William was born May 22, 1995 at only 22 weeks gestation weighing a mere 1 lb 4 oz. He is a true miracle. He was also a big star on the Children's Miracle Network just a few short weeks after being born. He was only the second child to have survived being born that early at that hospital.We were in the newborn intensive care unit for 144 days before leaving for home. William was on a ventilator called a jet ventilator. It delivered 400 breaths per minute to his lungs for 122 days. This ventilator is used on the much sicker babies. Preemies do however have some problems being born so early. When he was just 9 days old weighing 11 oz. he was taken into surgery due to a collapsed lung. All went well. Shortly after August 1, we faced another complication. A hemorrhage in his brain (Hydrocephalous) required putting in a shunt so the complications would not give him permanent damage. He did remarkably well weighing only 2 lbs. Then on August 10 only 10 days later we learned he was developing retinopathy of prematurity in his eyes (in some cases this causes vision damage) so we chose to do laser surgery to prevent any longterm damage. The results were good although he does wear glasses since age 1. A few short months later he developed a bilingual hernia (a hernia in his scrotum) and had to have surgery to repair that. William now spent 144 days in the Intensive care unit and was ready for the trip home weighing 4lbs 11 oz. We did however face a few more surgeries. In January 1996 his appendix had to be removed. At this point he weighed 7 pounds so they chose to put a g-tube (Gastrostemy tube) in his tummy to allow us to feed him more food. His sucking did not develop so he did not take to a bottle well at all. They also did a procedure called Nissen Fundoplacation where they tie the tube closed that allows you to reflux. William has made a lot of progress and is now 38 months old. His brain suffered slight damage to his sensory system, and he has mild cerebral palsy but is now on his way to becoming a more healthy toddler.Preemies seem to be a bit smaller for their age (he weighs 21 pounds now) but do in most cases catch up at a later time. William still uses oxygen at night due to bpd (bilateral pulmonary disease). Please browse our photo gallery and sign the guest book at the end of your tour. Thanks for visiting!
William's pics
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