KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Moments of fun and joy are countless in Anitra Littlejohn's home, while her two daughters play together.
She has a 5-year-old daughter Emerie and a 1-year-old baby girl Kamerie, who has been fighting medical challenges since she was born.
Then one morning — Kamerie ran into some trouble.
"Kamerie is dependent on a ventilator 24/7 right now and a trach. Those things help her to breathe," Littlejohn said. "I heard her, what's called a 'pulse ox,' the thing that I put on her foot to let me know what her respiratory way and how she's breathing. I heard it alarming and going off, and I look over, and I see that Kamerie's lips are blue."
It was early morning that day, and Kamerie was down on the floor playing while Emerie was in the kitchen eating a bowl of cereal, Littlejohn said. That's when she heard the alarm, and she said she immediately called Emerie to come to help her.
Littlejohn asked Emerie to pull the old trach out so she could put the new one in. After a count of three seconds, she pulled it out and Littlejohn had put the new one in.
"Literally, my heart sank into my chest," Littlejohn said. "Because I was honestly really afraid that Kamerie was going to die right there in front of me and her sister."
Littlejohn explained that it's extremely difficult for a baby that small and that she's never supposed to change a trach herself unless there's an emergency. The hard part was not being able to keep the baby still enough, she said.
But Littlejohn and her 5-year-old jumped into action, and they were able to do that because East Tennessee Children's Hospital helped make sure they got the education they received before they went home.
"If the tube was blocked or came out, the parent would undo these trach ties," said Suzanne Rybczynski, Chief Medical Officer at the hospital. "Take out the trach tube and then they would get another one and quickly reinsert it like that. And as you can see, as you can imagine, doing this on a squirmy baby would be really challenging."
Before East Tennessee Children's Hospital discharges a family, Rybczynski said they receive personal training so that they know the steps for changing trach tubes. They also get to practice before going home with their own child.
As for Emerie, Rybczynski said she was really brave.
"So, noticing that something was happening with their baby sister is amazing," Rybczynski said. "And to take action, in a situation that could be completely panic-inducing, just shows what clear thinking she had and what great training she had from us at the hospital."
Littlejohn said those two girls love to have fun and their favorite thing to do is push a ball to each other while sitting on the floor.
At the end of the day, Littlejohn said that sister's love is what saved little Kamerie.
"She doesn't fully realize, like, that Kamerie has all these medical needs. She just sees her sister," Littlejohn said. "One day Kamerie will look back at it, you know and be in awe of what her sister did for her because ultimately she helped save her life."