It's been quite an adventure and I'm glad that I have extremely
healthy kids and both of them have thrived
and that's more than just helping us live, it's helping us thrive
I'm Marcia Liss. My sons received their early care
at Medstar Georgetown University Hospital.
I was at the ultrasound. I was at 32 weeks and Sam was in distress.
Before I knew it, there were attendants taking my bed from the ultrasound
all the way down to the delivery area and we knew they were going to be
C-section cause his twin took up a breech position very early
and he never gave it up and they were born a minute apart
and it was very scary. His twin who was so much bigger
was 3 pounds 12 ounces
but Little Sam was only one pound 12 ounces. He was what they call a micro preemie
and he did have surgery. When you are that little
they look at everything and that's part of the thoroughness of being in a
high-level NICU and if you need to be there
you may not want to need to be there, but once you're there
they have everything, and they're gonna be sure everything's
really good.
So it was a very scary time but it was a time that I was really
so grateful to that maternity ward cocoon support system
to the attendants and the hyper-vigilance of the doctors
without being alarmist
saying 'you know - we're gonna get through this'
it's gonna be alright' and that was good - it pushed me through.
So we got to know Dr. Seeva and some of the other neonatology physicians
pretty early, because the first two years we went back every six months
because they were preemies and especially because Sam was so small
they want to follow you up alot more. And so that also is another thing
that gives you a wonderful confidence that if something's not going right
they're going to tell us, they're going to find out.
We won't be eight years old and suddenly find out that there's a problem.
The doctors and the nurses at the NICU were really very, very special.
It takes a kinds special dedication to work in an area with such fragile infants
and I think Dr. Seeva exemplifies that very well.
He's a very bright man. He really knows exactly how to save babies.
He knows how to talk to the parents. And that's really quite wonderful.
Sam has actually now turned out to be the athlete
from being such a tiny little thing. He plays baseball.
He runs. He's very good at school.
He has this great group of social friends. Both of them have thrived.
Every year Georgetown holds a reunion for the graduates, as they call them,
of the Neonatology Intensive Care Unit.
As the boys got older, I realized that they were doing so well.
It was really important to the parents who had other newborns, other neonates,
who were preemies, who had problems,
to see my boys doing so well and to give them that hope.
And positive outlook of what can be.
As we were preparing for Joel and Sam's barmitsva
we were looking at their portions and what was important to them
and Sam read the portion that talked about the midwives that saved
the Jewish baby boys including Moses and the whole rest of the Bible story
and he likened it to a phrase that says that, if you save a life,
it is as if you save the whole world, and he says -
when they saved these baby boys just like when the neonatologists
and the NICU saved me.
I'm not sure where we would be today if the boys hadn't been born there.
If they hadn't been born at a place that had that special intensive care.
But, they have certainly done the way they have,
because they had that great early start.