In my post of thanks, I didn't think I could do justice to properly thank all those at Silverton Hospital, the PANDA team, OHSU and Dornbeckers for all that they did for us. In my mind they deserved their own post.
We had Porter at Silverton Hospital as we had chosen to have the Salem Nurse Midwives team as our prenatal care. So it seemed natural as we had a great experience to go back to them when we found out we were pregnant with Maggie. Since I had a Cesarean birth with Porter I was hoping for a vaginal birth with Maggie and had to be taken on by Silverton Hospital since I had never had a vaginal birth. They took me and and I stayed with the Midwives for my prenatal and then when I went in to labor and went to the hospital I would have one of the doctors out there manage my care for labor and delivery. The midwives would be there to assist in labor but the doctor would have to deliver Maggie. We were fine with this and when we got admitted to the hospital when I went in to labor it was the same doctor that ended up delivering Porter via the cesarean.
So thank you, Salem Nurse Midwives for all the care and attention you gave to us at each prenatal appointment. Thank you to those of you who stopped by to check in on us when we were in the hospital laboring. Your encouragement to me during my pregnancy and then during our birth was great. Thank you!
Then once we were admitted to Silverton Hospital, we had a nurse and the on call doctor managing my care. Like I said previously, Dr. Keller was the on call doctor and we had 4 different nurses that day. Chelsey was with us all day long and then that night Shanna was with us and was there when Maggie was born. I have always thought highly of the staff at the hospital and was again impressed by all that happened during my labor and then immediately following Maggie's birth. Thank you to each one of you who worked so diligently on my limp baby. AJ previously wrote a post to Katie Meerdink who breathed for Maggie for so long. She was amazing! The ER doctor who intubated her and the nurses and on call pediatrician who helped stabilize her till the PANDA team arrived. THANK YOU! We are forever grateful to each part that you played in our daughter's life. I believe God puts people in certain places at certain times and we saw this very much at Silverton Hospital that night.
Now, I keep referring to the PANDA team. What is that? Well, once your baby has been born and is out of the scope of care for Silverton Hospital, they call to have your child transported to OHSU/Dornbeckers to the NICU there. This PANDA team is a pediatric and neonatal transport that comes to the hospital in their state of the art ambulance with their stretcher for your baby or child that needs to be transported. They arrived and immediately started working on Maggie to get her hooked up to their machines and stretcher and were in contact with the doctor's at OHSU of what course of treatment they would do for Maggie and how to start that treatment now. She was put on the cooling therapy at OHSU but in the mean time, they did not warm her at all at Silverton or via transport. They wanted her to be cool.
The PANDA team got her all hooked up, brought her by my room so I could see her briefly and then headed out with AJ to OHSU. They were amazing! Very professional, warm and friendly knowing full well how traumatic this whole situation was and were just awesome. Thank you! Every time at OHSU I would see one of the team members around the hospital, they would say hi and ask about Maggie. She had developed quite the name for herself around there. It seemed that everyone knew about Maggie. She was a fighter!
And then once we arrived at the NICU, each and every doctor, resident, nurse practitioner, fellow, RN, CNA and staff member was amazing. They treated Maggie with care, they kept us informed, they wanted us to know all that they were doing for our little girl. For the first 2 days of Maggie's life, she was a one to one ratio with a nurse. So the nurse for their shift would just watch Maggie. Watch her vitals. Change her diaper. Watch her test results. Watch her vitals. Change her iv fluids and meds. Watch her respirator. They would follow through with the doctor's orders and watch her. She couldn't be held, she was agitated and cold. And they watched her. They watched her arrive and put on the cooling therapy. They watched her get worse and worse. They watched new problems arise and they watched them all heal themselves. They watched this little miracle happen right before their eyes. And then they watched her improve more and more to the put of going home just a week later! Thank you to each nurse who cared for our sweet baby. Your loving touch in such a scary time was reassuring to me that our daughter was in the right place. The care she received was beyond what we could have asked for given her circumstances.
The night we finally got to hold our sweet baby, 5 days after she was born was monumental and the nurse we had the evening was amazing. She advocated with the doctors for skin to skin. She was also a lactation specialist and was very encouraging when I was able to finally breast feed Maggie for the first time EVER! Again, I say that God put each of those nurses on those shifts for the needs we needed that day for Maggie. Thank you!
And then to the doctors, nurse practitioners, fellows and residents who each one watched Maggie and what her little body was doing, thank you! You watch each one of those babies in the NICU in a way that seems as if they were your own child. Each medication, procedure and treatment you explained to the best of your abilities. You were sensitive to us in a time of unknown and scariness. You treated Maggie as if she was your only patient. We recognize the long hours you put in and the level of education you each have and am so forever grateful for all that you did. I felt completely helpless as a my daughter lie there so sick, but I knew she was in the best of hands and that was comforting. Thank you!
Little Miss Maggie was one sick baby. But we knew God put each medical professional in her path of recovery for a reason. We couldn't have done this on our own. We thank each and every one of you in a huge way for all that love and care you gave to our daughter and to us. Thank you!
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