Jonas’ Journey | Septic

This is the 8th and final installment of the journey. To start from the beginning go here.

Jonas sounded as if he had eaten a squeaky dog toy. With every exhale he moaned and squeaked. It was cute for the first five minutes, then it was annoying. After several hours I was concerned, but the nurses kept sweeping it under the table saying he’s just tired and it’s completely normal. He also hadn’t nursed since he was birthed 12 hours ago. I mean really how tired could Jonas be? All he’s done since he came out is sleep! The truth is they didn’t know why, and in this country if you don’t know something, you fake it like you do. We eventually had a little “chat” with our nurse. She called a pediatrician to come in and evaluate him. They concluded he was probably cold and should be put under a warmer… cold, right…

After an hour Morgan wanted to try to feed the baby, you know, now that he was all warm and everything. The nurse said “oh the baby is sleeping, you can feed him in the morning”. What?! He hadn’t eaten all day and now you’re telling me he’ll be fine till morning? I left the room to go get him from the oven, only he wasn’t there. Puzzled, I looked around for a nurse to tell me some information. The only problem was our good friend/translator left five minutes earlier and my communication really didn’t go well. They showed me my baby laying in an incubator in the NICU hooked up to monitors and oxygen. I’m not the most medically inclined person, but I know that’s never a good thing. My heart sank. I came back to tell Morgan. Naturally she quizzed me for all sorts of details. I didn’t have them. We asked for someone to find his doctor. The doctor spoke a little English and my wife was a nurse in the States so they were able to communicate well enough for us to have an idea of the situation.

They told us they had to do a chest x-ray because his oxygen level was low. His x-ray showed he had fluid in his lungs, indicating an infection or pneumonia in his lungs. We later found out he was in septic shock. The doctor told us he thought everything was ok, and he would be fine the next day. They also continued to put more and more tubes in him. My wife had a better grasp of the reality of the situation so when I saw her freaking out the day they wanted to start him on the ventilator (breathing machine), I knew this was bad. We could lose our little baby! After a few days of antibiotics and other treatments the doctor informed us he was feeling much better about Jonas’ situation, and that before he was really worried. Thanks doc, you said he was fine when in reality you were seriously concerned about his condition. AND what kind of NICU doctor is a chain smoker anyways!?! I know you’re not smoking in the room, but you have dying babies in your care. I’m pretty sure smoking right before you handle them isn’t in the best interest of their health!

Jonas came home ten days later, on Christmas Eve. We took him to our pediatrician and she was a little concerned about his health. She read the hospital’s discharge report, Saying she was livid is an understatement. While I won’t go into all the terrible details of all the excessive treatments they did or procedures they performed on our newborn, I will say it is overwhelmingly clear that God protected Jonas not only from the infection but from the medical staff and doctors too. We later found out Jonas’ main NICU doctor was being sued for medical malpractice.

Jonas is now a fat, happy, healthy baby who seems to be suffering no side effect from his stint in the NICU except some small scars from the tubes. Praise God!

This is part eight of the journey. To continue follow the links below.

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8

You know you want to read these too.

1. Jonas’ Journey | Man Down
2. Jonas’ Journey | You’re Having Your Child Where?
3. Jonas’ Journey | Screamer
4. Jonas’ Journey | It’s Go Time