mother,
Joy, who
lives
up
in
heart
rate,
temperature,
rate,
oxygen
saturation
bought
her own home. Mom quickly that
grew
and
where
diagnosed
Sara
nearby
Berea,
it was time
The
to call
that fluctuate symphony
emergency
department
blood
pressure in waves and LCD numbers
the doctor. at Southwest
breathing and
staff
Hospital in l3erea deter-
sounds
constantly. An ongoing
of beeps, dings and pings-
that
resemble
car makes when
the
noises
a
you leave the door-
mined that the cause of Sara's abdom-
open - lets nurses know when some-
inal cranlps was an enlarged liver and
thing is wrong.
ill kidneys. Her blood pressure was an alarming
198 over 108. She had all of
the symptoms a condition
of HELLP
hypertension for
unknown,
which
ca use
and the only "cure"
herself on an ambulance to
about
eight
down
at
Case Medical
in University
"I learned
fingers.
found
House
Hospitals
is
racing across
MacDonald
University Center
perfectly
is to
the baby. Sara soon
town
a
in pregnant the
to suck, but her respirator
poised
tube is in
the way. She's tucked into rolled-up
mate-
rial to keep her from rolling around,
still struggle
to inhale on their own.
On a recent
Sunday, Olivia gave her
before
I did," C-sec-
mother
Olivia
moment
removed
of her mother's
She
(or one
pound,
weighed
680
eight
grams
ounces),
and
one foot. She was whisked
Rainbow's
NICU
(commonly
nick-you),
remained
at
while
herself
most frightening
in her life. While
rest skin
from
that her lungs
Sarah was
her - letting
to skin,
on her
the baby mother's
chest - Olivia yanked out the respirator tube. She stopped turned
breathing
and
blue. Sara cried quietly, trying
not to give her daughter
any indica-
tion of fear, as a team of respiratory
her
MacDonald
specialists, physicians and nurses converged almost instantly.
days, so that staff could
to her serious but temporary from which
the second
"kangarooing"
is 37 to 40
gestation
weeks).
condition,
miniature
appears
hours
tion (full-term
attend
exquisite, thumb
oxygen
womb, just 25 weeks into her gesta-
for several
her
Her
disconnect
an emergency
pronounced
to
is
detailed
the precious
the comforts
mother
vessels. Her body
proportioned,
that I was giving birth
tion, the obstetrician
to
it seems
her little mus-
accidentally
Performing
measured
revealing
and her head is braced so she cannot
Circle.
recalls Sara.
from
skin is so thin
cles and blood
related to preeclampsia,
dangerous women, remove
Syndrome,
Olivia's transparent,
she has SInce
fully recovered.
It's just
one more
up-and-down
moment
on a NICU
parent's
roller
coaster
ride. Doctors,
nurses
and a
social worker
warned
her it would
be like this, but that hasn't made
+++
any easier. "I just prepared
On a Tuesday
afternoon
in early
April, Olivia is all wrapped
up inside
an isolette, a plastic surrogate that
faintly
resembles
womb
with stations
all of whom
a
isolettes
like Olivia's, or in open plastic cribs. In place
of an umbilical
Olivia is tethered variety
120
cord,
by thin wires to a
of monitors
that
chart
a month
her
of daily
visits
with
her daughter. systems
for six neonates,
lie in covered
now," Sara says, after more
"We're
a terrarium.
She's in Nursery Two in the NICU, room
than
it
feel a little more
to work
normally
a baby's earlier
would," "So
the parents." suffered
it's
than
organ they
with
wouldn't
food. Most
her body. Her need
important,
Dr.
system
for
and her fellow neonates
who
lights
suddenly
up to wires flashing
and
strange noises, Fanaroff says, "It feels
to absorb
her immune
explains
Of the disorientation
by parents
and ventilate
stomach
need to oxy-
frustrating
find their baby hooked and tubes
In the womb, Olivia's lungs would grow, but they wouldn't genate
asking
Fanaroff.
like an alien experience."
isn't fully developed,
so she
are acutely
prone to infection. "We simulate in utero," director
try as much
as possible
environmental
says Dr. Richard of neonatology
NorthernOhioLive,
to
conditions Martin,
at Rainbow.
June 2007