May 11, 1998 It was an uneventful pregnancy. I had vomited a lot and was terribly fatigued, but that was normal. Things were just as they had been with my oldest son, David (though 9 years older with this pregnancy, I was feeling the strain from carrying this child). When the baby failed to appear by his due date on May 4, 1998, my ob/gyn suggested induction on the following Monday. We reported to a hospital in Ohio bright and early Monday, May 11, 1998. They found us a room at 8:00 AM, but they didn't start induction until 10:00 AM. because things were moving along slowly, they broke my water at 2:00 PM hoping the baby would appear soon. Hours passed while I played cards with my husband, and still no baby. It was shortly before the dinner hour when my ob/gyn suggested an increase in Pitocin to move this baby along. At 7:51 PM, Jonathan Micah. was born. Though I had wanted a daughter, I was thankful he was a boy. We couldn't decide on a name for a girl and were still deciding through the course of labor. But Jonathan... his name was preordained. He was a healthy 8 lbs 3 oz and 20 1/4" long. He was the spit and image of his brother David, and I felt oddly as if I were reliving David's birth. Jonathan was perfect, unlike his brother, not a spot or blemish on him. He scored 9 and 9 on the APGAR scale. Jonathan was two weeks old when the pediatrician sent us to see a pediatric cardiologist for some "routine" testing. It seemed that the nurse practitioner felt that there was a problem, though the doctor had not seemed alarmed. Just to be certain that all was well, the pediatrician set us up an appointment with the cardiologist for the next day. From the cardiologist's office, we were sent IMMEDIATELY to a cardio clinic with a diagnosis of "Shone's Syndrome" -- a collective term for multiple congenital heart defects afflicting mainly the left heart, yet not associated with any chromosomal syndrome. Upon arrival, we were immediately admitted to the Clinic, and 16 day-old Jonathan was subjected to further testing to confirm the cardiologist's diagnosis-- coarctation of the aorta (CoA), a small ventricular septal defect (VSD), mitral valve stenosis (MS), aortic valve stenosis (AS), and tricuspid regurgitation (TR). We were then informed that Jonathan would require open-heart surgery to repair, at least, the CoA and the VSD, and he would need that surgery soon --the sooner the better. My head was reeling! On May 29, 1998, 18 day-old Jonathan underwent his first open-heart procedure. Dr. Jonathan Drummond-Webb, of The Cleveland Clinic Foundation, performed the surgery. Nothing prepared the surgeon for what he would find. With grave concern, he explained that Jonathan had a "borderline" heart. He had considered doing the Norwood procedure -- used for Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome (HLHS) -- because Jonathan's left chambers were so undersized and the VSD they suspected was really both an ASD (atrial septal defect) and a VSD, and could be better described as having no wall at all. After careful consideration, the surgeon opted to give Jonathan's little heart a chance to be "normal." With Jonathan's own pericardium, the surgeon repaired the CoA. With a Dacron patch, the surgeon fashioned a "wall." There was precious little tissue available to secure the patch to, and the surgeon was greatly disturbed. The following morning, after a stable night, Jonathan went into cardiac arrest. The next time I saw him his chest was spread with a small strut. A patch of Gortex was stitched over his open chest: little heart beating underneath. Because of the swelling, Jonathan's chest remained open for 5 days in order to allow his ailing heart room to beat. I sat beside my baby boy praying for his life in an over-sized t-shirt and gray sweatpants (the only attire I was capable of wearing postpartum), when the director of the Clinic escorted an entourage through the PICU. A couple accompanied the director into our room. I was introduced to Mr. & Mrs. de la Renta as the director explained that Jonathan was laid open due to complications following surgery. I exchanged "pleasantries" with the Mrs. and had only realized AFTER they had left that Jonathan and I (in my sweatpants) had met THE "Oscar de la Renta": the famous designer and his wife. After two failed attempts to remove my son
from the ventilator, the surgeon approached my husband and me to suggest
a second surgery. The complication he suspected was a loose patch resulting
from the heart massage that had saved
Just as the surgeon had suspected, with the stress of the heart massage, the Dacron patch, so tenuously attached, had pulled free. Once free, the patch had caught a leaflet from Jonathan's tricuspid valve holding the valve permanently open. This had caused his regurgitation to be severe and made it impossible for him to sustain his own breath without the help of the vent. Once repaired, Jonathan recovered relatively quickly. During our stay at the Cleveland Clinic, Jonathan
suffered many maladies from urinary tract infection to hydrocephalous.
After having spent more than a month on the ventilator, Jonathan had no
voice. A procedure was used to inject foam behind his vocal cords to help
give him use of his stressed larynx. On July 18, 1998, 53 days after admission,
Jonathan was released from the Cleveland Clinic one day before my birthday
-- the BEST birthday gift I could have ever received! Though the surgeon
had denied any foreknowledge of my birthday, I knew the One who had given
me that gift: the Giver of all good and perfect
Though we had originally been sent to the Clinic
to see Dr. Roger Mee, chief of pediatric cardio-thoracic surgery, God had
answered my prayer to spare my son's life with a surgeon named Jonathan.
Jonathan means "Jehovah has given."
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