Virginia Jessie Stewart story

PPROM Suspected at 24 weeks 5 days, Kai born at 22 weeks 5 daya

Born in the USA

Our sweet angel Kai was born at 24 weeks and 5 days gestation weighing 1lb 9oz.

Previous to his arrival he survived in the womb 2 weeks with very limited amniotic fluid. About 2% of women experience what is called PPROM which is a premature rupture of the membranes also known as their water breaking.

There is no solid explanation as to why it happens but it can cause prematurity to occur. Which is what happened to me during my pregnancy with Kai. Unfortunately, since he came to soon it didn't give his lungs enough time to mature and develop.

Thankfully to the advances that had been made from 30 years ago our son had a fighting chance. Kai defied odds despite having a traumatic delivery into this world.

During the C-Section they discovered that the placenta had ruptured by 40% and Kai was basically beginning to drown in the blood. After surviving that experience Kai began to fight very hard for his life and showed great signs of survival.

At the beginning of this year January Kai's lungs suddenly began to take a turn for the worst. The doctors gave him every medicine in the book to try and open up his airway but no medications seemed to be working. He was placed on several ventilators to help him breathe and one seemed to help for the time being. After several tests were made they later discovered he had a bacterial growth on the lower lobes of his lungs and had caused him to develop a pneumonia. It was finally an answer as to why he went from being well to all the sudden critically sick.

The bacteria found was something that normally wouldn't attack a baby and that had the doctors puzzled. Kai fought hard for 39 days but towards the end the infection took the best of his very tiny lungs . For many nights we spent countless of hours sitting in a small wooden chair in his room. We did not want to leave his side because how sick he was. We didn't even want to go down the street to get food let alone drive home and sleep without him with the fear we would get a bad phone call and not make it to him on time. Luckily the hospital was able to let us stay in their only room available that was normally used for parents that were about to go home with their baby.

We slept there for 3 nights when suddenly on Jan 20 we would wake up not knowing it was the last time we would see him. He had actually had a good two nights and was showing signs of improvement but life in the NICU is lived minute by minute hour by hour.

We went to his room at 8am talked to him and even sang to him . Shortly after he suddenly started slipping away before our very own eyes. All his doctors and nurses rushed in and tried to revive him as we prayed in a small corner of his room. By 9:05am our little warrior took his last breath and left to his heavenly home. He was 30 weeks old. In his honor we have created his foundation.

The South Miami NICU team fought very hard for Kai and we will always be very grateful we were able to spend 39 days with him. We want more parents to have the opportunity and be there in the last moments with their tiny warriors if they shall perish. We would also like to provide the parents with hot meals and small care packages that they may need in their stay at the NICU.

Thank you for your time.