Gaby, the little blessing

AFTER reading the last two articles published in the Newsday regarding the miracles of the births of premature babies, I have decided to share my story with you. My name is Renee Pilgrim and I’m the mother of a baby born one pound 12 ounces. I was 24 weeks into my pregnancy when Dr Dale Charran, my OBGYN, diagnosed me as having an incompetent cervix, and noticed that I was going into the early stages of labour.  He decided to do a cervical suture and I was then put on complete bed rest.  He then treated me with hormone and steroid injections, just in case the baby decided to present itself before time, so that at least she could have a shot at survival. One week later, I was in active labour. I was taken to Mt Hope Maternity and warded there for five days.  On day five, I started bleeding and they realised that the placenta had ruptured.  I was in labour again.  When the doctors came they did not want to do a C-section as they were certain that the baby would not survive and said that it would not make any sense.  I had lost too much blood and they could not find any heart beat. 

They then proceeded to induce labour and at 5:45 on Friday, December 3, 1999, Gabriella Hannah Maleah Robinson was born, weighing 900 grams (one pound 12 ounces) and 9 inches in length.  They said she would not make it.  They tried to resuscitate her but found no pulse or heart beat for 18 minutes. They brought her back into the room and pronounced her dead. They asked if I wanted an autopsy done and I said, “No, she had already been through enough.”  I lay there numb, as they were trying to get my attention, asking me if I understood what they were saying and that my baby was dead.  I never responded.  I was too busy praying. 

I had lost another little girl in August 1998, after a six month gestation period.  I prayed, “God, if you really want to take another angel from me, then go ahead and take her, but if you want to perform a miracle, give her back to me.” I was lying there for about 30 minutes, when a nurse came into the room to clean up and remove the body.  She asked if I wanted to see my baby’s body for the last time and to hold her.  I said, “Yes.”  When she went to pick the baby up, I saw a strange look on her face and she ran out of the room holding the tiny bundle.  Two minutes later a string of doctors came in and said, “We don’t know what has happened, this is a miracle, but this baby is alive!”
 
I said, “Thank you Jesus!”  But it did not end there, the doctors also made me fully aware that this could be a temporary situation and that she was too tiny to survive on her own, especially with the trauma she went through.  All they could do was to put her on oxygen and IV fluids.  She would have to do the rest on her own. This little miracle proved them all wrong.  Every day for 14 weeks, we came from Chaguanas to Mount Hope, not knowing what we would find.  Those nurses in the NICU took excellent care of our Gaby, along with Dr Chopra and Dr Lutchman, who took her on as their special project.  Dr Chopra would spend hours feeding her and he made sure that if anything happened, he was the first one to be called.  He also said to me that Gabriella taught him a very important lesson — never to give up!  When she was three days old, her grandfather, the late Rev Peter Pilgrim, performed her christening in the hospital.
 
Gabriella had over seven blood transfusions as her platelet count dropped to dangerously low levels at times, having us running down to the Blood Bank on a weekly basis.  Thank God her father was an avid blood donor and had stored 11 pints over the years.  She also developed sepsis and jaundice, but those soon resolved.  Her tiny body put up quite a fight.  At two weeks old, she was finally  allowed to have breast milk, which I had to express daily and take into the hospital. After her 14-week stay at Mt Hope she finally reached 1,480 grams, just over three pounds, and we were allowed to take her home.  We had one year of sleepless nights, feedings every two hours and a few choking episodes, but it was all worth it.  I stayed up with her all night long and her dad stayed with her in the day.  We were not sure what to expect, especially since she had no pulse or heart beat for 18 minutes. We wondered  if she would be developmentally delayed, brain-damaged or retarded, but as God would have it, she is a perfectly normal, healthy four-year-old angel. 

She met all her developmental milestones. Her motor skills are perfect, as well as speech and hearing. Her only problem is that at five months of age she was diagnosed as having Retinopathy of Prematurity in her left eye and is now blind in that eye.  We spent a small fortune going from ophthalmologists to eye specialists, but to no avail.  There is nothing that could be done to save her sight in that eye.  We now have to get glasses for her as she is now in pre-school and is quite near-sighted.  She also has an IV burn on her left hand that will need plastic surgery later on, but other than that, she is our little blessing. At one-year-old we placed her in day care with Lydia Grell in Lange Park, Chaguanas.  It was the best thing we ever did.  She developed strong social skills, and in no time she was singing her ABCs, nursery rhymes, and counting from one to 20. 

She now attends the Gentle Lamb Nursery School in Lange Park, Chaguanas, where she does swimming and gymnastics.  We thank God everyday for our little miracle and when I hear her laugh or see her smile I remember the day she was born, when I heard the words, “She did not make it.” I think that that was man’s plan, and not God’s plan.  She now has a three-year-old sister, Gianna Robinson, who was born at nine pounds, thanks to Dr Dale Charran and Dr Godfrey Rajkumar.  My thanks go out to all the nurses and members of staff at Mount Hope NICU, with a special thank you to Eslyn Neptune, Dr Charran, Dr Chopra and Dr Lutchman.  Thanks for all the support over the years and God bless.