Curious to hear NICU nurses perspective--23-wkr, NEC m

Nyoro · Sep 24, 2006

Eeeeek! I just had an ultrasound yesterday at 25 weeks and they estimated the fetal weight to be 880 grams! He or she is large for gestational age though (70th percentile) and I'm guessing your little guy was small for his age. Glad to hear he's doing well! :) Bless you for "giving back" to the NICU community. I'm sure they appreciate your time and wisdom.

Thanks - but all I really do now is try to offer some support, and to show the more shocked and depressed mothers that there is hope... And that the little red wrinkled thing in the box does eventually turn into a baby. :wink2:

In our case, the placenta didn`t properly form and there was only one umbilical artery. Around 23 weeks it seems that the placenta started deteriorating and leaking contamination into my bloodstream. I started going into shock (Apparently, I felt fine though.) and my body started cutting off everything to my son. His blood thickened and he suffered a stroke. At the 25 week point, he totally stopped moving. When I went to the hospital they couldn`t even *find* the umbilical cord on the ultrasound, and I ended up being sent pretty much straight to surgery. He was pretty severely IUGR and dehydrated at "birth".

From the moment I knew he`d have to come out, I begged the doctors just to let him be and to let him die in peace. I assumed that care for any baby that small was just prolonging the inevitable, and causing unnecessary pain. They overrode me as the law here says that after 24 weeks, the child is a separate patient and must be given care. I did to put a DNR on him after a week, but he never dropped low enough for it to come into consideration.

Other than a few hiccups (MRSA is the big one), the NICU stay was a smooth ride. No NEC, no IVH, every problem other than ROP resolved without surgery, etc.

I`m one of those people who instead of getting upset about something, *research* it. By the time he was discharged at 5 months I had read an entire syllabus of medical books. The more I know, the less I have to fear from ignorance. I figured that since I had read that much ANYWAY, I`d might as well put forth a little more effort and actually work toward being licensed. That`s taking quite a bit of time though, as my son is a bit demanding of my attention. Plus, most of the medical texts I read were imported from the US. The ones they test you on here are (obviously) Japanese, and Japanese medical terminology is a pain to memorize.

LilPeanut, MSN, RN, NP · Sep 26, 2006

This child had nec totalis?

I think the parents just were in denial. They were focusing on the fact that the staff had said to not expect more than a couple of days more because of sepsis, and never were able to get past that point. They got it set in their head that if she made it past those couple of days, she would be alright, which we know is not actually the case.

I'll share again the story of a former 25w baby who was 9m old when her parents decided to turn off the vent. She could smile and interact with her parents and staff, but she had PVL and showing other atrophy in the brain. Her parents knew that she could never get a lung transplant with her brain like that and a transplant was her only hope for long term survival. Once it was clear that she wouldn't be able to get new lungs, they turned off support. It was incredibly brave and I am so impressed they were able ot do it.

It's a sad situation all around