Samuel wicks was born at Monash Medical Centre (clayton) in Victoria, Australia. On 19th June 2007, at 3:38 pm. When Samuel was born he weighed in at 1005 grams and arrived in Neo Natal Intensive Care on the the same day. Samuel was fully inchubated. And was here because he was born 3 months early 26 weeks gestation. His lungs were not fully developed. There was a hole in the heart, which the doctors could not suture because the hole in the heart was not large enough to sutrue, so the doctors placed Samuel on medication instead. Something similar to nurofen was used to close up the hole in Samuel's. Samuel was in need of oxygen so they placed Samuel in a special bubble or bag to help with his oxygen and carbondioxide levels, and was placed there for 5 days. On the sixthed day Samuel was placed in an incubator because Samuels heart was failing. The casue of this is that the oxygen tube was too small and there was inadequet oxygen passing through the tube once the correction was made Samuel was fine but not fine still very critical in need of medical attention. Samuels inchubation was changed to C - Pap, because they needed to change Samuels feeding tube from the nose to the throat, Samuel wa then ventilated with prongs in the nose. The hole in the heart was revealed by a scan. The doctors also scannes Samule's head to find out if ther were any clots forming in Samuels brain and to rule out any haemorrhage and thank God there were none. Samuel was given blood tests every day and one blood test revealed that Samuel contracted an infection due to the hole in the heart. When Samuel was stable enough to be moved from bay 8 to bay 6 Samuel was placed on hourly feeds he was given a special formaula milk for premature babies. While in bay 6 Samuel sesaturated quite frequently, a blood test was given which revealed that Samuel was refluxing. TLhe doctors odered zantac to be given to Samuel through his feeding tube. Samuels feeding tube was a gastric feeding tube. When Samuel was well enough he moved from bay 6 to bay 5. During Samuels short stay in bay 6 the Gastric tube was taken off and the C - Pap was left in. Because the doctors wanted to introduce Samuel to feeding from a bottle. So a dummy was given to Samuel to learn to suck, when the doctors were satisfied that Samuel was sucking adiquetly, Samuel was then introduced to bottle feeding. while Samuel was in bay 6 he had his first bath on the 14th of August 2007. Then Samuel moved bays again because he had an apnoea episode and started going blue around the mouth and nose. The doctors ordered that the C - Pap to be placed back on Samuel, he wasn't coping with the change. Then the doctors had to decide whether or not to keep Samuel in bay 5 or move him to bay 6 or place Samuel back in the critical bay. The doctors placed Samuel in bay 7 the not so critical bay but critical enough needing medical attention. The reason for the move is that bay 5 and bay 6 do not attend to babies who are sick needing C - Pap to help with there breathing. Afterwards Samuel was moved from bay 7 and into bay 6 again. This time the doctors ordered that C - Pap be left in. Then the doctors took C - Pap off and SAmuel went into bay 3. The monitors were left on to check oxygen saturation and resperation and the heart rate. Then Samuel was moved to bay 1 and the resperation was moved off and oxygen saturation and heart rate probe was left on. Samuel was given injection because a baby had an infection. in one of the bays. then Samuel was discharged out of Monash Medical centre and over to Sandringham Hospital. Samuel stayed there for 2 and a half weeks then Samuel on the day that he was supplosed to come home had an apnoea episode so Samuel was transfered back to Monash Medical centre for observation and stayed there until he was well enough to come home. On the 16th of November Samuel finally came home to us to stay. His journey at the start of his life was such a roller coaster ride. Any one who has had a premature baby will tell you that. Don't get me wrong though I had my fair share of crying, I cried so much the day that Samuel was allowed to come home. I think this experience I had with Samuel will never leave my conscience, because you can never forget and hence when you tell people the first thing you blurt out is the hospital stay then how he is doing now. I am trying so desperately not to think about the traumatic time and get on with the now. Well you know he is 3 years old and Samuel had his third birthday just recently (hip, hip, hooray!)
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Yes, Samuel can't be overstimulated, because it triggers his asthma off, our 12 year old doesn't seem to understand this and ignores the fact that Samuel still needs attention. Samuel is only just begining to talk but not as well as we'd hoped. He has Speech Therapy to help Samuel along with his speech and cognitive skills. He goes to Kindergarten 3 days a week, Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays and the carers help Samuel with all the areas of activities along with the other children. So what the other children learn Samuel learns as well. Some times though Samuel wonders around the room because he doesn't want to do what the other children are doing. Samuel is one year behind in his speech, his speech does not seem to be improving I have noticed that he forgets some words and I have to correct the word without upsetting him so much. Other times I have to just let the incorrection go and tell him what a good attempt he made or good trying Sam. The paediatrician wants Samuel to be tested for autism but because Samuel is non verbal, and not speaking very well, and is just begining to talk they can't do anything about it until he can talk properly. Oh Wizzy is not my real name that is just my User Profile Name. My real name is Michelle Wicks. I normally use this name to protect my identity from identity theft. I have had identtity theft in the past.
July 1, 2010 - 11:02pmThis Comment
Wizzy,
Wow. What a story! You and Samuel went through an awful lot to get to this happy 3rd birthday!! It is so amazing what they can do for extreme premies who need so much medical care.
For anyone not on the metric system, when Samuel was born at 1005 grams that's just 2 lbs, 3.4 ounces. Such a tiny boy!
Is he all caught up for his age now, Wizzy? Does he have any remaining health problems that you have to deal with?
June 28, 2010 - 8:47amThis Comment
Has anyone experienced a prenature birth tell me your story go on I dare you to tell, it won't hurt it will help!
June 25, 2010 - 4:44amThis Comment