have missed her every day for 19 years"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Rebecca Kiessling is a pro-life activist and attorney who fights tirelessly to defend all preborn children. She takes a special interest in those, however, who are considered the “exceptions”: babies facing a prenatal diagnosis or babies who, like her, were conceived in rape. Adopted as a baby, Kiessling and her husband Robert have also made a point to adopt children. On August 12, Kiessling took to Facebook to celebrate what would have been her adopted daughter Cassie’s 19th birthday.<\/p>\n

“Today my daughter Cassie (Cassandra Grace) would be 19,” she wrote. “I’ve cried several times today already. I still miss her and she was so precious! Cassie was born with #DiGeorgeSyndrome, or 22q11.2 deletion syndrome. She spent 12 days in Detroit Children’s Hospital and 21 days in our home – every moment was a lifetime and I cherished those moments because I knew she was blessed to be alive.”<\/p>\n

DiGeorge syndrome<\/a> is caused by the deletion of a small segment of chromosome 22. Symptoms can include congenital heart problems, heart murmur, bluish skin due to poor circulation, poor muscle tone, specific facial features, frequent infections, developmental delays, and a cleft palate. Some cases are more severe than others. For only about one to two percent of patients that completely lack certain cells, the condition can be fatal.<\/p>\n

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