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Jonathan Fellows was born on July 9, 2000. He was born with a condition called "Pierre Robbin's Syndrome", which in lay men’s terms means that in utereo his lower jaw didn't fully extend, therefore his tongue didn't drop which left him with a cleft palette.
John was born at Spring Hill Hospital in Spring Hill Florida at 9:38 in the morning. My Wife, Josephine, and I should have known something was wrong when the nurse wouldn't bring Jonathan to Josephine so she could start breast feeding. A couple of minutes later the O.B. nurse came into the birthing suite and told us the she thought Jonathan was born with Pierre Robbins and showed us a medical book that described the syndrome, she said that she called the on call pediatrician for the final diagnoses.
After the diagnoses was made the hospital called All Children's Hospital to send an ambulance for my son. When the paramedic arrived they put Jonathan into an incubator for transport, they let my in laws, wife and I say goodbye (we weren't allowed to ride with him) and they left with our son.
My wife and I went home to pack and get ready to go to St. Petersburg FL. so we could be with our son. Neither of us knew what to expect we've never heard of this syndrome so we didn't know if it was life threatening on not, we didn't even know where we were going to stay while Jonathan was in the hospital. Once we arrived at A.C.H. (All Children's Hospital) we had to register our son in and get our security badges which allowed us enter the N.I.C.U., the hospital arranged for us to stay in the Ronald McDonald House in St. Petersburg, which is located right behind A.C.H.
My wife, son, and I spent the first month of my son's
life in the A.C.H. N.I.C.U. there Jonathan was assessed for and had a tracheotomy
surgery which gave him the trach tube
which looks a lot like the one in this picture. My wife's parents, my wife,
and I were taught how to clean and change the trach tube, which we had to
change every week. My son also was given a stomach tube for eating being as
he couldn't eat from his mouth at the time due to the fact that the cleft
palette wouldn't allow him to create suction. We were also taught how to care
for and change this as well
Almost a month to the day Jonathan was born we finally were allowed to go home.
The story does not
end here please go to The Loss for the rest of my son's life.
