!["I feel if I don't share [Olive's] story of what happened I am going to regret it. I just want to do right by her where she can make a difference," April said.](https://media.wfaa.com/assets/WFAA/images/c62080e0-0ec8-4ee7-b093-dd93536e79f2/c62080e0-0ec8-4ee7-b093-dd93536e79f2_1920x1080.jpg)
NORTH RICHLAND HILLS, Texas — April Bonham and Andrew Curry of North Richland Hills have been married for five years and during those years have been trying to add to their blended family of five.
When April got pregnant it came as a surprise and they were so excited. Andrew already had the car packed and a car seat ready to go in the final weeks before delivery. But, everything changed during their 37-week appointment with their doctor.
"As soon as [the doctor] was searching for the heartbeat...I felt like I knew," Andrew said.
Their daughter, they named Olive, did not have a heartbeat and April recalls feeling numb to the news. Andrew doesn't recall driving back and forth to the hospital after hearing the news. He said everything felt like a 'blur.'
Olive was delivered stillborn in the early morning of January 6 at Baylor Scott & White in Fort Worth.
It is hard enough to lose a child, it's harder to not know why. The pair went through every imaginable scenario to try to figure out how Olive had died. They waited for twenty days before autopsy results came back on January 26. The medical examiner's report and a visit with the doctor, they say, confirmed something they never thought would be the cause of their daughter's death: listeria.
"You start thinking...what did we do wrong," said April Bonham.
The medical examiner's report given to WFAA by the family reads "...listeria, a known cause of fetal/neonatal sepsis, is possible."
WFAA attempted to confirm these findings with the Tarrant County Health Department. A representative for the department tells WFAA that the infection is reportable to state and local authorities and no other information can be provided for confidentiality reasons.
"Listeriosis is a serious infection usually caused by eating food contaminated with the bacterium Listeria monocytogenes. An estimated 1,600 people get listeriosis each year, and about 260 die," according to the Centers for Disease Control. Over the last several years eleven states in the country have reported cases of listeria. The last fatal case in Texas was in 2020.
Amid a national listeria outbreak April and Andrew had interviews with state and local health departments about their possible exposure. They tell WFAA that the health departments asked about their food consumption going back two months. To this day neither know what they ate or became exposed to likely caused the infection.
The family wanted Olive cremated and they even picked out an urn for her. The urn reads, "Olive makes all of our lives happier." It's been a month and a half since the passing and April and Andrew are still waiting to receive their daughter.
"It's horrible going to my bed at night knowing that my daughter is sitting in a bag," cried April.
WFAA contacted the crematorium in Tarrant County that will be handling Olive's ashes. The owner of the group did not want to participate in this story. WFAA also spoke with DSHS, the Texas Department of State Health Services, that is unclear what is causing the delays for cremation. DSHS tells WFAA the process requires hospital, state, and local entities, to fill out fetal death registrations and permits.
Frustrated about the disease and the delays April Bonham took to social media. She wants families to be aware of this bacteria and how it can affect lives. She wants mothers to be extra careful about what they consume and she wants mothers to pay attention to doctor's directions. She went on TikTok to share her experiences and what she did not expect was the thousands of responses from families who had their own painful birth stories.
"Everything that she was saying was everything I was feeling," said Andrew.
April tells WFAA she struggles to eat because she's worried it's tainted with listeria. She also has been avoiding going out in public because she fears the painful and uncomfortable conversations she'll have to have.
"I'm scared of someone asking me that doesn't know and then I have to tell it all over again," she said.
Her TikTok videos have been a form of healing for her.
"I feel if I don't share [Olive's] story of what happened I am going to regret it. I just want to do right by her where she can make a difference," April said.
The family has organized a funding campaign to help with unexpected expenses.