NICU is probably one of the scariest words for expecting women and their families.
Every year, about 10-15% of newborn babies born in the US need to receive special treatment at the NICU. This is indicative of how common it is for new parents to be separated from their bundles of joy. Instead of squeezing them tight in their arms, they only get to see them from a distance for some time.
When Amber Higgins was admitted to the hospital for closer monitoring at 23 weeks, she couldn’t imagine what was about to follow.
Amber was having a normal pregnancy until she was told her baby was pretty small for his gestational age at 20 weeks.
That’s when she started getting worried. And she was even more concerned when she was told she had to be admitted to the hospital at 23 weeks for four days so that doctors could check on the baby.
At that point, doctors told Amber and her husband that their baby had 30% chance of survival. And that’s when they realized how serious the whole thing was.
“He was still really small, then he started to have some reverse blood flow and his heart rate was dropping here and there. And then I started to have high blood pressure, which they took as a sign of preeclampsia. So they just said that it was best to go ahead and do an emergency C-section at 24 weeks,” Higgins said.
Once little Jari was born, he needed to be intubated immediately. Thankfully, the nurse that was there managed to intubate him really quickly and without a problem. This was a relief for the medical staff because they had been worried that the tube wouldn’t fit because of how small the baby was at the time.
Jari weighed only 11.5 ounces and he really looked so tiny.
“One of our excellent nurse practitioners was able to pass a breathing tube in and put Jari on the breathing machine really quickly after he was born,” Dr. Jennifer Anderson, a medical director at Pediatrix Neonatology of New Mexico said.
Once Jari was intubated, doctors and nurses gave out a sigh of relief, but they knew that this was only the first of many challenges the preemie would have to face until he was discharged from the hospital.
“When we got him kind of stabilized, that’s when I went over to Amber to talk to her and her husband to let them know … that this was going to be a long road for Jari,” Anderson recalled.
After 127 long days in the NICU, Jari was officially ready to leave the hospital. He had been a really brave fighter, and he could finally go home with his parents.
A few months later, it was time for him to celebrate his first birthday. Today, at one year old, Jari is an active baby boy that enjoys his parents’ hugs more than anything.
Although he still needs help to catch up developmentally because he is more like how old he was supposed to be, he is a healthy and happy little boy.
Amber and her husband hope that their story will give courage to other parents whose babies are currently fighting for their lives in the NICU.
Watch Jari’s touching story in the video below.
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