On the first night of Avery Roseboro’s life, his mother, Christa Stokes, did not know if he would survive.
“I asked the PA, ‘Is my baby going to live?’” Stokes asked on Nov. 8, 2021. “She couldn’t say yes and she couldn’t say no.”
Almost two years later, Stokes revels in her son’s health and the outlook for his future. But on that November day, she could not know his future.
The setting was the Children’s Guild Foundation Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Oishei Children’s Hospital, which specializes in helping mothers and babies through high-risk pregnancies. Stokes’ older son, 5-year-old Amar’e, had been born nine weeks early, and health issues discovered in the middle of her pregnancy put Avery at even greater risk.
Twenty-seven weeks and four days pregnant, Stokes was diagnosed with absent-end diastolic flow – essentially where the placenta resists the umbilical artery – which jeopardizes a fetus’ survival. Stokes had also developed preeclampsia – high-blood pressure during pregnancy that affects organs and often leads to early birth.
An emergency Caesarean section allowed Avery to be delivered before health issues could worsen. The problem? At more than three months early, Avery was born at 860 grams, or about 1 pound, 14 ounces.
Stokes’ son required around-the-clock attention, beginning with a breathing tube and monitoring of his heart rate and oxygen and carbon dioxide levels.
“It was scary because I wasn’t expecting to see him on a breathing tube,” Stokes said. She was able to hold his hand briefly on the second day.
The months ahead would be grueling, with occasional acute incidents that would reignite Stokes’ fears. There was minor surgery to insert a gastronomy tube so Avery could be fed. After Avery’s initial breathing tube was removed – “extubating” a small infant is not simple work – Stokes learned on Christmas night that the tube would have to be reinserted.
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