Kyle: Beating the Odds with Help in Our NICU

At the 20-week ultrasound, pregnant mothers can see fingers, toes, little faces and much of their baby’s anatomy. For Kelly and her husband John, they learned that they would be giving birth to their third boy.

“Three weeks later I started feeling bad, and by the time I got to the doctor’s office, I was feeling worse,” Kelly says. “My doctor looked at me, white as a sheet, and told me I was 100 percent dilated. Kyle was being delivered right then and there, and in the blink of an eye, everything changed. We went from having a few complications to having a very premature baby.”

Born four months early, Kyle weighed just over 1 pound. “The Children’s Transport Team wheeled him by us on the way to the NICU, and we couldn’t believe what we were looking at,” John says. “He was so tiny that seeing him didn’t even seem real to us.”

Kyle was transported to Children’s Memorial Hermann Hospital’s Level III Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, where he was put on a ventilator. “Every day was a new challenge for Kyle,” Kelly recalls. “He was losing water through evaporation because his skin was not fully developed. He had a hole in his heart. His doctors gave him less than 10 percent chance of survival.”

Suzanne Lopez, M.D., was one of three neonatologists in charge of Kyle’s care. “His delivery at 23 weeks put him in a very high risk category,” says Dr. Lopez, who is an associate professor in the department of Pediatrics at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) Medical School. “It’s our job to help babies born this early through the development process to the point in time at which they were supposed to be born. Because that journey is often a very long one, we devote a great deal of time to helping parents stay informed and keep their faith, hope and optimism.”

With the help of his medical team, Kyle and his parents overcame other problems along the way. He suffered a bilateral Grade 3 intraventricular hemorrhage that bled into the brain’s ventricular system, where cerebrospinal fluid is produced. His ventricles were enlarged by the blood, causing secondary effects. He also had seizures that resolved over time.

“Kyle had a really rocky course, and in many ways he surprised us,” Dr. Lopez says. “When parents tell most people that their child is a 23- or 24-weeker, the majority would expect to see some obvious outward deficit. Kyle’s a pretty little independent guy. He’s active, running and playing with his brothers. Outwardly, he is age appropriate and has no apparent residual respiratory disease.”

Kyle celebrated his fourth birthday on October 22, 2011.“The things we do in the first few years of life are so important,” Kelly says. “I’m so thankful we were at Children’s Memorial Hermann Hospital. They do primary care nursing, which in my opinion saved his life. Every time the nurses are at work, they are with the same children. His nurse knew how Kyle ate, how his tummy moved, and if anything changed, she responded immediately. Because they don’t have visiting hours, I was there all the time observing. I got to listen to rounds, and I got to ask questions. There were times I’d say, ‘Something’s off.’ The doctors and nurses would blend my opinions with their knowledge in making treatment decisions.”

Kyle now sees a physical therapist once a month, and he’s enrolled in swimming and gymnastics. “He is adorable,” Kelly says. John adds, “There’s no scientific reason why he should be speaking, walking or whispering but this is what God does.”

Shortly after Kyle was born, the Kelly and John established the Web site www.prayforkyle.com to share their story with others experiencing the birth of an extremely premature baby.

“Support – whether it’s from your family, friends or complete strangers – is so important during trying times,” said Kelly, who plans to one day compile the site’s blog entries and publish a book.

“We’re so fortunate to have a strong support system of family members and friends – they helped us tremendously to cope through that difficult time. I want other people going through similar situations to know that they’re not alone, either. Our family is here to provide that support to others and to help them make it through.”