Naomi was born 2 weeks after her due date. I had an emergency c-section because after almost a day of serious labor (we were doing a homebirth vbac), I felt something was terribly wrong. Thankfully, my midwife listened to me, and we went to the hospital for an emergency c-section. Naomi was born with her lungs stuck shut from mecomium (baby's first excrement) inhalation. It was the worst the doctor had ever seen. She was rushed to Children's Hospital in Seattle where she was put on ECMO (extra-corporeal membrane oxygenation).
ECMO is used in infants who are extremely ill due to breathing or heart problems. The ECMO machine circulates blood through an artificial lung back into the bloodstream. This provides adequate oxygen to the baby while allowing time for the lungs and heart to "rest" or heal.
Here is a picture of Naomi just after she was off of ECMO, she is still hooked up to a hard ventilator:
ECMO is a device of last resort for kids that are close to death. When Naomi was on ECMO 3 others were in NICU (neonatal intensive care unit) ECMO as well. Of those 4 kiddos, only Naomi came out alive. The down side to ECMO is that there is a large chance of have a stroke while on the machine, and most ECMO kids have asthma and allergies. Naomi had a stroke on Day 5 of ECMO. Thankfully the 5 days she had on the machine was enough to let her lungs absorb enough meconium to be able to breathe with a hard ventilator, eventually a soft-ventilator, and finally regular room air.
A regular down side to being a stroke victim (or traumatic brain injury of any kind) is an increased chance for seizures. To date, Naomi has only had one seizure, we think induced by a dark room coupled with a bright flashing anime cartoon. We are hoping that the repair of tissue in her brain from HBOT will lessen her future risk of seizures, as well as perhaps heal her asthma.
Here is Naomi the first day she got home from the hospital (at 2 months old):
