(somber piano music)
- It was the longest drive ever.
It was only 15 minutes but it felt like three days
to get there, and I'm thinking the worst.
And she says, "He has to come today."
And I prepared my mind to think to myself,
"Well, this is it, I may not be a father after all."
- [Katie] We have all the toys in the world
for this little guy, and he just wants to play
with all his tubes (laughs).
- Yes you, yes you, Chunk-A-Lunk.
(laughing)
Hey, hey Bobo.
They first were trying to stabilize her
so we could get back home.
That didn't work, so then they tried to stabilize her
to get her to a bigger hospital.
Eventually we ended up where she was going into
emergency C-section to have Elias for severe pre-eclampsia.
- About 12 o'clock in the morning they came in,
they said, "He's coming today.
"We're about to do this."
They handed me a gown, they handed me a hat,
and some things to put on my shoes.
I ripped 'em-- - Slippers? (laughs)
- I did it all wrong, and it happened.
And at 1:02 a.m. after sitting in the hallway,
people come outside, gowns on, blood, and they look at me
and they said, "Hey, you want to see your son?"
I just fell out.
I was crying, I was amazed to see what I saw.
And I saw this little person, from the size,
from my ring finger to my wrist,
and he was a whopping one pound, 2.3 ounces.
This how I hugged my son everyday
to a point where he still recognizes me from doing that.
Yeah, you on cue, right there.
So that's how we hugged, Bud,
for like the first three months of his life.
We had no idea what the journey would be,
knowing it was gonna be for a total of 272 days.
One thing that's wonderful about Brenner
is they have neonatal surgeons.
People have to come from far and wide
because this hospital is right here in Winston Salem
that can cater to those needs.
- Brenner came down and actually flew her
on a fixed-wing jet, and Elias, up to Brenner.
And he proceeded to spend another four and a half months
in the Brenner NICU.
- He had heart surgery and several stomach surgeries,
and lots of infections.
Whether it be his lungs or his bladder,
or he even a blood infection once that they thought
could have even spread to his spine.
And so they even did a spinal tap at one point
'cause they thought that he could've ended up
with meningitis with how sick he was.
- I think the question that you go through in the NICU is,
"Is this normal?
"Is this a normal situation?"
And the answer is there's no normal in the NICU.
- To be honest, I didn't know anything
about what a NICU experience was,
let alone what goes on behind those doors.
- It was truly a ward, where it's open space
and it's several babies, and not as much privacy.
And you take that in, you get out of a comfort zone
to another place, and it gives you some anxiety.
It gives you some (exhales loudly) fear.
- You can only have two people in the NICU at a time.
So if Katie wanted to bring her mom, I had to step out.
So I couldn't even be in there
with my mother-in-law seeing my son.
Versus in the PICU, we could have four or five people
in that room, so we could have real family time together.
We could go in and see Elias and spend time hanging out
with him with that intimate time.
So, you're not only affecting just the child
or just the parents, but you're affecting the family.
This traumatic event can become a celebration
when you have the time together as a family.
And the NICU, the way it is now, doesn't allow that.
- Every baby who's born deserves a fighting chance to live
and it shouldn't be because of a lack of technology
or a lack of an environment.
Noah was born with a 5% chance to live,
and he's right there.
So, the next 22-week-er who has a 5% chance to live,
who will have a better environment to thrive in,
it'll be even better.
To know that neonatal intensive care
is not a perfect science, but what they do everyday
is work miracles.
Those doctors, those practitioners, the nurses,
the surgeons, everyday teaming up, huddling to do
what they can, that's naturally supposed to happen
in the womb, and do it outside--
- It's amazing. - It's amazing.
- I've never seen people care about somebody
that they hardly know, and more than just care about him,
care about Elias, they cared about Katie and I.
The doctors, the nurses, the respiratory therapists,
all the way down to the cleaning crews,
that they're true angels.
If he was not here at Brenner,
he would not be here right now.
They flat out saved his life.
(lighthearted piano music)