CHOC Triumphs in Battle for Life With Amazing Grace

It took a million dollars and the grit of an entire hospital to keep baby Gracie alive. It took Marguerite Beal to show why it was all worthwhile.

Getting born was not meant to be this way: eight weeks premature, no lungs to speak of, esophagus and trachea failing, no way to eat. No name, no parents, no one to even sign for surgery--it took an emergency court order. Despite their best efforts, the doctors and staff at Children’s Hospital of Orange County knew this one’s prospects for survival were grim.

Enter Marguerite Beal into Gracie’s world. Beal was--and is--a recreational therapist at CHOC. This baby isn’t expected to live, she was told, and if she does, she’s penciled in for a lifetime at Fairview--the hospital in Costa Mesa for the severely disabled.

Beal’s job was to rock the baby, to keep her muscles and brain stimulated. It was November 1988 and Gracie was 5 months old.

“I sang to her and she smiled,” Beal says now. “I told God that day I was going to dedicate myself to this precious child.”

The first 17 months of her life, Gracie lived inside the walls of that hospital, tied to tubes and round-the-clock respirator care. She had a dozen doctors and entire teams of other providers. Plus Beal. One day when Gracie was failing and a “code blue” emergency was called, Beal said, “Get out of my way,” as she rushed to Gracie’s door. An eight-year veteran, Beal had never done that before with any child.

When Gracie started to improve over those months, and had nowhere to go, there was Beal. The therapist, who was single, had done the necessary paperwork to become a foster parent. Her own parents, Bob and Ruth Mary Beal of Fullerton, were there to back her up. A tube to eat and a tube to breathe, somehow Gracie kept smiling.

Beal kept the name the staff had given the girl--coming from “Amazing Grace” because that’s what came to mind when they thought of her survival. “I told myself I’d see to it that Gracie became adorable and adoptable,” Beal says.

But when adoption time came, the staff knew there could only be one parent for this child--Marguerite Beal. After more years of paperwork, it’s now Gracie Beal, and her favorite therapist is now her mom.

When Gracie Beal was 4, something happened not even the doctors expected: She started to get better--really better. All the tubes were taken away. The Beals had been teaching her sign language, having been told this was the best communication Gracie could expect in life. Gracie started talking a blue streak and the signing was finally dropped.

Gracie today is 7 years old, indeed adorable, as well as bright and enthusiastic. Her grandmother, a retired teacher, provides her classes at home; Gracie’s lungs are not yet strong enough for her to attend school. But doctors are optimistic she’s only a short time away from joining the mainstream of other children.

Mother and daughter took me on a recent tour of CHOC, where the staff cooed how big Gracie is getting--and why not? She’s considered a million-dollar baby because that’s the medical bill for what it took to get her this far. The staff wanted the payoff with Gracie’s silver dollar smile.

We could hardly turn a corner at CHOC without running into somebody instrumental in saving Gracie’s life. There was Mary Richardson, a respiratory therapist who had rushed to the girl’s aid countless times. There was another therapist, Tim Marshall. During an earthquake it was Marshall who ran to Gracie’s bedside to hold her ventilator in place as the ground shook. There was Janice Cunnane, the social worker who diligently aided Beal in the laborious adoption process.

Gracie is important to all of them. But, Richardson told me, they all know how important Beal is to Gracie.

“She’s beyond special,” says Richardson. “Without Marguerite, there would not be the Gracie we see here today.”

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Around the Town: Schoolteacher Sharron Lee Dean was killed in a senseless Los Angeles shooting last week. Friends are establishing a scholarship in her name. When they asked her son, Chris Warrior, where he’d like the scholarship to go, he requested it go to his alma mater, Chapman University in Orange. Warrior explained it was because his mother had put him through school at Chapman. . . .

Dave Kunst of Newport Beach, who set a Guinness Book of World Records precedent by being the first person to walk the entire earth in the ‘70s, will be among the Olympic torch bearers when it passes through Orange County Sunday. But Kunst is not a happy camper these days. He recently learned that while his record “walk” will remain in the British edition of the Guinness Book, the American version’s editor is dropping his accomplishment, plus that of some other people, for “space” reasons.

Kunst writes, flabbergasted: “If you can’t trust the Guinness Book of Records, who can you trust?” . . .

They call their volunteer group: Christmas in April. That’s because today, the volunteers are taking hammers, brooms and paintbrushes to dozens of homes in the Santa Ana and Westminster areas. Targeted are 16 private homes, nonprofit agency headquarters, and homeless shelters. Set up five years ago, it’s already repaired 70 homes and nonprofit facilities . . .

Harold Robbins--the 750 million copies sold author--speaks at Round Table West at the Balboa Bay Club in Newport Beach Monday noon. His latest sex thriller: “The Stallion.”

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Wrap-Up: On May 18, Marguerite Beal will receive the Friend of the Children award from CHOC’s Glass Slipper Guild, a financial support group, at its annual black tie gala.

“I still can’t believe this,” she says. “I’ve always seen my own role as so small compared to the community of people who have worked on Gracie’s behalf.”

That’s what Beal calls her hospital co-workers--a community. I asked Gracie what she thought of them all. “They’re cool,” was Gracie’s reply.

A pretty cool community.

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Jerry Hicks’ column appears Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Readers may reach Hicks by calling the Times Orange County Edition at (714) 966-7823 or sending a fax to (714) 966-7711.