Breathless Haste

I was petrified about what was about to happen to Neale. This was the moment I had been dreading—for her, for Jay, and for me. Once the NICU doctors were assembled, I pushed a few times per contraction, and out she popped with a loud cry. It was music to our ears. Earlier, they had indicated that we might not hear her cry because they would be taking her away so quickly. Jay cut the cord, and she was passed into the hands of the neonatologist. The other doctors were waiting for her to come through the doors of the NICU.

They started her on a prostaglandins, a medicine that would enable the ductus in her heart to remain open until surgery. The ductus allows blood to detour away from the lungs before birth. After birth, it closes within days. A child with a hypoplastic left heart cannot survive once the ductus closes, but neither can it remain permanently open. The medicine was intended to provide a temporary fix for a short time frame until the first operation could take place.

A Miracle

Within ten minutes of Neale’s delivery, the neonatologist returned and asked Jay if he would like to see her. Of course he did. He came back with the report that she was beautiful, pink, and screaming. Hallelujah!

About three hours after her birth, a pediatric cardiologist walked into our hospital room smiling. He told us that he had done an ultrasound on Neale’s heart. He said, “  Her left heart is completely normal, and we see no signs of a coarctation. She doesn’t have anything that will require surgery.”

What did he just say? Was I in a dream?