For Mavrick and Her Family

For Mavrick and Her Family

Mavrick was born at 30 weeks because I, his mother, have hypertension daily. When I went to the hospital to let them know I was not feeling well my blood pressure was 220/135 so they decided they were pulling him that day!! Once he was born we thought he just needs to grow, learn how to breathe on his own, and learn to eat. But on day 8 he did not act right and he became very sick! A few days went by and we found out he had MRSA and they started treating him with a few strong antibiotics but he was only getting worse and not any better!! They kept running more tests and they finally found out that he also had endocarditis, which is life-threatening for a baby, along with the MRSA that he already had! He had to go another 6 weeks with multiple antibiotics in his system. During all of this, his body went from 3lbs 7oz at birth to just 2lbs and then his body started to shut down and then he swelled real bad and went up to 4lbs 11oz right away because of his liver and kidneys shutting down. It was a very scary day by day situation but our baby boy fought through it!!!! In February he got out of the nicu a few weeks later we were going to go back home to visit family but we took him to his pediatrician first because it seemed like he was becoming sick… but she said he is fine but if he does become worse when you get home then go to the hospital. He did get worse so we took him to the hospital back home; they said it was just a cold so they discharged him! The next day he got a lot worse so we took him to his birth hospital and he stopped breathing and so they took him to children’s of ATL by ambulance!!! Come to find out this whole time he had been aspirating while he was nursing and I had never known. So they gave him an NG tube and did some respiratory tests which came back a lot of positives so they treated him and sent us home. He was in and out of the hospital with respiratory illnesses that whole month. Finally, in March, he got his tube and we thought everything would be perfect after that!!!! Four weeks later Mavrick had a tube checkup from his surgery and the gi dr asked me how he was and I said he cries all day long as if he has colic! She was very concerned because his eyes were going “sun down” which means straight down and because his head was growing way too fast. She said if he gets worse before we get to see a neuro then take him to the ER. Well, that was a Thursday when we had gone to that check-up, and Sunday I had to take him to the ER! The ER Drs knew something was not right with Mavrick so they admitted him but the hard part was my hubby is active duty army and he was gone for training far away so it was just myself and the 4 kiddos! Well, they told me they wanted to do a sedated MRI Monday so I needed to come back Monday once I dropped the kiddos off at school and sign the paperwork, so I did. Once I got there they tried to hand me discharged papers and said that he just had an ear infection… I REFUSED THE PAPERS!!!! My baby boy was not okay, he was swollen and pale and fussing!! I declined the discharge and said that he does not have an ear infection and that something else is wrong! Days went by and they were not doing crap and I told them they needed to transfer him and they told me another hospital like CHOA would not accept him because Memorial could treat him… well they were not taking care of him!!! Finally on Thursday when I came in the room after dropping the kids off at school he was in his swing and he was not ok at all!!! I had a friend with me and she saw it also!! He was swollen and pale! He was breathing way to fast and retracting also! I ran out of his hospital room and screamed for drs and nurses to come in here! Finally, I had gotten help! The neuron dr has said if he gets better that they would do a sedated MRI and if he got worse then they would do a spinal tap… well that night he got 103.5 fevers and they did a spinal tap and it came back bacterial meningitis! I DEMANDED A TRANSFER AND HE GOT TRANSFERRED TO WOLFSON CHILDRENS HOSPITAL IN JACKSONVILLE FL!!!! THEY TOLD ME IF I WOULD HAVE CHECKED HIM OUT WHEN THEY TRIED TO DISCHARGE HIM THAT I WOULD NOT HAVE MY BABY TODAY…HE WOULD HAVE NOT MADE IT!!!!! LOOK AT HIM NOW!! He has a long list of medical issues that will be with him for his whole life but he’s so strong!