Special reunion unites K.H.M.H. preemies
Reunions come in all shapes and sizes, but usually involve large families or groups of old students. Today at the K.H.M.H. there was a very different kind of reunion … and News Five’s Jacqueline Woods was there.
Jacqueline Woods, Reporting
Today fifty children who were all premature at birth returned to the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital to celebrate their gift of life.
Dr. Victor Rosado, Head of Paediatrics, K.H.M.H.
?Well it is really a happy day for us at Karl Heusner to see babies that we have had in our institution some times from one month up to three months and we have bonded with them, to see them come back as six, seven, eight year olds, doing well in school.?
The children were all born over a ten year period. The reunion is the first gathering of its kind and it allowed the boys and girls and their parents to meet and share experiences. Four year old George Herbert Hanson, Junior, weighed only one pound at birth. His mother, Francela Linares, says although many believed her son would not survive, she never gave up hope.
Francela Linares, Mother
?Well everybody in the family at first started crying. And I told them, I said, ?don?t cry, one of these days you?ll get the chance to play with George.? I said, ?you have to have hope and faith and you have to believe that he will survive,? because the minute he was born they gave us two hours for him just to live.?
Young Hanson stayed in the hospital for two months before he was allowed to go home.
Francela Linares
?I would like to say one advice to parents with premature babies. I would like them to never give up hope in their baby, to always put God in their lives and with him he makes the impossible possible. So you just be strong, have faith, believe and you never give up in your child.?
Since 1994, the K.H.M.H. has made great strides in providing the best service for newborns. Today the hospital has the only Neonatal Intensive Care Unit in the country. Thirty percent of the cases are referred from the districts. K.H.M.H. Head of Paediatrics, Doctor Victor Rosado, says while there is much more to be done, the hospital is proud of its growth.
Dr. Victor Rosado
?I think we have come a long way over the part ten years. We have changed the name from Special Care Baby Unit and Nursery to Newborn Intensive Care Unit because now we are mechanically ventilating babies, we are giving surfactants for babies with sicknesses like Hylen Membrane Disease, so we are doing a lot more.?
Dr. Rosado says that although critical care is important to reduce infant mortality, we must also focus on the causes of premature births.
Dr. Victor Rosado
?There are social factors and there are biological factors. The biological factors like twin gestation, twins, you have diabetes, you have high blood pressure. But there are also social factors like lack of adequate prenatal control, lack of adequate nutrition, drug abuse, domestic abuse, poverty. Those factors also play a role in having a premature baby.?
Only ten months ago, Jamie Sagastome and Emil Blanco were not sure if their son Christian Blanco who weighed in at two pounds would have lived through his first month. Today the family joined in the celebration.
Jamie Sagastome, Mother
?Well it was quite frightening because he was very small and I didn?t think that he would get this big, amazing. I mean it was pretty tough for us because we didn?t have him home for like four months, so we had to come and see him, watch him grow, support him, give him strength.?
Jacqueline Woods
?How challenging was this for you??
Emil Blanco, Father
?I was surprised because she was seven months when he was born and he was very tiny; he was no bigger than my arm. We were there everyday, twice for the day sometimes if we could, we stayed as long as we could and we were just waiting for the day that they told us we could take him home.?
?The machinery and the equipment they have in there is very impressive. Looking around at the other kids, it?s really expressive of how the nurses work very hard and work hard all day to get these children to the stages that they are right now. I am so surprised at the weight he has, about twenty pounds right now and he was two pounds.?
Jacqueline Woods
?Hi Christian, hello … He looks like he?s pretty active though.?
Emil and Jamie
?Very active.?
Jacqueline Woods
?And how is he doing today??
Emil Blanco
?He?s perfectly okay. No problem with him at all, at all.?
Dr. Rosado says their aim is to continue to enhance the services the K.H.M.H. provides for their youngest and smallest patients. Jacqueline Woods for News Five.
