Child's Birth Year
2019

State/Province/Territory
New Mexico

NICU Hospital for my journey
University of New Mexico Hospital

My NICU Graduate's Journey
Esai was born at 25 weeks at 19 days old. His bowel perforated from necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) and he was transported to the state hospital for bedside surgery resulting in 25% bowel loss and and an ostomy. He had a less than 5 percent chance of living because he was small, week and septic. Esai challenged those odds and came out on the other side. From there, during his NICU journey he had faced many obstacles including ROP which required surgery, hyperbilirubinemia, liver cholestasis which almost lead to liver failure, multiple episodes of sepsis and not tolerating feeds. Our amazing nurses advocated for him to get his ostomy reconnected, which then lead to his recovery. From that point, he slowly started tolerating feeds enough to take him off TPN which healed his liver and hyperbilirubiemia. He slowly started growing and was eventually strong enough for discharge. He came home a fighter. He had no feeding tubes and no oxygen. He did see specialists like GI specialist. He had a couple of hospital admissions for viral illness but again was a fighter. He is now 6 years old and has been cleared by his GI and sees a cerebral palsy clinic for mild right sided hemiplegia. He attends physical therapy at school and is in a regular general educational setting. He is one of the top performers in his class and continues to thrive. He lives with mom, dad and his 3 older sisters.

What makes you proud of you NICU graduate?
Esai is extremely compassionate and empathetic to those around him. He is adventurous, head strong and does not give up. He will try, try, and try again until he succeeds. He is a jokester and loves to play pranks on his sister. He is an amazing kid.

Weight at Birth (lbs. or Grams)
1lbs 7oz

Weeks Gestation
25 weeks

Time spent in the NICU (Specify Number of Days, Months, or Years)
52 day