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My daughter's miraculous story!

futuremrs.casefuturemrs.case
in Minnesota Babies
Hello - I used this board a lot when I was pregnant with my children, and I thought I would come back to tell my daughter's miraculous story, and tell you about the March of Dimes largest event, the March for Babies.  My daughter, Ellery was fighting for her life before she was even born.  Ellery HAD to be born early in order for doctors to save her.  When I was 30 weeks pregnant, we discovered our baby girl was critically ill with rare and life-threatening conditions called Hydrops Fetalis and Congenital Chylothorax.  She had fluid throughout her little body, but most critically around her heart and lungs.  Doctors made a critical and important decision to take her out when I was 33 weeks and one day pregnant due to the fluid building up more in her, as well as myself as I had been diagnosed with polyhydramnios, too much amniotic fluid in me as a result of Ellery's Hydrops.  September 30th, 2008, my baby entered the world blue, limp and not able to take a breath as fluid surrounded her lungs, not allowing them to expand.  A neonatal intensive care unit team was waiting in the next operating room, waiting to try to save Ellery's life.  They performed an emergency thoracentesises, where syringes sucked 14 ounces of fluid from Ellery's chest to allow her lungs to inflate.  She was place on the oscillating ventilator (for the most critical patients), and after 25 minutes was stable enough to move to the NICU.  Ellery had two chest tubes and was intubated for 12 days.  She battled jaundice, extremely low blood pressure, pulmonary hypertension, pneumothorax, had multiple blood transfusions and more.  She was only given a 5% chance to survive, as Hydrops carries a mortality rate of up to 98%.  Ellery endured a 28 day NICU stay, along with four PICU stays. She came home on oxygen, high flow, diuretics, prevacid for severe reflux and in a danny sling (to elevate her crib).  She received a clean bill of health on February 12, 2009.  Ellery is alive today and doing marvelously well!  She is 17 months old, and you would never know she was a critically ill, premature baby.  The only thing holding her back is a gross motor delay, from what we believe was just being so sick and lying flat in a bassinet for months.  But we try to look at the big picture and see she is alive and thriving, despite having only a 5% chance to survive!  Miracles DO Happen, I hold one every day!  You can read more of Ellery's miraculous story at https://www.caringbridge.org/visit/ellerycase We're raising money for the March of Dimes, March for Babies as Ellery was named the 2010 St. Paul Ambassador Baby!  Big Smile   March of Dimes provided a grant to fund the development of Nitric Oxide, a life-saving therapy to treat pulmonary hypertension.  Ellery received this therapy in her first hours of life, and WOULD NOT be here if she did not have the therapy.  We are so grateful for the March of Dimes and all the work they do for babies!  We are thrilled and honored to represent them! I invite everyone to participate in March for Babies!  It's a wonderful and fun event to help all babies have a healthy start!  The mission of March of Dimes is to improve the health of babies by preventing birth defects, premature birth and infant mortality. Wishing you ALL happy and healthy pregnancies!!  Big Smile
Heidi
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