It all started on Tuesday, May 10th, 1994 (2 days after Mother's Day). Oddly enough, we experienced a partial solar eclipse that day. Anyway, Vickie wasn't feeling too well but we just wrote it off to her being pregnant and tired. I'm her husband, Mitch, by the way. |
Actually, a few weeks before all this happened, Vickie began to retain water like many pregnant women do. We were in Ohio for a baby shower when we first really noticed how swollen she was getting. When we returned home, Dr. Speyer put Vickie on bedrest for about a week. Vickie's blood pressure was slightly elevated and, of course, that's not a good thing -- especially when you're pregnant. After a follow-up visit, Dr. Speyer told Vickie that she required only partial bedrest since her blood pressure seemed to return to normal. |
Anyway, Vickie just wasn't feeling quite right that Tuesday. I was at work as usual that day and we spoke over the phone every few hours or so. At about 3:30pm, I received a voice mail message from Vickie that I will never forget. I hope to never, ever hear Vickie as upset as she was then. I just knew something was terribly wrong. When I called her back she told me that she was bleeding and that Dr. Anderson told her to get to the hospital as soon as possible. I told her that I would meet her there ... |
Fortunately, our good friend and neighbor Anne was home at the time. Her husband Bob (with whom I worked) heard me rush out of the office and called Anne just in time. Anne threw their 2-year old daughter in the car and rushed Vickie over to the hospital. By the way, Anne was 34 weeks pregnant herself at the time! |
I arrived at the hospital just a few minutes after 4:00pm and Vickie was already up in the maternity ward in one of the LDRP (Labor, Delivery, Recovery, Postpartum) rooms. We weren't supposed to be there for another 8 weeks! Sue, one of the nurses, quickly put the lead for the fetal monitor in place and located our baby's heartbeat. There it was just as loud and strong as ever. Needless to say, we were relieved. Then she told us there was a good chance Vickie was going to have to deliver the baby that day. We looked at each other in disbelief. |
A few minutes later, based on Vickie's vital signs, blood work, and urinalysis, the doctors decided that both she and the baby were at risk. Vickie had experienced a placental abruption brought on by pregnancy-induced hypertension (PIH) or preeclampsia. An emergency C-section would have to be performed immediately with Vickie under general anesthesia. Because of the seriousness of the situation, I would not be permitted in the operating room. I was allowed to look through a narrow glass window in the operating room door. I called Vickie's parents back in Ohio to let them know what was happening. |
I kissed Vickie, told her how much I loved her, and then watched them take her into the operating room. Through the glass window I could tell this was going to be serious. I could see it in their faces. |
At 5:42pm, May 10th, 1994, our little guy was born, screaming his premature lungs out. A whopping 3 pounds 2.5 ounces (1430g) and 16 inches long. His APGARs were 6 and 8. I didn't see him for about 10 minutes or so. The neonatologist and intensive care nurses were working on him as Dr. Speyer and everyone else continued to work on Vickie. |
When he was stable enough, they rushed him over to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) just down the hall, pausing briefly to show him to me. My friend Bob had arrived to join his wife Anne by then. I followed our son to the NICU, where I just stared at him in disbelief. He looked so unbelievably little and fragile. They immediately put him on the ventilator to help him breathe. They also connected an EKG/Respiratory monitor to him as well as a pulse oximeter to measure the amount of oxygen in his blood. When they were about to start his first intravenous (IV) line, I left the NICU and returned to the hallway outside the operating room to be with Vickie. |
They were still working on her when I returned. Alarms were going off everywhere and it was clear to me that something wasn't quite right. It took them what seemed an eternity to bring her out of anesthesia. Finally, she came out and I spent the next 2 hours with her in one of the recovery rooms. I talked to her constantly trying to get her to come out of the anesthesia faster. |
They wheeled Vickie's bed down to the NICU to see our baby. The nurses took some Polaroid pictures for us and Vickie was able to hold our baby's hand for the first time. |
Vickie would spend the night in the Critical Care Unit (CCU) instead of the maternity ward. Preeclampsia can progress to full blown eclampsia resulting in seizures and possible damage to the central nervous system. In addition to medications for pain, the nurses began infusing Vickie with magnesium sulfate to reduce the chance for seizures. Throughout the night, the nurses would check Vickie's reflexes by tapping the bottoms of her feet; if her reflexes were too brisk or if her feet "beat" back and forth by themselves after being tapped, it meant that there was still a chance for seizures. Vickie's reflexes would remain brisk for a couple days before returning to normal. |
I made several phone calls to let everyone know what had happened. Vickie's parents arrived from Ohio just after 9:00pm. I also spoke with my parents in Hawaii. I spent the rest of the evening going between the CCU and the NICU. I spent a long time talking with Dr. Davis, our neonatologist. He explained to me what was going on with our little boy and that it would probably be a week or so before he would be "out of the woods." He explained to me that it was going to be a rough ride with many ups and downs but that our son should do all right. He was, after all, a pretty good size for being only 32 weeks gestational age. Dr. Davis said that a premie usually goes home by the time his original due date rolls around. Our little premie was due on July 6th, today was May 10th. |
After that first night in the CCU, we spent the remainder of our stay in the maternity ward like mothers having normal deliveries do. Fortunately, Vickie got better and better with each passing day. After nearly three days, we finally named our baby Mitchell Alexander, a name we hadn't even considered. Vickie had the final word. "He's a little Mitchie," she said. |
Mitchie's first week was pretty rough. Since the respiratory system is one of the last things to develop in a baby, Dr. Davis gave Mitchie a surfactant called Survanta to keep the small air sacs in his lungs expanded. Because of Vickie's complications, Mitchie had a low platelet count which might ultimately have affected how his blood clotted. He was given the steroid Decadron to help develop his respiratory system and to suppress his immune system to give his system a chance to build up platelets. |
He was also given Indocin, an aspirin-like drug to help close the patent ductus arteriosis (PDA). PDA is a condition in which the blood vessel that connects the aorta and the pulmonary artery does not close as it should shortly after birth. |
He was also given triple phototherapy to help him breakdown his bilirubin. He was jaundiced just like many babies. For much of the first week, Mitchie was blindfolded to protect his eyes from the bili-lights. |
Dr. Davis told me that Mitchie would most likely need a blood transfusion before too long, since he wasn't able to replenish his blood supply as fast as they were taking it for tests. Since Mitchie was on a ventilator, they would frequently perform blood gas analyses to make sure his system was correctly processing oxygen. |
I gave a unit of blood but unfortunately it was unusable because it was cytomegalovirus (CMV) positive. Vickie's mother and my brother (who had flown in on his way back from Amsterdam where he was on business) also gave a unit each but they too were CMV positive. CMV positive blood can be used for normal blood transfusions but not for transfusing newborns. We were left with no choice but to trust the general blood supply. |
Mitchie received all of his nutrition intravenously in the form of hyperalimentation and intralipids. The really bad thing about IV sites is that they don't last very long. Mitchie had IVs in his arms, his feet, and his head at one time or another. |
We left the hospital on Saturday, May 14th, 1994, leaving little Mitchie behind in the NICU. It was very upsetting to leave him there. Fortunately, we lived just a few minutes away from the hospital and could visit whenever we wanted. We were very thankful for that. We figured that he would get to come home by the first week in July. All he had to do was grow!! |
