Strollerderby : preemie

Water Broke at 17 Weeks; Baby Survives

Miriam Axel-Lute — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 17:00:00 GMT

Sometimes the stars align. They certainly did for Matthew Janson, who was born Friday in Cleveland. See, his mother's amniotic fluid had started to leak back in November, when she was only 17 weeks pregnant.

Ususally that would spell doom. But they hung on. The premature rupture wasn't caused by infection or bleeding of the placenta or any of the "usual" caused.

The leak was slow, and infection was kept at bay. Although she'd been told to expect to miscarry within a few weeks, she made it to viability still pregnant. She entered the hospital at 23 weeks, but made it to 34 before delivering—Matthew was still premature, but not even wildly so, and quite healthy.

Although all the doctors involved want everyone to know just how unlikely this was (1 in 500,000 chance said one), it's still always nice to hear about a happy ending.

Photo (which is not of Matthew Janson) by Yager-Madden.

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Neonatal Nurse Puts Preemie in Her Pocket and Takes Pictures

JeanneSager — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 17:57:00 GMT

A nurse on the neonatal unit of an Israeli hospital is facing disciplinary action after photos of her holding a premature infant girl in her pocket landed in the hands of hospital adminstration. The hospital's director general has her back, saying the photos were taken as part of a presentation to be shown to parents of preemies.

Most troubling here, no one seems to know whether the baby girl's parents were aware their daughter was out of her incubator and slipped kangaroo-style into a nurse's scrub pocket or whether they agreed to have their delicate baby used in the photo the hospital said was supposed to provide a bit of humor in the presentation. What's funny about a teeny weeny baby struggling to survive catching the creeping crud from a nurse's dirty pocket?

The nurse is said not to have initiated the photos - she was simply doing what she was told. A veteran of more than a dozen years on the neonatal unit, you'd hope she'd have more sensitivity and just plain sense.

Do you think she should be disciplined or should the punishment be levied on the boss who passed down the order?

Source/Image: YNetNews

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Preemie Catches on Fire

Madeline Holler — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 18:59:00 GMT

This is one of those stories where the sensible side of your brain reminds you that it's a rare tragedy, most likely won't happen to your child, you're safe, you're safe, you're safe. The crazy side of your brain, though, thinks you and yours are surely the next victim.

In a Minnesota hospital, a baby born three weeks early, was wearing an oxygen hood -- a device that fits over the face and supplies extra oxygen -- when something caused a fire to ignite. Nurses immediately put out the fire, but the tiny infant was burned. He is in critical but stable condition in a hospital burn unit.

Dr. Leslie Smith said the infant will probably survive. But he suffered second- and third-degree burns over nearly a fifth of his body, including his head, shoulders, part of his face and the tops of his hands, Smith said.

"This is our first experience with burns at this age," said Dr. George Peltier, a plastic surgeon at the burn center.

Doctors say the boy, who weighs 8 pounds and was just 12 hours old when the fire burned him, will have use of his hands and fingers and he shoud have a normal life. The family's lawyers say they are focusing on their little boy and have not yet considered suing.

The lawyer delivered this kicker, when saying the family was coping as best they could:

"This is a mother who's never held her son, who's not allowed to touch her son."

Super-Preemie: World's Youngest Baby Doing Well

Karen Murphy — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 14:57:00 GMT

You know things aren't starting well when your mother lies about your age when you haven't even been born yet. But that's exactly what Sonja Taylor did when she went into labor with her daughter Amillia at just 19 weeks gestation, knowing as she did that babies under 22 weeks have practically zero chance of survival and aren't even resuscitated. Sonja must have been really tapped into that mother's intuition-thing though, knowing somehow that her tiny daughter (weighing just 10 ounces! and the length of a pen!) would be okay, because Amillia was born and she did survive, responding medically in ways that she "shouldn't" have given her world-record youngest gestational age of just 21 weeks and 6 days.

Not that I advocate lying like that, but....wow. Aren't humans wonderful? The whole thing just amazes me. (Though I shudder to think of what all this cost) Amillia goes home today after four months in intensive care.