MOUNT POCONO -- A baby born prematurely has more obstacles to overcome than full-term babies. A baby born prematurely with additional significant problems has to fight even harder. One family from the Poconos wanted to share its story of the little guy who beat a lot of odds to be here today.
It's hard not to smile at baby Bentley, a happy little blue-eyed boy just ten months old. How he got to be here at all is quite the story.
"He's getting there!" said his mom, Nicole Gingerlowski of Mount Pocono. She knew she had a medical condition that would make pregnancy tough, if not impossible.
"The doctors had told me I had to make it 25 weeks for him to have a 50 percent chance of making it. I made it to 24. And I said, 'babe, I think we need to go to the doctor,'" she told us.
Little Bentley was born at just shy of 25 weeks gestation, almost four months early, weighing just about a pound, not breathing, and with a faint heartbeat. Three days later, Nicole and her husband got some terrible news.
"I finally got to see him and they told me that his 50 percent dropped to 20 percent because he had a heart disease that was very rare, interrupted aortic arch type A," Nicole said.
"In 25 weeks gestation, many heart diseases like this one are fatal. Many babies don't survive this," said Dr. James Cook, director of neonatology at Geisinger Health System.
The aorta is the main blood vessel leading out of the heart. Part of Bentley's was obstructed. It didn't connect in the right spot.
"So all the blood that was coming out of his heart, instead of half going to his lungs and half going to his body, almost all was going into his lungs, and therefore his lungs weren't working," Dr. Cook explained.
Dr. Cook notes the defect would have been there even if Bentley had been full term, but because of his size, surgery wasn't immediately possible. Eventually, surgeons at Geisinger were able to fix it. And in the months that followed, Bentley had several more surgeries at several different hospitals. More recently he had a feeding tube inserted because he can't take anything by mouth yet.
Despite all of that, Bentley's pediatrician, Dr. Allyson Hardy, calls him healthy. She now coordinates his care.
"I think he's doing wonderful, I do. I read the notes from all the specialists and everybody says the same," Dr. Hardy said.
Dr. Hardy says Bentley is a bit behind developmentally, doing things typical 6 month olds might do. But he'll be chasing big brother Cole in no time, something Mom can't wait to see.
"(He's) such a miracle. I'm so glad to have him. I'm so glad," said Nicole.
Dr. Cook told us the feeding tube isn't uncommon in babies born that prematurely. His mom says he may need it until he's two. As for his heart, the repair site in the aorta could narrow again, which Bentley may need to address when he gets older. But "getting older" is the part his family and his doctors are excited about the most.