From a high risk pregnancy to being born a blessing,against all odds Aleah one of the twin surviving,being diagnose with heart problem at 3 day old.
Mother of this beautiful miracle :
I found out i was pregnant with identical girls in january. Dr told us its a high risk pregnancy because they share a placenta. I had problems with high blood preasure from 28 weeks and had to quit my job. At 32 weeks they were both 1.6kg. At 35 weeks the dr said that Milay stopped growing and that they want to do a c section that saturday. That saturday in theater my blood preasure was 220/160. I had very bad preclamsia. Milay was 1.54kg and Aleah was 1.74kg. All looked well except for Aleah that needed oxygen. Day 3 they did routine sonars in the NNICU at Pta East hospital and saw that Aleah had a heart problem. One of the heart specialist explained everything to us that she must weight atleast 2.5kg before they can operate. They started to give her Lasixs for her heart. Then they inserted a broviac line to allow various drips to be administered to her. The coarchtation of the Aorta forced them to re-instate her PDA with the use of prostan medication(hormones). The side affects of proston is not good. It causes Sleep apnee and fever. So she and Milay were in Pta east hosp for 4 weeks. Milay was discharged and Aleah was taken to Sunninghill hosp. Week 2 in sunninghill she got a stomach bug. After numerous eco and sonars they saw that the following is wrong with her heart: 1 Both her main arteries are on the right ventrical. 2: There is a large hole between her left and right ventrical. 3: Coarctation on the Aorta. 4: Stinosis on her polmanary valve. So the first operation they fixed the Aorta. During that operation an excess amount of blood rushed into the lungs and the lungs got damaged. She was on a Ecmo machine for a couple of days to recover the lungs. After they removed the Ecmo machine and started with the ventilator they saw that she got a blood clot in one of her heart chambers. So they started treatment on disolving the clot. Her oxygen didnt improve even with her lungs being stable so they had to create a hole between the left and right atrium to insure the oxygen reach blood mixes with the oxygen depleted blood. They gradualy reduced the oxygen supply and took her of the ventilator and put her on the Blue Sipap machine. When they tried to take off the Sipap machine her left lung collapsed. They started with fisio and Nebulizing to help the lungs cope because of excess flem. She had infection and a virus in the lungs and got antibiotics. The nerve that serves her diaphragm got damaged during the initial operation and the diaphragm relaxed and encroach into the lung cavity. They operated on the diaphragm to pull it back into position. During this time they tried to give her oral feeds because she got tube feeding from birth but it didnt went well. They called out a speech therapist to help but still no luck. With the oral feeding she became extremely tired and gaged the whole time. They decided to insert a stomach peg pipe to give feeds straight to the stomach. 2 days ago they saw that she has Floppy lung syndrome. Her airways are soft and flexible and minor opstructions were present in her airways and causes her lungs to struggle. They operated on her airways to remove the opstructions with lazer. The nerve serving the vocal coard was also damaged during the first operation. She will be coming home soon but still need oxygen and must get feeds throught the stomach peg (pipe). She has been in Sunninghill for over 2 months now. She is a very brave and strong girl and i know that the Lord has a big plan for her life and we cant do this without Him. He has carried her so far and i know that He will keep on doing that.
