Abbey is the daughter of Sam and Suzi (Wunderle) Kudrin. Sam and Suzi met at Bethany College and after only a few months of dating knew they were meant for each other. Sam proposed to Suzi in August of 2007 and they tied the knot July 11, 2009. After being married for only 8 months, they got a huge surprise when Suzi took a pregnancy test and it came out positive. Children were not in the plans for a few years. After a few moments of shock, they quickly got very excited to welcome a new baby into their home! They waited the whole 9 months to see what they were having.
Abigail Rose Kudrin was born on November 18, 2010 at 6:38am. She was the perfect little baby. She was only 6 lbs. 10 oz, 19 inches long, and had a head of beautiful dark hair. She was welcomed at the hospital by tons of family and friends. She was so beautiful that the nurses would fight over who got to bring her into the room. She was the perfect baby in every way.
Abbey was always an easy baby. She didn’t cry unless she was hungry, she slept through the night at two months, and she loved Christmas lights. When Christmas was over, lights were put up in her room so she could still see them. She was healthy and developmentally on track if not a little ahead of where she needed to be. She was so calm and laid back, just like her mom – She even looked just like her mommy! Although, she was a little bit of a Daddy’s Girl.
In February of 2011, Suzi had to go back to work and after interviewing babysitters, Sam and Suzi found a sitter near there home that would watch Abbey during the day. She seemed like a good fit. On April 7, 2011, everything in their life changed.
Abbey was put down for a nap that day, and never woke up. Sam received a call at school that Abbey wasn’t breathing and the paramedics were there to take her to the hospital. She was rushed to Southwest General Hospital where Sam and Suzi arrived as quickly as they could. When they got to the hospital, the news wasn’t good. They were told that Abbey still wasn’t breathing but they hadn’t stopped doing CPR. They had done just about everything they could. Sam and Suzi went back to see her, but Sam ended up carrying a screaming Suzi out of the room. They finally sat them down to tell them there was nothing else they could do. Suzi remembers looking at Sam and saying “We have to bury our daughter,” and at that exact moment a nurse came in and told them they had a pulse. Abbey was still on a ventilator but they weren’t doing CPR anymore. They wanted to transfer her to Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital in Cleveland right away.
Suzi rode with Abbey to the hospital and never stopped praying the whole time. She was allowed to stay with Abbey in her room for about an hour before it was time for them to do surgery on Abbey. Within a few hours, the waiting room was full of people there to support Sam and Suzi and pray for their Abbey Rose. Sam and Suzi each had one of Abbey’s shoes that they never let go of. They also had her pink blanket and sock monkey that someone had gone home to get. Throughout the rest of the day and night they were in and out of Abbey’s room talking to her, praying with her, and singing her favorite songs. Abbey’s breathing was getting stronger, but it seemed like something new was always going wrong.
Abbey was chosen to be part of a test group for children who went into congestive heart failure (which Abbey had done twice now). Sam and Suzi agreed knowing that it couldn’t hurt Abbey, but could only help. The test controlled Abbey’s temperature by having a blanket under her and over her that kept her temperature normal. The other test group was a lower temperature. Abbey was the first child in Ohio to be part of this test.
The morning of April 8, was a roller coaster. Abbey had some color, was looking better and they said she had responded to pain a very little bit. They wanted to do a CAT Scan to see if there was any brain damage. They knew that Abbey wasn’t breathing for at least 90 minutes. They continued praying for a miracle. Sam and Suzi walked to the CAT Scan with Abbey along with about ten doctors and nurses who were breathing for her and making sure everything went as planned. Around 2:00 Sam and Suzi went to go see Abbey when they overheard a nurse say that her kidney’s had failed. It was all downhill from there. A doctor pulled Sam and Suzi into a room and asked them the hardest question they could ever imagine. “If Abbey goes into heart failure again…do you want us to bring her back?” Suzi immediately said they wanted to see the CAT Scan results before making that decision. The results were what was expected though. Abbey had no brain function. Sam and Suzi agreed to just let Abbey go…it was best for her. Immediately Abbey went into heart failure and Suzi ran in the room and picked up her baby girl. Sam and Suzi held her for the next minutes and talked to her, sang to her, and prayed with her until she was gone. She died in their arms with her blanky wrapped around her and her mommy and daddy singing “You Are My Sunshine.”
Abbey Rose touched so many lives. At her viewing she had over 2,000 people. Her funeral was beautiful and had almost 300 people. Sam and Suzi feel so blessed to have had 4 months with their beautiful girl. They now have their own guardian angel looking after them. Sam and Suzi knew right away they wanted more children. They now have 3 more daughters: Olivia (9), Zoey (7), Elena (4), and Izzey (1).
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