Thankful Thursday: Meet Noah!
Meet Noah
A routine 36-week checkup for Stephanie became frightening. “When they were checking (the baby’s) his heart, they stayed on it a little longer than normal. In my mom gut, I felt something wasn’t right.”
Doctors quickly performed a fetal echocardiogram and discovered a patent ductus arteriosus, or PDA. An extra blood vessel was dumping blood into Noah’s tiny lungs. In babies with a healthy heart, the PDA will close on its own in the first couple of days of life. In Noah’s case the vessel spontaneously closed early, a situation most babies don’t survive.
“I ended up getting transferred to Children’s Hospital of Georgia so Noah could get the best care he needed.”
Doctors at Children’s induced Stephanie the day she arrived.
“The doctors prepared me for the worst. It was a scary situation to be in.”
Not only did Noah survive birth, “kicking and screaming,” but this miracle baby came home just a week later, stumping medical experts and defying the odds.