The Riley Kid of the Week this week goes to the Young twins! A big happy birthday shout-out to the Young twins who turned 13 years old this week! All of us at PUDM hope they had the best birthday yet and are excited to finally be teenagers! Below is a story about the experiences that the Young twins had with Riley Hospital for Children and the amazing things that all of the doctors and nurses at the hospital were able to do for them since the minute they were born.
The twins were due to be born on June 5, 2001. Due to unexpected complications, they arrived 12 ½ weeks prematurely on the night of March 10, 2001. We were terrified and prayed for the health and survival of our newborn twins, Natalie and Sean.
Natalie weighed 2 pounds, 5.6 ounces and measured 14.5 inches in length. Although we were unaware at the time, Natalie was resuscitated five times during the first night. We were unable to see her for several hours as the Neonatologist and her team of NICU nurses and respiratory therapist continued to work on her through the night. The next morning we were allowed to see her, but we were not allowed to hold her. She suffered from Respiratory Distress Syndrome and was breathing with the assistance of a ventilator. Blood gases were drawn frequently to check gas and acidity levels to help determine adjustments on her ventilator settings. Eventually Natalie needed a blood transfusion because her body could not keep up with producing the supply of blood that she needed with all of the blood drawn for testing. After three weeks, Natalie began breathing on her own without assistance of a machine. Within two hours, however, her respirations became distressed and, once again, she was re-intubated and placed back on the ventilator. Natalie faced many more complications after this including a lung infection, laryngomalacia, and a mild case of Retinopathy of Prematurity. Fortunately, all of her testing at Riley Hospital for Children provided results that only needed to be monitored, but never required treatment.
Sean was born nineteen minutes after Natalie weighing in at 2 pounds, 5 ounces. He, too, needed to breathe with the aid of a ventilator from the start. Sean overcame a Strep B infection as well as being treated under bili-lights for jaundice in the first week. He was easily agitated, possibly because of the baby next to him crying incessantly or because of some other form of over stimulation, and needed to be sedated to keep him calm. He was stabilized and needed rest to heal and grow. Our second week in the Ball NICU was the first time we had heard Riley Hospital mentioned. Like Natalie, Sean faced many more complications down the road. These included risk of brain hemorrhage, Retinopathy of Prematurity, and laser surgery.
Our trips to Riley Hospital remind us that we should be thankful each and every day for our children’s health. There are so many families who have children who are continually much sicker than the twins. No matter what we faced and even though at times it felt like we would not be able to handle it, we did survive our experience. Most of all we give thanks that our happy, healthy children survived it, too!
Once again, happy birthday to the Young twins! We hope to see you soon!
