Quiroz Family's Story

I had my third child in 2005. I didn’t know anything about hemophilia. My son Nic had many signs that there was a problem, all for which his doctor had an explanation. She was my doctor growing up so I believed her. On Feb. 13, 2006, when Nic was 5 months old, he had a huge bruise on his ribcage, and he couldn’t move his arm. I took him to the ER where I was treated as a criminal. They did X-rays and took photographs. After six hours we were allowed to go home, where I found two police men exiting my house. I was called back to the ER where I was informed that our three children would be removed for a routine 48-hour investigation, which turned into a month and a half where we could only see our kids 1-2 times a week.

After several more bruises and phone calls, he got an identical bruise. After two hours in the ER, we finally had answers and our kids were returned to us. A few days later, I was contacted by the president of the Nebraska Chapter of the National Hemophilia Foundation. Fast forward 10 years, and I don’t know where our family would be without it. When we first received the diagnosis, we felt numb, lost and had negative look on life. Our chapter made us positive, happy and accepting of the diagnosis. We now live a normal happy life and were taught to see it as our son has hemophilia; hemophilia doesn’t define who he is.

- Andrea Quiroz