Against all odds: Parents of 1 pound, 1 ounce baby girl in southern Illinois refuse to lose
"So it is not the will of my Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish." (Matthew 18:12-14)
It's that faith that passed 1 pound, 1 ounce Sydni RaeAnn Stevenson from God's hand into the palms of doctors and nurses at Cardinal Glennon Hospital in St. Louis back in October 2012. She was born a full three months premature in an emergency surgery at St. Joseph's Hospital in Breese, Ill. Six month later, she looks up and grins ear to ear at her parents Jeremy Stevenson, 38, and Amy Haltenhoff, 33, at the family's home in Junction City, Ill., about 10 minutes west of Salem.
It's the birth against all odds that took the word "if" out of her parents' vocabulary forever.
"If" Sydni lives. "If" Sydni is healthy. "If" this and "if" that.
Doctors and nurses at Cardinal Glennon Children's Hospital in St. Louis didn't mince words in telling skeptics to "check your pessimism at the door" as they cared for Sydni who was born on Oct. 25, 2012.
Six months later, meet a very healthy and happy Sydni RaeAnn Stevenson, who weighs 6 pounds, 2 ounces. There were no surgeries. "There isn't a mark on her," says her father. After a grueling five months of medicine that stood on the shoulders of the couple's deep faith, Sydni's doctor at Cardinal Glennon tells the parents, "We'll see you in July" at her next checkup.
Dr. Sadiq is the Director of the Dana Brown Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Sisters of St. Mary's Cardinal Glennon Children's Medical Center. He is also an Associate Professor of Pediatrics at Saint Louis University School of Medicine.
Cardinal Glennon is a sister hospital to Good Samaritan Hospital in Mount Vernon and St. Mary's Hospital in Centralia.
Britany Holtenhoff Heisner, a CNA at Pinckneyville Community Hospital, is the mother's cousin.
Jeremy Stevenson tells the couple's story:
Amy is a dental hygienist who works for a developmental agency through a local dentist. Jeremy works for ESI, Inc. a steel building fabrication company. He works as a paint applicator.
Amy was going to start a new job on October 16, but checked into the St, Joseph's Hospital in Breese for high blood pressure. "She went in on Friday and they could not get it under control. By Monday, nothing was helping," Jeremy remembers. "They tried for 11 days."
She was six months pregnant and doctors diagnosed the problem as having to do with "absent endiastolic flow" of blood between the baby and the mother's placenta.
"They could not track the oxygenated blood," he said. "They told us that an early delivery was going to happen."
"They gave Amy steroids so the baby's lungs would grow. Late on October 24 they found a reverse endiastolic flow which means that the baby was feeding oxygen through the blood to the mother," he said.
The staff believed that Jeremy and Amy were within two hours of losing Sydni if they didn't act quickly. An emergency C-Section was performed just before midnight. She weighed 1 pound, 1 ounce. "Her head was the size of a walnut. Her arms and legs were the size of the arms and legs on a Barbie Doll."
Doctors expected Sydni would have no lung capacity at birth. They were prepared to intubate her (provide artificial breathing) to sustain her.
"But, she vocalized--she CRIED," Jeremy remembers. The doctor and nurses said it was impressive, unbelievable!" "They started her on a ventilator." At the outset the only thing they could come up with was a cannula (oxygen tube) that had to be taped to the baby's chin. The oxygen supply had to be so small that it was all but turned off. A typical infant ventilator mask would have covered her whole head. The hospital contacted the airway medical company that manufactures the cannulas and company challenged its staff to manufacture a tiny, threadlike airway that could be placed in the child's nose.
They did it! The tubes were shipped to the hospital.
Amy stayed in St. Joseph's Hospital to recover while Sydni was transferred to Cardinal Glennon with Jeremy in tow.
A newborn's birthweight routinely drops in the first 48 hours. Sydni dropped from 1 pound, 1 ounce down to a scant 14 ounces, but 48 hours into her new life she was breathing on her own.
Jeremy says that Sydni worked so hard at living it wore her out. She would run out of energy.
She fit in the palm of a doctor's hand. A diaper was fashioned out of gauze. She lifted her tiny head at six days and before she was two months old she climbed to the top of the incubator that gave her life.
She has red hair and blue eyes and captured the love of everyone in the unit. Failure was not an option.
There were concerns. Born that small, the skeletal plates have not yet formed. Brain bleeds are common. There was none of that. Sections of the intestinal tract can die. There was none of that. At that size there is little liver function and doctors put her under a "grow light." Reflux (most of us know it as acid reflux) is an issue she is growing out of.
She had retinopathy at the outset, but it is getting better.
"She had to be resuscitated twice. It was an unbelievable roller coaster. I thank Dr. Sadiq every day. There is no reason that she should have done as well as she did."
Her story was an inspiration at Cardinal Glennon. The sight of her gave a nearby cancer patient new hope that anything is possible.
Jeremy says the St. Louis Ronald McDonald house was a godsend. When family friends found out the Ronald McDonald House staff collected money through aluminum soft drink can pop-a-top tabs Jeremy and Amy's friends collected 73 one-gallon bags full.
"We got her home on Feb. 7. She is 6 pounds and 2 ounces and trying to roll over.
Clinically, the odds of Syndi developing into a healthy baby were three percent.
But they simply refused to lose.