Ok, I will tell this in as short a way as
possible. My husband and I had a baby on Dec. 18, 2002. He was born at
31 weeks gestation. His name is DeAndre. He went through all the
complications of being born prematurely, and started to do very well.
On Dec. 31, he started having allot of spitting up. We were told it was
just because he was not used to the food and that they would start
reglin on him. On Jan.1, 2003 in the middle of the night, our baby son
went down hill fast, and when I say fast I mean like a mudslide. He got
NEC. They called us and told us to come in to the hospital on Jan 2,
2003 at 7:15 am. They said he was dying. We got there and our sons
abdomen was swollen, black, and he was on a vent. He had completely
stopped breathing for himself. He had a tube that went into his stomach
to take away old bile and blood. His skin was so pale you could see the
veins through them. DeAndre was in shock they said. He had ecoli in
his blood and was septic as well. They started him on three antibiotics
to cover it and called in the surgeon. He had x-ray's every 6 hours to
check for perforations of the bowel. We were told there was nothing
they could do. The surgeon said that the next morning he was going to
go in and see what could be salvaged of our sons small intestines. We
stayed at the hospital through the night, not knowing if he would live
or die. That next day on Jan. 3, 2003. The surgeon said that DeAndre's
x-rays did not look good. The bowels were very dilated and he felt that
all his intestines had died. We were told that DeAndre had to have 30cm
of small intestine to survive, if he did not, they would close him up
and let us say goodbye. The Chaplin, my husband and myself, sat in a
little room, while we waited to see if DeAndre would have enough small
bowel. The surgeon came back and said that DeAndre had 39cm. We almost
jumped for joy! That gave us our baby back. The surgeon gave him a cvc
line and put him on TPN, as well as a g.t. tube for feeds. He went back
in again on the 7th of Jan. to remove more dead bowel. His stoma had
turned black and had no blood flow. He lost another cm and a half. He
now had 37.5cm of small intestine. We were told that it would be a long
bumpy road ahead for our son. He came off the vent. and became stable
and 6 weeks later on Feb. 18th his two month birthday, he had his colon
reconnected. He is up to 8.5cc on feeds that are continuous and he also
bottles three times a day to keep from getting an aversion to the
bottle. I do not know what the future holds for our son, but I know
that we need prayers. I have been trying to do as much research as I
can on SBS. Any information would be grateful!
DeAndre's Mom
Deanna V
I was checking the site and read about
DeAndre my son. I would like to update everyone on what has been going
on in his life. DeAndre was flown to Omaha from the NICU in Kansas to be
evaluated for a small bowel and liver transplant in April. He had a
bowel obstruction at that time and they were able to fix it. He was
released from Omaha within two weeks and came home on TPN and continuous
drip feeds through his G-tube. I went up on his feeds 1ml/hour every
other day and he slowly went down on the number of hours on his TPN. He
became septic with a line infection the first of June and they pulled
his central line. He has been TPN free for two months. He now no longer
has to have continuous drip feeds and is only fed through his G-tube 12
hours at night. He eats baby food three times a day and also has four
bottles. He was having quite a bit of stools 15-20 a day until we took
him off the continuous drip feeds and started the baby foods. He now has
anywhere from 3-7 stools a day and in four days he gained 1 pound! That
is the most that he has ever gained since being off TPN!!!!! I know he
still has a long road ahead of him. Our Heavenly Father has watched over
DeAndre and I know that there is a reason he is here with us. Please
check out DeAndre's website at
www.deandrevaughn.com and please sign his guest book. I hope
that his story may help others. I hope you do not mind that I attached a
Photo of our precious baby DeAndre.
