Published: October 12, 2008 11:26 pm            

Lunch to benefit Mercy Hospital, mother and child

Friends and relatives of a Major County family are planning a benefit lunch for Gabrielle Silcott and her baby, who are beset by medical problems.

A fundraising luncheon will be 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Saturday at Major County Fairgrounds. The lunch menu includes spaghetti, garlic bread, salad and dessert, and lunch is offered on a donation basis. A contemporary Christian band is scheduled to play.

Silcott developed preeclampsia, a medical condition where hypertension arises in pregnancy. Her sister, Heather Silcott, said Enid physicians were concerned her blood pressure was becoming too high and uncontrollable and sent her to Mercy Hospital in Oklahoma City. At Mercy, she was placed on fetal monitors and attempts were made to lower her blood pressure, which continued to rise, Heather Silcott said.

Doctors eventually performed an emergency Cesarean section to save Gabrielle Silcott’s life and the life of her baby, who was born Sept. 25 weighing just over 2 pounds. Baby McLarin is in intensive care at Mercy Hospital, attached to a breathing machine and being fed through a tube. Silcott was staying in the waiting room of the hospital until she developed chest pains and went to the emergency room, where two blood clots were discovered, her sister said. She was placed on blood thinners and returned home to be cared for by family.

Mother and baby have many more expensive treatments remaining, and the family is without insurance, her sister said. Gabriella Silcott must continue to take blood thinners for six months, then will undergo more testing.

The majority of funds raised at the Saturday luncheon will go to Mercy Hospital to help benefit the hospital’s building program so each baby will have a private room and parents can stay in the room. The rest will go to medical expenses for Silcott.

“After all she’s been through and then was staying on the couch in the waiting room, we decided to help with this expansion so no other mothers will have to go through this,” Heather Silcott said.