In memory of our beloved Caleb Joshua
Bennett. Our story begins like many
others detailed here. My wife and I were
very excited to learn that we were
pregnant. However at 11 weeks we got a
taste of what was still to come. My wife
awoke one night and said to me that she
was leaking, it was not urine. We rushed
through to the doctor the next morning.
He was very insensitive and rushed us
because he was busy, needless to say we
never went back to him again. We went to
a new doctor and he did an examination
and could not find a problem. We had no
more problems until about 7 weeks later.
My wife and I were at friends sitting
and talking and she suddenly felt a gush
of fluid. We went home, and all through
that night she continued to leak. That
Saturday morning we rushed through to a
our new doctor who examined my wife. He
said that the baby was in distress
(heart beat at 70) and that my wife's
membranes had ruptured and what was
leaking out was the amniotoc fluid. He
said that our boy would not survive and
would be dead within two days. We agreed
that we would not kill our child while
he still had a heartbeat. We went home
in shock. The monday we returned
expecting the worst. But our boy had
recovered, he was still alive! His
heartbeat was back up to normal (160).
The doctor advised us to go home. My
wife was put on bedrest and she drank
lots of fluids (sometimes up to 6 Litres
a day). The only time she got up was to
shower or go to the toliet. She
continued to leak. We went for regular
checkups, our boy continued to develop
normally. At 24 weeks we had another
scare, my wife started mild
contractions, we again rushed through to
the hospital, she was admitted and put
on a drug to stop her contractions. She
was released the next day. The next 5
weeks passed without incident. At 29
weeks we went for another checkup, Caleb
was now 1,3kg in weight. The doctor
decided to adminster the steriods and we
had the first shot that Friday 13
February 2004 and the next shot the next
day. We were excited, hoping that the
worst was over and that our boy was
going to be ok after all those long
weeks in bed. That Saturday night 14
February my wife started having lower
back pains, they continued until Sunday
morning. We went through to the hospital
and she was admitted and monitored. A
non stress test was done and Caleb was
doing fine. Mom started having
contractions and she was again put on
the drug to stop them. I left on Sunday
night and returned on Monday morning the
16 Feb expecting to take her home. When
I got to her she was white the Doctor
has said that her white blood cell count
was raised and that it was only the
drugs that were keeping our son from
being born. He decided to perform an
emergency c section. Our son was born at
29 weeks 3 days at 12:35 Monday
afternoon 16 February. He was 1.5 kg and
was 40cm in length. He cried and
wriggled, he scored 8/10 on the Agbar we
were so overjoyed that he cried because
we had been so worried about his lungs
and the lack fluid. He immediately went
into the NICU and was put on a
ventilator and given surfactant. he was
put on 70% oxygen. I visited him often
within the next couple of hours. At
about 7pm that evening Caleb started to
struggle with his oxygenation, at 9pm
the paedrician called us and said that
they had put him on 100% oxygen and that
he was stable but that they could not
treat him anymore. 3 hours later at
12:06 the NICU nurse called me and said
that I better come because he was really
struggling. When I got there Caleb
heartbeat was 70 and he was slowly
getting worse. What followed is the
sadest, hardest moments of my life as my
little son slowly slipped away from us
and went to be with Jesus, I held his
head in my one hand and his right hand
in my other and prayed and pleaded but
it was not to be. I was glad that I was
with him that I could tell him that I
loved him and that he was not with
strangers when he went. My wife was
still in her ward and was to sore to
move, it was hard for me to tell her. We
miss our little boy so much, writing
this I cried. We have no regrets we did
all we could do all that was humanly
possible. If we can give you any advice
it is never give up hope, find a doctor
that will work with you that will give
you hope. PROM does not mean your child
will die so keep fighting.
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