Mar 08, 2009 at 02:00PM

Lisa Saunders,
currently a fulltime writer for the State University of New York at Rockland, was thrilled to be expecting a child on Christmas Eve in 1989—exactly one year after her miscarriage. But the moment Lisa first laid eyes on Elizabeth, she was afraid—her head was very small and deformed. The doctor said to her: “If Elizabeth lives, she will never roll over, sit up, or feed herself.” It was determined that Lisa caught the #1 viral cause of birth defects while she was pregnant—cytomegalovirus, known as CMV. Lisa was shocked that her OB/GYNs had never warned her about CMV and how to prevent contracting it. She had unknowingly put Elizabeth’s development at risk by running a daycare center in her home and sharing cookies with her toddler.

Lisa, along with her husband, Jim, and first daughter, Jackie, spent the next 16 years raising a little girl who needed to be fed, carried and clothed. Despite the cerebral palsy and severe mental disabilities that made Elizabeth unable to speak or move, she loved being held, going on long car rides and attending her special ed school where she received daily therapy and compassionate care. When she was 11, a big, homeless dog named Riley joined the family. He became Elizabeth’s devoted companion, snoozing beside her for hours on the couch, and at times, laying across her feet to keep them warm.

By Elizabeth’s 16th birthday, Elizabeth had survived several bouts of pneumonia, seizures and major surgeries. Weighing only 50 pounds, she looked odd to strangers, but her cheerful, soul-capturing smile made her lovely to her family. Two months later, she died suddenly during a seizure. While holding her body in the hospital, Jim looked down into his daughter’s lifeless eyes and cried, “No one is ever going to look at me again the way Elizabeth did.”

In an effort to prevent other parents from making this same cry, and as a way to handle her grief, Lisa now makes it her mission to tell the world about congenital CMV prevention until doctors make it part of their standard of care. As a result of an article she wrote about congenital CMV, she was invited to be the parent representative of the newly formed Congenital CMV Foundation, to speak at the international 2008 Congenital CMV Convention at the CDC in Atlanta, and to write a book about her experiences, which she entitled, “Anything But a Dog! The perfect pet for a girl with congenital CMV.”

http://www.authorlisasaunders.com