Pre-mature births happen every day. More babies die before their first birthday in the Washington DC area than any other part of our country. The March of Dimes is trying to find a reason and cure for prematurity. If you wish to sponsor my walk, please visit www.marchforbabies.org/bobby_jo . Or, if you would like to join me, ask me how to register.
Below is the story of Lisa and Josh Maggio, with whom I went to school. Please take a moment to read it:
Baby Mason Maggio,
12/4/04 - 12/26/04
On December 4, 2004 I, like many other mothers went into pre-mature labor at 25 weeks. I started having pain in the morning of December 3rd. I continued on like any other day not thinking anything of it, only that I was growing/stretching. By late evening I was having severe cramps and called the hospital to see what I should do. This was at 11:30pm. The hospital told me to drink 2 glasses of water and lay on my left side and to call back in an hour to give an update. I drank my water and it seemed that thee cramps were getting worse not better. My husband rushed me to the nearest hospital. This was not the hospital that I was supposed to deliver at. I had a different doctor and was scared out of my mind. Still not realizing that I was about to have a baby. I figured this would all go away. I was only 25wks pregnant. It was not time for our baby to come yet. They tried giving me medications to stop or slow down labor but I was too far along. When I arrived at the hospital I was already 3 cm. They started giving me steroid injections for the baby's lungs. When doing an ultrasound the doctor noticed that my placenta was starting to abrupt. I had read a little about this and didn't understand how this could be happening to me because I had done everything right. They did an emergency c-section at 3:30am. When she pulled him out he was not breathing. Then my husband and I heard a little cry. It was the most wonderful sound. Words cannot describe the feeling that came over me. Mason Aloysius Maggio was born at 1 lb. 10oz and 13 inches long. They rushed our baby to Children's Hospital in Washington DC. My wonderful husband Josh went along with him. That night Mason coded and we were called up to the hospital. The doctor did not want to release me but we had to be with our baby. He made it through the night, such a strong little guy. The next day they did an ultra sound on his brain and it showed that he had bleeding on the brain in the left and right ventricles. It was a 4 on both sides. They called us into "the room" and told us all of the possibilities for our baby. They gave us the statistics and that scared us. You don't want to hear all of those horrible things but yet you still want to be informed. The doctors could not tell us for sure what if anything was going to be wrong with our baby. The un-known is a very hard thing to accept. But we just kept praying. Luckily we have a lot of family and friends that were/are there for us every step of the way. Within the following three weeks he had many ups and downs. He was receiving numerous blood transfusions and his lungs collapsed because they were so underdeveloped. But in less then a week and a half they had re-inflated. The brain bleed had stopped and there were no signs of swelling. The bleed had even begun absorbing back into the body. Respiratory wise he was doing okay. He was still a very sick little boy. They had removed him from the conventional vent and put him on an oscillator because it is easier on his lungs. All seemed to be doing better, but how quickly that can change. He had jaundice and developed a fungal infection. They did an EKG and discovered a persistent ductus arteriosus (PDA), which is a blood vessel near the heart that normally closes after birth. Mason’s had to be fixed and in order to do so; they had to operate. The PDA was causing his respiratory problems that he started having going on the third week and they/we were hopeful that it was also his reason for not urinating. The doctors thought that it would help the blood flow to the kidneys. He did not urinate for 5 days. The swelling was enormous. He looked so puffy and swollen. He looked miserable! Our baby put up a really hard fight. Unfortunately he had so many things that were against him and his kidneys never regained function. The fluid started to push major organs around and he developed yet another infection. Our little Angel passed away on December 26, 2004. It was the hardest day of my life. My husband and I wanted to take all of his pain and suffering away from him. We would have given up anything to save our baby's life. But the Lord had other plans for our son. He took all of his pain and suffering away. Our little 1lb 10oz baby was stronger then I could ever be!
The NICU really opened up my eyes to a whole new world. There are so many babies that are fighting so hard to stay alive. Each day is a milestone. ~Lisa Maggio
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