Wyatt James Koger, A Fighter from Birth: Here's Wyatt

Tuesday, October 9, 2007

Here's Wyatt

We are proud to announce the birth of our second child, Wyatt James Koger born on October 9, 2007 at 4:46am, 8lbs 2 oz. Wyatt means brave, strong, and warhardy and he is showing us his strength everyday. He is so adorable and beautiful with dark curly hair and has similar features to Chloe.

A ssoon as Wyatt came out (easily), he was handed over to the NICU team and they inserted a breathing tube and feeding tube in his throat. It was a peaceful, quiet delivery. The room was silent and everyone was working together as a team helping Wyatt. Benji cut
the cord and then I was able to hold him for a few seconds. The best few seconds of my life!

Wyatt was originally placed in the NICU on a ventilator soon after his birth. The next day he was moved to Pediatric Intensive Care and placed on ECMO. ECMO is a lung/heart bypass machine. As they moved Wyatt from the ventilator to ECMO, he went into cardiac arrest and the surgeons administered CPR.

Strong Wyatt recovered quickly and was placed on ECMO. Johns Hopkins is the only hospital in Maryland with ECMO. They have three beds with ECMO and Wyatt got
the third one! An ECMO specialist maintains the machine 24 hours a day. She/he does not leave Wyatt’s bedside. Wyatt also has a nurse just for him that does not leave his bedside.

We are taking each day at a time. Surgery will not be scheduled until he is stabilized which may be in a few days or a week or two. I was discharged from the
hospital on Thursday. It was very hard to leave our baby alone in the hospital after being with him for the past 9 months. We have 24 hour visitation and visit him every day. He has a normal babyhood. We read his favorite books to him, sing to him, play him music, and touch him. I call often for updates and he is progressing.

If you are a religious person, Wyatt needs many prayers. We appreciate all your phone calls and support. Benji, Chloe, and I are VERY LUCKY to have such a wonderful support network. Our family, friends, neighbors, co-workers, and the hospital staff
are so wonderful and supportive. We have a beautiful baby boy and are surrounded by the caring people.

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Hurdles that I faced and achieved!

After birth, I was placed on ECMO at Johns Hopkins Hospital for 13 days. On day 13, I had a surgery to repair my hernia and was removed from ECMO, but my organs would not fit in my abdomen. I had a silo for a week and then surgery to place the organs back in the abdomen. Then, part of my intestines re-herniated into my chest cavity two months later and I had another surgery to repair that. After my first surgery, I experienced an intraventricular hemorrhage in my brain and at four months old I received a VP shunt. After I was extubated, I learned that I have right vocal cord paralysis. Then I had g-tube surgery and after I finally got to go home after 5 longs months at Johns Hopkins and Mt. Washington Hospital! Only for a few weeks, though. In mid-April my intestines reherniated again and sent me into surgery. I came home, and had a long run before my THIRD reherniation in the beginning of September on Labor Day weekend in 2008. Then I was hospitalized for twice during the winter 2009 for two respiratory infections. Well, I almost lasted a year until my next surgery! Just this past June, in 2009, I had surgery to wrap my stomach around the esophagus, a nissen. This has helped with my reflux and my hiatal hernia. I will be 2 in October, I love scooting around but refuse to stand up and walk. I am a little miracle and thank God, my doctors, my nurses, family, and friends for my strength, my fight and a happy life.