I worked as a nurse in Labor and
Delivery and I also had PPROM and
premature delivery. My son, Sam, was
born on 8/23/03 at exactly 25 weeks
gestation. I also had the 1st
trimester bleeding and some quite
heavy bleeding with passage of
tissue. After several visits to L & D
and confirmation of a closed cervix
and a perfectly fine placenta I was
always sent home. The day that I
ruptured I had been feeling flu-like
and achy all night the night before
and in the morning felt a tiny gush of
fluid....thinking I had urinated a
bit I didn't go to the doctors right
away. After several hours of cramping
and the flu-like symptoms my husband
took me to the hospital. My membranes
were definitely ruptured and I had an
infection of some kind. They rushed
me by ambulance to a hospital with a
Level-3 NICU. I was very sick with a
fever, high WBC's etc.... I definitely
had some sort of infection. With my
conditioning worsening (I was in sinus
tach with a heartrate of 220) and the
baby having prolonged decels in the
40's they took me in for a crash c-
section. It was done under general
anesthesia and I woke up in ICU on a
ventilator. They did not want to
extubate me to quickly due to the
problem with my heartrate (which had
gone back down after delivery). I was
intubated and awake for 5 hours!
My son was 1lb. 12ozs. and his apgars
were 1 3 and 7. It took them about 7
minutes to get him going. He was on a
ventilator but I was told he was doing
well. I saw him 2 days later. He was
so tiny and so beautiful.
My NICU
experience was so hard. Touch and go
from minute one. My son was doing
remarkably, eventually taking my
breast milk by feeding tube and slowly
growing up to a little over 2 lbs. On
Sept. 16, 2003 my son acquired an
infection and was put on the
oscillator (a high pressure ventilator
that keeps the airways open with
600 "puffs" of air a minute. What a
horrific sight. He looked so
uncomfortable. My husband and I
stayed overnight that night and while
taking a quick nap at 1:50am my
husband woke up with a start...he had
been dreaming of Sam and wanted to go
check on him. He walked out the door
and a nurse was coming down the
hallway from the NICU...Sam was in
full code. He died of severe sepsis
at 2:10am that morning. It was
gutwrenching. My experience of losing
him is still fresh in my mind. I miss
him so much. He was due this coming
December 6th (my husbands 39th
birthday). He will live forever in my
heart.
We have the go ahead to try to
conceive again in January 2004. I
pray that this random experience will
not happen again. I would love to
hear of other moms that had an
experience like mine. Please email me
if you want.
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