Why Does Marquila Walk for PKD?

Hello! I want to tell y’all my story and why it’s important to me. My name is Marquila Turner and 9 years ago December 30, 2009 I gave birth to my 1st son Eric Jr. He lived for an hour. During my pregnancy his sonograms showed he had an enlarged heart, enlarged kidneys, no abdominal fluid that caused his lungs to not fully developed. I left the hospital with little to no explanation. At my six weeks check up my doctor told me it was something that just happened and won’t happen again. I was furious because it was not something that just happened, that was my son, my baby and I wanted know what happened to my son. Leaving me not wanting to have anymore children.

In August 2017 I found out I was pregnant with my 2nd son Cameron Turner. My daughter Aaliyah now 10 years old and I was excited about having a new addition to the family. My first couple of doctor appointments was going well up until I was 26 weeks. My sonograms showed my son Cameron kidneys were large and he had low abdominal fluid. My nightmare started all over again. I was admitted into the hospital a week before Christmas to monitor my son fluids and heart rate. I was genetic tested and it came back my son had ARPKD(Autosomal Recessive Polycystic Kidney Disease) is a rare genetic disorder that is inherit by the parents that carry the PKHD1 gene.

At 33 weeks I had another sonogram and my son kidneys and stomach gotten larger so at 37 weeks myself and my high risk doctors decided my son Cameron had to be delivered. February 22, 2018 at 11:05am I gave birth to my son Cameron Turner. The doctor laid him on my chest and he opened his eyes and stared into my eyes crying. He was put on a ventilator and rushed to Neonatal ICU. I rushed down as soon as the doctors was finished with me. Seeing him with wires and medicine hooked up to him made me sad. I was with him for hours holding his hands, reading him a book, taking him a bath and talking to him.

The nurse told me his heart rate was dropping because he was very active so I decided to go to my room on another floor to freshen up while they calm him down. Before I opened the door to my room the tech walked up and told me the Neonatal ICU called and asked for me to come back down. I rushed back down to NICU and the doctor told me my son Cameron was dying, that his heart rate dropped from 148 beats per minute to 48 beats per minute. So they let me hold my son while he was still on the ventilator and after 20 minutes they took him off and he died peacefully at 10:24pm in my arms. I was crushed and I waited until I was discharged from the hospital to tell my daughter Aaliyah and she was devastated, I never heard her cry so loudly and hard.

After losing both my sons I was lost and in a dark space. I felt like I couldn’t go on and no one understood me. I started to see myself going down and it was affecting my daughter so I started going back to church and praying asking God to give me strength and comfort and He did. I’m finally at peace because of God’s grace and mercy.

I knew I had to do something because PKD is affecting lives. When I found out my son had ARPKD I researched and started educating myself and got involved with the PKD Foundation. I started off registering for the 2018 Austin Walk for PKD. I raised funds to find a cure and drove from Dallas to Austin to walk on April 14, 2018. While I was at the walk one of the coordinators told me about the North Texas Walk for PKD in Southlake, Tx  coming that fall and I might be interested. So when I got back to Dallas I started looking up the North Texas Walk and registered, raised funds and a team. One day I got an email from the North Texas Education Coordinator wanting my sons to be the highlight of the 2018 North Texas Walk for PKD and I was happy. While I was at the walk on October 27, 2018 I meet new people and heard their stories/ experiences. I had a great time and my sons and I got a lot of love. It really has helped through my grief journey. Since then my story has been featured in Society Life Magazine September 2018 issue, the pkdcure.org/ voices of pkd blog, the PKD Foundation- North Texas Chapter Facebook page and it was shared by people all over the world, Voyage Dallas, the PKD Foundation Instagram page and Colourfulbeginnings Instagram page.

January 14, 2019 I have created Quila’s Angels, it is dedicated to my sons Eric Jr and Cameron. I wanted to reach out to other parents who has lost a baby or child to come for support, words of encouragement, comfort, in need of someone to talk to, someone to lean and cry on, also to bring awareness for PKD and share other mother’s stories. “Your story will heal you and your story will heal somebody else”, I know. Bringing awareness and finding a cure for PKD is Very Important to me because I don’t want another family to go through what I’m going through. PKD has to end and I’m going to help and make sure it does.

This year I will be back in Austin, Tx for the 2019 Austin Walk for PKD on April 27, 2019 at Veterans Memorial Park in Cedar Park, Tx so if you live in Austin or the surrounding area and wants to join my team or if you can’t make the walk and want to donate please click on this link: https://pkdfoundation.salsalabs.org/austinwalk2019/p/walkforcameronericjr
When you support the Walk for PKD, 100% of your donation will fund critical research to help bring treatments to PKD patients. Thank you. Hope to see you there!

Also, for everyone in North Texas I will be back as well this fall and can’t wait to see y’all again.